Mercy Muriel SHEPARD

  Birth Notes:

Mercy M is listed as Mary M., and with her husband L.D. Dickinson and daughters Lura A, age 4 and Mary E, age 4/12. Mercy is 28, Levant, 30, a carpenter, both born in New York. The girls were born in Indiana.

  Noted events in her life were:

• Birth: Family records, 20 Dec 1832, Genesee Co, NY. Mercy M reported for each of the Federal Census Reports that she was born in New York state.

Mercy lived her later years with her daughter and sometimes granddaughter and great-granddaughter. They have recorded in written records her date of birth.

• Census: Family listing, 1840, Albany, Genesee Co, NY. Guy B Sherpard and family listed. There are two females, presumably his daughters, between the ages of five and ten years - Mercy M and Amanda

• Travel: Family Visits, 1845-1910. Mercy began traveling visits in her childhood, back to visit with her Phelps relatives in South Hero, VT.

• Education: Doctor's Assistant, Abt 1845, Genesee Co, NY. Mercy M, family tradition reports loved helping her father with his medical practice. She would mix medicines for him and assist in the office with patients. She also accompanied him in the buggy when he made calls, sometimes gone for many hours.

This may have provided some of the impetus and knowledge that led her husband, Levant, to change careers from carpenter to druggist.

• Religion: Methodist, Abt 1845, Genesee Co, NY. Mercy's mother and Grandfather Phelps were staunch Methodists. Even though M.M. married a devoted Baptist the two agreed to continue in their own churches.

• Education: Going to high school, 1846-1847, Oakfield, Genesee Co, NY. Mercy, sister Amanda and brother John L all attended Cary Seminary in Oakfield. According to a Rootsweb Genesee Co site, Mercy and Amanda were enrolled during the school year 1846 - 1847. No contiguous yearly rosters have been posted, but it seems likely that both girls continued to graduation.

• Marriage, 28 Mar 1854, Oakfield, Genesee Co, NY. Family records give this date of marriage.
Also, in the obituary for Mercy M's husband, Levant B Dickinson, is reported, "He was married to Miss Mercy M. Shepard March 28, 1854, and came to Indiana wth his wife immediately after their marriage. . . "

• Residence: "across the street. . . ," 1882, Wolcottville, LaGrange Co, IN. In her story of the Dickinson Family, Lutie Yeager Gingrich, wrote that she and her family lived across the street from Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson in Wolcottville.
The house still stands, photographed in about 1978.

• Residence, Abt 1892, Cromwell, Noble Co, IN. The Dickinsons moved to Cromwell where daughter, Ella and her husband William Yeager had a mercantile store and operated a sawmill. It was in Cromwell that Mercy M's husband, Levant, died. She accompanied his remains back to Wolcottville for burial.

• Residence: Move with Yeager Family, After 1896, Hope, Hempstead Co, AR. It is unsure whether or not Mercy M came with the large group of Yeager family members when they first moved to Arkansas Nov 1896. Lutie Yeager's family history states, "Grandma Dickinson lived with Paps and Mama here in Hope till she died in 1918. Both she and Papa are buried in Hope, Arkansas.

• Organizations: Women's Christian Temperance Union, Abt 1900, Indiana and Arkansas.

• Honors: Memorial Window, After 1918, Hope, Hempstead Co, AR. ¹⁵ A memorial window was installed in the Educational Building of the Hope Methodist Church at some time after Mercy M's death. At last visit in about 1977, the window is still there, but the church has moved to new quarters (1973) and the old educational building was sold to a Dr. George H Wright. Photographs of the window were made of this "Mother Dickinson" window.

• Death, 31 Oct 1918, Hope, Hempstead Co, AR.

• Burial, Nov 1918, Rose Hills Cem, Hope, Hempstead Co, AR. Mercy M Dickinson is buried in this beautiful, tree-shaded cemetery next to her son-in-law, William E Yeager.

• Obituary, Nov 1918, Hope, Hempstead Co, AR.

Mercy married Levant Benois Dickinson, son of Ichabod Dickinson and Harriet Hubbard, on 28 Mar 1854 in Albany, Genesee Co, NY. (Levant Benois Dickinson was born on 22 Jun 1830 in Genesee Co, NY,¹¹ died on 11 Feb 1893 in Cromwell, Noble Co, IN and was buried in Feb 1893 in Wolcottville, LaGrange Co, IN ¹².)