Annie Bartlett Shepard
Annie Bartlett Shepard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| New Hampshire State Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution | |
| In office 1907–1909 | |
| President | Emily Nelson Ritchie McLean |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 18, 1861 Nottingham, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA |
| Died | December 4, 1944 (aged 83) Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA |
| Resting place | Forest Hill Cemetery, East Derry, New Hampshire, USA |
| Spouse | Col. Frederick Johnson Shepard (m. 1887) |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Alan Shepard (grandson) |
| Alma mater | Lasell Seminary |
| Occupation | woman's club leader and anti-suffragist |
Annie Bartlett Shepard (née Bartlett; February 18, 1861 – December 4, 1944) was an American conservative woman's club founder, anti women's suffrage activist and founder of a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).[1] From 1907 to 1909, she served as the New Hampshire State Regent of the DAR.
Life
[edit]She was born in 1861 in Nottingham, New Hampshire.[1] Her parents were Thomas Bradbury Bartlett and Victoria Bartlett née Cilley.[2] She was educated at public schools in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and Lasell Seminary, Auburndale, Massachusetts.[1]
Before her marriage, she briefly worked as a teacher at the Derry Village School.[3] She married Colonel Frederick Johnson Shepard, president of the Derry National Bank, on September 27, 1887.[1] Three pieces of white lace from her wedding dress are held in the Perry-Dudley Family Archive and Shepard collection of the New Hampshire Historical Society.[4] The Shepards had three sons.[5]
Shepard was active in the civic life of Derry and was a member of many local committees and organizations. She sat on the Derry School Board for eight years, was a member of the East Derry Village Improvement Society, was a member of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests,[1] and was chairman of the East Derry Red Cross Auxiliary.[2] She attended the First Parish Congregational Church in East Derry, sang in their choir, and donated artifacts to the church.[6]
Shepard was the founder and first regent of the Molly Reid Chapter of the DAR, established on October 27, 1894,[7] as the descendant of Joseph Cilley, Colonel Thomas Bartlett, Joseph Nealley, Abraham True, Benjamin True and Nathaniel Batchelder.[8] Two months before she died, she celebrated the 50th anniversary of the chapter.[9] In 1905, she was elected state vice-regent of New Hampshire and then served as state regent between 1907 and 1909.[10] She was also a member of the New Hampshire Society of Colonial Dames and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.[2]
She was an anti women's suffrage activist,[11] and served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.[1] She was the first female chairman of the Rockingham County Woman's Republican Club of New Hampshire from 1920 and was a charter member of the Derry Women's Club.
She died in 1944 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Legacy
[edit]In 2000, the land surrounding the original Shepard family homestead was donated to East Derry as a "gift to the Town of Derry from members of the Shepard family in honor of four generations of the family and their contributions to the town." It is now a conservation area.[5]
In 2019, members of Derry's Molly Reid Chapter of DAR hosted a 125th anniversary ceremony by Shepard's grave at Forest Hill Cemetery, East Derry.[12]
Her grandson Alan Bartlett Shepard was the first astronaut from the United States in space,[13] and her maiden name was his middle name.[14]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Leonard, John W. (1976). Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. New York, American Commonwealth Co. Detroit, Gale Research Co. p. 739.
- ^ a b c "Shepard, Annie Bartlett (1861-1944)". New Hampshire Historical Society. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ Frost, Robert (February 25, 2014). The Letters of Robert Frost. Harvard University Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-674-72650-5.
- ^ "Cloth Fragment". New Hampshire Historical Society. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ a b "Shepard Family Conservation Area". Town of Derry NH. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ Lindemann, Paul. (May 10, 2012) "First Parish Church Timeline A summary of key events and facts from 1702 – 2012". First Parish Congregational Church Derry, NH. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ "Molly Reid Chapter, New Hampshire State Organization Daughters of the American Revolution". Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ Lineage Book. The Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. 1898. p. 96.
- ^ Molly Reid Chapter is 50 Years Old. Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine. 1944. p. 686.
- ^ "New Hampshire Daughters of the American Revolution State Regents". www.nhsodar.org. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ Holmes, Rick (October 5, 2011). "Column: The woman who wrote the book on the houses of Derry". The Derry News. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ Huss, Julie (August 5, 2019). "Local DAR chapter honors Shepard legacy". The Derry News. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ Claghorn, Charles Eugene (1991). Women Patriots of the American Revolution: A Biographical Dictionary. Scarecrow Press. pp. 161–162. ISBN 978-0-8108-2421-8.
- ^ Burgess, Colin (September 27, 2013). Freedom 7: The Historic Flight of Alan B. Shepard, Jr. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 69. ISBN 978-3-319-01156-1.
- 1861 births
- 1944 deaths
- 19th-century American educators
- Activists from New Hampshire
- American anti-suffragists
- American Congregationalists
- American women founders
- Clubwomen
- Lasell College alumni
- Members of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America
- National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage people
- New England Historic Genealogical Society
- New Hampshire Republicans
- State Regents of the Daughters of the American Revolution