Family Legends Rock!

I was looking through my saved email in search of a password when I ran across a picture my brother Todd had sent me, which is linked to a popular family legend.  After clarifying a few points with Todd, I wrote the following since it is so very interesting.  (Shepard crew, if you have clarification or additional points, post a comment!)


Ike Barber hung

The Barber brothers, Ike and Bill, were notorious horse thieves and ne'er do wells. By 1882 the State of Illinois had offered a $6000 reward for their capture. In August of that year, the bodies of Charles McMahon, a wealthy farmer, and two of his hired hands were found murdered, and the Barber brothers were identified as the prime suspects. The specific crime which led to their ultimate downfall, however, was committed in Wadena in Fayette County, Iowa in September, 1882, where they shot and killed Marion Shepard, the town police officer (my great-great uncle).



The watch

After two weeks, they were finally run to ground and captured by a local posse near Tripoli, Iowa. After several months in the jail at Independence, the brothers were transferred to a lock-up in Waverly, Iowa to await trial. Before long, a large mob, led by Charles Shepard (my great grandfather), brother of one of murder victim Marion Shepard, assembled outside the jail and talk of lynching ensued. Charles led the mob by breaking open the jail with a sledgehammer the drug both Barber boys out to the woods and strung them up. The sheriff could do little to stop the crowd. Denying their crimes, the brothers were taken outside the town limits, and hung. Ike's last words were reportedly "Go on with the hanging (Livermore (Iowa) County Gazette, June 22, 1883).

My brother Todd actually has Charles Shepard’s pocket watch and it still runs.

Additional Back Story

Charles Shepard (Barber Bros. lyncher) had a son named Albert. Albert was fooling around with twin sisters. He ended up going to WWI; one of the twin’s wrote that she was pregnant with his child. The commanding officer never gave the letter to Albert. His father Charles’ and his young wife found out about the baby and adopted him, naming him Donald, who was my father’s dad and my grandfather. They kept this secret from Albert, who did not know that his new younger brother was actually his son! Donald and his real father Albert were raised as brothers and they had a very volatile relationship. After my grandfather Donald married my grandmother, Charles ended up confiding to her the true story, which she in turn told Donald. It wasn’t until Donald and Albert had another argument that Donald blurted out “You can deny me as your brother but you can never deny me as your son.”

Another Back Story
Charles and Marion Shepard has a third brother named Sam, who was in the mob to lynch the Barber Brothers, although Charles was the leader. So my Sammy is named after my great-great uncle!