Duncan Shepherd
ID # 8494, (1802-1886)
| Birth | Duncan Shepherd was born in March 1802 at Aberdeen, Scotland. |
| Marriage | He married Margaret McLeish, daughter of George McLeish and Margaret Erskine. |
| Marriage | He married Margaret McLean. |
| Death | He died on 13 March 1886 at Galt, Waterloo Co., Ontario. |
| Burial | He was buried on 16 March 1886 at Sec. 3, Mountview Cemetery, Galt, Waterloo Co.. |
| Note | He There are many resources that can provide a small insight into a person's existence. Cemetery transcriptions are often useful; birth, marriage and death records are good, even excellent; Church records will betimes rise to the occasion; but there's often nothing like an obituary. An obituary is not like a death notice, a notice placed and paid for by the family of the deceased, something that tells of the descendent's passing, the time and date of the funeral. Rather, an obituary is something put together by a reporter or employee of the newspaper. The paper might draw on old stories in their files relating to the deceased, on information gained by interviews with family members, and, perhaps information gotten from someone who knew of the deceased's ethic and character, a person who might well have been the reporter or editor himself who knew Duncan personally. Page one of the March 19th, 1886 edition of the Galt Reporter has an obituary for Duncan that appears to achieve this. It tells something of his history, not all of it happy, and does essay to show something of the man that he was. Probably our best information for Duncan may be said to be drawn from this obituary (your researcher has been granted usage of this obituary by Mr. Darryl Bonk, who maintains the Waterloo Region Generations website - see https://generations.regionofwaterloo.ca/ . There are archives where this obituary may be found, but that are, at least for the moment, beyond your researcher's access.) The baptism records of First Church are a close second. Should family members read these lines, I can only hope they find the story to be, at the least, of some interest. There will be some mistakes or inaccuracies. These do, however, represent an attempt by your researcher to sort out a substantial amount that remains unknown. As noted below, Duncan Shepherd's quite lengthy obituary appeared in the March 19, 1886, edition of the Galt Reporter, on page 1. The first paragraph tells of his final illness and death. The second paragraph, quite lengthy, tells that he was born in Aberdeen in March of 1802 and that he learned his trade (carpentry) in the 'old world' before coming to America. He followed his trade in Argyle and Caledonia of New York State and with him was his brother William, apparently in the same trade. He was in New York but some two years before coming to Galt in 1832. His brother William, with wife and two children, followed, but they all died in the cholera epidemic of 1834. It tells of his attendance and participation with the United Presbyterian Church (First Church) and was active in building the old frame church. He was for some two years precentor in the church. The last sentence of this lengthy paragraph may be of interest to students of Galt history, for it reads: One of the last public acts of Mr. Shepherd was his signing a deed to the town for the old eastern burying ground, of which he had been the sole surviving trustee for many years. Unquote. This sounds as though his last act as trustee was not long prior to his death in 1886. The old 'eastern burying ground', betimes referred to as Strang's burying ground, will have been First Church's cemetery at High Park (now called Centennial Park). The story goes on to tell that he was unfortunate in some of his business enterprises and, hence, moved to Owen Sound where the family resided some seven years, and then moving to Elora where the family spent some three years. He finally returned to Galt. The last paragraph of this obituary reads as follows: Mr. Shepherd was twice married, his second wife surviving him. His first consort was a Miss McLean, of Caledonia, N.Y., and by this union he had five daughters and one son - the latter and two of the daughters dying in childhood. The remaining three daughters married, and are, we believe, at present residing in Michigan. His second wife was Miss McLeish, sister of Mr. George McLeish, near Branchton, by whom he had two daughters and one son. One of these daughters is married and resides at Innerkip; the other has been living with her parents in Galt; and Mr. Duncan Shepherd, jr., for many years employed on the G.T. Railway, is at present farming with Mr. John Milroy in East Dumfries. The funeral of Mr. Shepherd took palce on Tuesday afternoon, and was largely attended. Galt Reporter Mar 19 1886 pg 1 The information provided relating to Duncan's children by both marriages squares well with what may be put together from census records and First Church's baptism records. We do know that daughters of his first marriage, Marjery and Margaret went to Michigan and married...or perhaps married and went to Michigan. The former seems the rather more likely, though there will be more to the story. Probably, another daughter survived, but we do not know certainly who she might have been or the names of the two that died and who were almost certainly buried in the First Church cemetery, probably with their mother. As for Duncan's children by Margaret McLeish, they are readily identifiable and are documented. Death reg. 018247-86 Galt, Waterloo Co. Duncan Shepherd died 13th March, 1886, age 84. Carpenter. Presbyterian. Physician Dr. Radford. Informant Duncan Shepherd, farmer, Dumfries. The City of Cambridge has an image of Duncan's funeral card. This provides the information that he died in Galt on Saturday Morning at a quarter past 9 o'clock. It identifies him as Duncan Shepherd Sr. and states that the funeral will take place on Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock from his late residence, Macadamized Road, to Galt Cemetery. The Macadamized Road in Galt was a new one for your researcher. It is listed, however, in the 1914-15 Vernon's Directory of Galt and it immediately becomes obvious that this was what became Dundas Street, for this directory lists Duncan Shepherd (Jr.) living at 426 Macadamized Road. The 1921 census shows him as living at 426 Dundas Street, obviously the same location. Just whether 426 Macadamized Road was the residence of Duncan Shepherd Sr. as of his passing in 1886, we do not know. |
Children of Duncan Shepherd and Margaret McLeish |
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Children of Duncan Shepherd and Margaret McLean |
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| Last Edited | 8 Mar 2021 |