Daughter of James and Sarah Shepherd Vannoy, and wife of Wade Hampton Colvard. She was also the granddaughter of John Shepherd, Jr., and a great grandmother of Ethel Walker, wife of Grover Cleveland Shepherd
Wade Hampton Colvard was born July 9, 1805 in the Reddies River section of Wilkes County, NC to William III and Rachael Berry Colvard. Wade was a farmer and a shoemaker. He lived most of his life in Wilkes Co., NC on the plantation owned by his parents, although his father had left him the Tyree Old Field Plantation in Ashe Co., NC.
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Daughter of James and Sarah Shepherd Vannoy, and wife of Wade Hampton Colvard. She was also the granddaughter of John Shepherd, Jr., and a great grandmother of Ethel Walker, wife of Grover Cleveland Shepherd |
While on a visit to Ashe County, he met Phebe Vannoy (b. July 27, 1816; d. Nov. 30, 1892), daughter of Reverend James and Sallie Shepherd Vannoy. Phebe is also the granddaughter of John Jr. and Phoebe Eseentrino Shepherd. Wade and Phebe were married Nov. 2, 1831.
North Carolina Troops 1861-1865 compiled by Louis H. Roster, shows that Wade Colvard had eight sons who fought in the Civil War. All enlisted between May, 1861, and April, 1863, in Ashe County, NC under Captain Crumpler in Company A. Two sons, Jessie A. and James W. were killed in battle. Jessie, who died at Point Lookout Sept. 11, 1864, is buried in the Confederate Cemetery at Point Lookout, MD. James is also buried where he was shot March 31, 1865. Rufus Winfield, who had enlisted July 24, 1861, was captured at Aberdeen Church at Point Lookout, MD. He took the Oath of Allegiance June 24, 1865, and was released. Thomas Jefferson, who enlisted May 23, 1861, was wounded and captured at Barbers' Cross Roads, VA., Nov. 5, 1862. He was paroled and exchanged at City Point, VA., June 30, 1863. He was admitted to the hospital at Petersburg, VA., Oct. 28, 1864, with a flesh wound of the right foot.
Wade died June 29, 1880. He and Phebe are buried in the Reddies River Baptist Church Cemetery.
Eleven Known Children of Wade Hampton and Phebe Vannoy Colvard:
While Grover Cleveland Shepherd is a cousin to the Colvards through his great, great grandfather John Shepherd, Jr., his wife Ethel Walker is a direct Colvard descendant. Click Here to see Ethel's Colvard ancestry. |
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Edgar belonged to North Wilkesboro Methodist Church. He was a member of the Odd Fellows and a strong Democrat. Had three known children:
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Other business interests of Rufus Colvard included a Shell Oil Company distributorship, a Phillips 66 distributorship, another Chevorolet dealership in Boone, built Kings Street Laundramat near his office in Boone, built car washes, and opened tire recapping plants at Wilkesboro and Boone. In 1949, Rufus converted his colonial type home into Colvard Hotel and built on a suite for his mother after the death of his father. The hotel's name later changed to Colvard Manor and was operated by Rufus' wife, Rena. Colvard Manor played host to travelers as well as clubs, parties, and receptions.
Rufus is remembered as a hardworking, successful businessman. He belonged to the Methodist Church and was a Democrat. He was civic minded, serving as mayor of West Jefferson, NC in 1938-39. He was also a charter member of the Jefferson Rotary Club, organized in 1938. Rufus and Rena are buried at Mountain Lawn Memorial Gardens near North Wilkesboro, NC in the same plot as Rufus's father and mother. Had one known child:
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Virginia led an active life. She was a member of the West Jefferson Methodist Church where she taught the adult Women's Class for years. She taught school for 25 years until her retirement in 1973. She was instrumental in getting the first P.T.A. in Ashe County organized at West Jefferson High School where she served as president in 1948.
