117 - John Shepherd
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SerenityNow
N 41° 18.871 W 081° 43.867
17T E 438804 N 4573930
The gravestone maker got few things wrong on this headstone. Shepard is actually Shepherd and he did not live 118 years, but 117 years. The grave lies in the center of North Royalton on Royalton Road (Rt 82).
Waymark Code: WM9TGC
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 09/28/2010
Views: 27
Taken from the Ohio Historical sign nearby:
Front side of sign:
John Shepherd-An American Hero, March 16, 1729-January 3, 1847
John Shepherd is believed to be the longest lived veteran of the American Revolution. He died at the age of 117 years, 9 months, and 18 days. He entered military service the first time during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The 26 year-old Shepherd, along with George Washington and others survived Braddock's Defeat at the Battle of Monongahela in 1755. In middle age, Shepherd enlisted in the army again and defended Pennsylvania and other colonies as they fought for freedom from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). (Continued other side)
Back-side of sign:
John Shepherd-An American Hero, With Washington All the Way
(Continued from other side) Shepherd served in the 2nd Pennsylvania Battalion and then the 3rd Pennsylvania Regiment. In the 3rd Pennsylvania, he was a sergeant and his unit saw action at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, among others, in 1777. Sgt. Shepherd also survived the brutal winter at Valley Forge in 1777-'78 and was at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse in 1778. At the age of 89, Shepherd witnessed the founding of Royalton Township in 1818 (later re-named North Royalton). His daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Robert Engle, were two of the community's original settlers .
?The following is taken from Daughters of the American Revolution magazine, Volume 25 By Daughters of the American Revolution Pages 753 and 754:
John Shepard died at the residence of his son in law Mr Robert Engle in Royalton Ohio Jan 3 1847 aged 118 years 9 months 18 days He was born ten miles from the city of Philadelphia on the Lancaster road He enlisted as a soldier in the old French War and was a member of Col Washington's command at Braddock's defeat and was undoubtedly the last survivor of that memorable defeat In his service of three years and nine months in the Revolutionary army in which he enlisted in 1776 he fought in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown Flats He was once taken prisoner in company with six others while on a scouting party and was confined in the White Church Philadelphia from which his escape was effected by a party of Americans making an attack on the church at night.
Below is an interesting story taken from the Shepherd Family History website which can be found here - (
visit link)
Olonzo Engle, a grandson of John Shepherd says, "There is one incident in my Grandfather Shepherd's life which I recollect distinctly. One morning at the breakfast table father said to brother William and me that he wished us to hurry and finish sowing the wheat as our corn was ready to cut. I was 16 years of age at the time and grandfather was 112 years old. When we had finished breakfast grandfather got a long butcher knife and taking it and his chair he went to the cornfield. He worked until the horn blew to call us to dinner. After eating his dinner he laid upon his bed and rested half an hour, he then returned to the cornfield and worked until night. The next morning William and a man named Porter went to the cornfield and measured the ground. They found that grandfather had cut two acres of corn in one day."