Shepherd and Hayes family, Part 1

Dad “George Bennett Shepherd” was the last of seven children born to George Henley Shepherd and Tennessee Bennett Hayes. Although I was six years old when Tennee died I have no memory of either of Dad’s parents. Dad never discussed his folks, and I guess he assumed we kids knew all about them.

We visited aunts and uncles frequently, but I never knew who they were or how they fit into the family tree. My mother’s biography deals only with her family, so I virtually started from nothing on my Dad’s side. Mother had related a few things to her husband’s folks i.e.: that the old “cap and ball” pistol and the black trunk belonged to John Shepherd and that the pistol was his and that he used it in the Civil War for the Confederates.

The little 2’ 5” crutches that all us kids played with, I never really knew who they belonged to until my sister found mother’s biography and she explained how she came by them. This was about the rest of my knowledge of my dad’s folks until I got started digging as a result of reading mother’s account and the inspiration it generated.

My Dad’s mother’s folks

My grandmother, Tennessee Bennett Hayes Shepherd was the third and last child of Cynthia Ann Cooper and James Houston Hayes. James was the sixth child of Mildred Hester and Soloman Hayes.

Soloman Hayes was born September 2, 1792 in North Carolina, Granville County, and his wife, Mildred was also born in North Carolina on March 27, 1798. They were married on November 9, 1814 and had 10 children: two boys and eight girls.

Mildred Hester was the eighth of 10 children. Her siblings were Garland, William, Alfred, Thomas, Frank Jr., Polly, Nancy, and Betsy. Mildred’s older sister, Polly married 11 years earlier on October 5, 1803 to Simeon Hayes, who was a brother of Solomon and in both weddings, the best men were brothers of Polly (Garland and William). Ref. Granville County marriage records 1752-1868.

Soloman and Mildred lived three miles northeast of Oxford, North Carolina. Soloman served in the war of 1812 when we fought the British for the second time. In 1826, the Soloman Hayes family packed up and moved west to eastern Tennessee and settled in the Sequatchie Valley just west of Athens.

Tennessee in McMinn County. Their third child. William married his first wife, Margaret Buller, on August 14, 1840 near Rogers Creek, 14 miles west of Athens, Tennessee. They lived in eastern Tennessee about 20 years and in early 1847 they decided to move west again.

They moved to N. E. Texas (Titus County), then Indian Territory. They helped settle a little community by the name of Buchanan, which was changed to Snow Hill on October 21,1857 and is about nine miles east of Mt. Pleasant, Texas.

Soloman Hayes died October 26, 1859 and his wife, Mildred Hester died July 27, 1856, and they are buried in the Hayes family cemetery in Morris County just a mile or less north of the town of Snow Hill, which is near the intersection of Highway 49 and 144.

After searching for two years, I have been unable to find, in the Hayes cemetery, any marker for Soloman and Mildred other than a sandstone marked “M. J. Hayes”. I have concluded that this is the grave of Mildred Hayes, as I have been able to account for all the other M. Hayes.

On the confident assumption that Mildred and Soloman are buried in the center right, portion of the Hayes cemetery.

I took it upon myself to have a marker made for them reflecting their names and dates and the names and dates of their 10 children.

I installed it at Hayes Cemetery on March 26, 1990. George Lunsford Jr. and I shared the cost of the marker. George is a greatgreat- great-grandson of Soloman and Mildred Hayes.

Mary Hayes Price, Soloman Hayes Price, Margaret Price Lunsford, and George Lunsford Sr. are his lineage to the Hayes family.

The two sons of Mildred and Soloman Hayes became quite prominent in the Snow Hill area after the Civil War. William R. was born in Norh Carolina on Feb. 2, 1820. He married Margaret and they had two children while in Tennessee. Margaret, their first child, was born Sept. 25, 1841 and James on May 13, 1845.

The couple and their two children moved with William’s parents as well as Margaret’s parents from the Athens, Tennessee area to Snow Hill, Texas in early 1847. Margaret was pregnant with twins during the move as they arrived (born) in August of 1847.

Twelve days after the twins were born, Margaret, at the age of 24, died. She was buried in the Cherry Cemetery, which is located a couple of miles north of the Hayes Cemetery on the west side of the road about 300 yards from the road. Margaret had lost her mother just seven months earlier. One of the twins “M.D.” died at birth and is buried next to her mother Margaret, the surviving twin, lived to the age of 21 and is buried in the Cherry Cemetery. (She had married Pol Smith). Just five years after arriving in East Texas, Margaret’s dad. Anderson Butler died on June 25,1852 and is buried next to Jane Butler, his wife, there in the Cherry Cemetery.

In 1849 William married Nancy Barrier who was born in Alabama on Dec. 3, 1833, and this couple produced eight children (George. Aserath, Christopher, Lum, Willard Josephine. Leila and Betty).

William purchased the land surrounding the three acres which is now the Hayes Cemetery, and there he began his second family. His old homestead is gone now but evidence of the old house (brick and well) are still evident. It is located at the fork in the road on Highway 144 about half mile north of Highway 49. In August of 1850 William Hayes gave the three acres of land of the Soloman Hayes Survey (James F. Box Headright) to the Church at Bethlehem. James Riddle and Hugh Henson (Henderson) were trustees at the time.

Ref. Morris County Historical Committee Bulletin #48. Nancy Barrier Hayes, William’s second wife died at the age of 39 on May 11, 1872 and is buried in the Hayes family cemetery next to her husband William.

The headstone next to William and Nancy (Millie J. Hayes) is the first child of William and Margaret William’s 1st wife.

This child lived to the ripe old age of 29. Millie J’s next brother, James Polk Hayes, married Lennie Coffer, and he lived on to the age of 77 and is buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery just south of the Morris County air strip.