Jonathan SHEPPARD

Name of Patriot: Jonathan Sheppard
NSSAR Patriot # P-288835

Submitted by: James L. Lockhart

Jonathan C. Sheppard was born on 16 Apr 1859 in New Mecklenburg, now Shepherdstown, Hardy Co. He died on 17 Apr 1825 in Wood County, VA, now Wirt County, WV, in the Sheppard Cemetery, right Reedy Creek. He served in the military in the Revolutionary War. He enlisted at age 15 on 1 Jul 1775 at Old Town, MD as a private in Captain Michael Cresap’s Maryland Company. After one year he reenlisted at Hagerstown, MD in Captain Richard Davis Company under Colonel Moses Rawling’s Maryland Regiment. He was in the battle of Fort Washington, where he was taken prisoner and later exchanged. Under Captain Thomas Beall, he served until 1781 at Fort Frederick and Fort Pitt. Then he went to the siege of York under Captain Robert Bell and served to the close of the war. He was allowed pension on his application dated 7 May 1821 while a resident of Lewis Co., VA, at age 65 (the date and place of his birth were not stated). The application stated that his wife was dead. The amount was $96. The pension was first paid on 21 Jan 1822 with amount received of #378.98. His pension number is S-38365 and his Virginia service number is 18487. He was a shoe maker. Records show that Jonathan Sheppard owned 110 acres of land in Hampshire Co. in 1790 and 346 acres in Hardy Co. in 1791. He sold this land in 1796 to Jacob Willis.

Legend has it that Jonathan Sheppard first came to what is now Wirt Co., WV as a member of a posse with John Conrad, John Ott and others. They were tracking a band of Indians who had kidnapped two small children from Hardy Co. They overtook the Indians, rescuing the two children on the Little Kanawha River near the present site of Elizabeth. He returned to Hardy Co. and soon after moved his family to Wirt Co. near the site if Pisgah. Both he and his wife Martha are buried in a small family cemetery across the creek from Pisgah Church. The markers were readable but in poor shape when Therman Lockhart visited the graves in 1938.

Jonathan C. Sheppard and Martha C. Wilson were married in 1786 in Old Frederick, MC. Martha was the daughter of Col. Benjamin Wilson and Ann Ruddell. She was born about 1767 in MA and she died on 6 Mar 1808 in Wood Co. (now Wirt Co., WV). She is buried in Wirt Co., WV, Sheppard Cemetery, Right Reedy Creek.