Virginia was a member of the Old Field Daughters of American Revolution, the Ashe County United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Ashe County Woman's Club which she served as president of in 1946, 1952, and 1956. She was also a member of the Hilltop Bridge Club of which she served as president in 1979. She is also a member of the Ashe County Historical Society. Had four known children:
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Had two known children by Dora Johnson:
Had four known children by Bessie Calloway:
Had 10 known children by Nellie Teague born in Wilkes Co., NC:
Had four known children by Ida Hice:
Had six known children by Irene McCall born in Caldwell Co., NC:
Had seven known children by Martha McGlamery born in Wilkes Co., NC:
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Carl was a town alderman for more than 25 years. He was a Mason and a charter member of the West Jefferson Lions' Club. He was a director of Ashe Savings and Loan and the local branch of the Northwestern Bank. He served on the board of Ashe County Social Services and was a member of the West Jefferson School Board. Carl was an active and loyal Democrat. Had one known child:
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Frank Colvard lived in Ashe County most of his life. He was unmarried and resided in West Jefferson where he was the manager of Skyland Books in West Jefferson.
A director of the Ashe County Chamber of Commerce since it's founding in 1965, he was also a board member of the local First Citizens Bank and the Northwest Trading Post and the Governor's Highway Efficiency Council for Ashe County. He was a member of the First Baptist Church of West Jefferson, where he served as Treasurer and Trustee. He has been active in the Ashe County Heart Association and the Pisgah Heights Development. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ashe Memorial Hospital.
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Had one known child by Laura Whittington Colvard:
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Click Here to see a photograph of attendees at the 2002 Colvard Family Reunion of Wiley Pinkney and Mary Shepherd Colvard descendants.
As the youngest child of parents with families by earlier marriages, Wiley helped his mother eke out a living on a small farm. His father died when he was four years old. When his mother died Wiley was 28. He attended all the schools available and once when he was 21 and a teacher resigned, he took over the job as teacher. His skill with figures enabled him to get a job measuring lumber. He also learned to survey land.
Wiley's courting days led him to the home of John Calvin Shepherd at Crumpler in Ashe County, NC. He traveled across the Blue Ridge Mountains on horseback or by horse-drawn buggy. On March 30, 1910 he and Mary Elizabeth Shepherd were married. After a few months at Wilbar they moved to Weaversford in Ashe County just up the road from New River Baptist Church. With their meager assets and a gift by the bride's parents they bought a 70-acre farm which was mostly native forest. There were two log houses and no other buildings. They moved their belongings from Wilkes County over the Blue Ridge Mountains in covered wagons loaned to them by Mary's father. They moved into a log house and began clearing land and planning a new home. They sawed lumber and built a two-story frame house.
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In addition to farming Wiley pursued his talents with figures and became involved with community and county affairs. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1913 and continued to hold that appointment for 39 years. He became known as "Squire Colvard." He was elected County Surveyor in 1942, 1946 and 1950. He resigned from that position in 1954 when his health was failing. As Justice of the Peace he wrote deeds, held trials and performed marriage ceremonies. All seven of Wiley and Mary's children graduated from Virginia-Carolina High School which straddled the state line and was suppored by the two states.
In 1954, after living 60 years in Ashe County, NC, Wiley and Mary moved to Hickory, NC and lived there until Wiley died on August 25, 1959. Mary outlived her husband by 35 years, reaching the ripe age of 102. The following is an excerpt from information about Mary given out at her 100th birthday party:
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Mary Elizabeth devoted herself without reservaion to raising her family with loving care. She arose about 5 a.m., helped with milking the cows and other farm work. After the early morning farm chores, she cooked a big breakfast complete with homemade biscuits, which no one in the family has been able to duplicate. She cultivated a garden; picked berries, apples, and cherries; made fresh country sausage and preserved other meats; canned hundreds of jars of food over a hot woodstove; made cheese and churned butter by hand; cooked for threshers and other farm "workhands"; washed clothes on a washboard, boiling them in an outside washpot over a fire; bleached and starched linens and "good" clothes; and hung the prettiest wash in the community.
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Her marksmanship with a 22-rifle was good enough to deal with predators threatening her baby chicks or trukeys. She quilted, made the curtains and bed linens and much of the family's clothing, ironed everything with a heavy iron heated on the woodstove, and maintained a clean and inviting home. (They had no electricity until the development of rural electrification in the late thirties.) Mary's home was always open to children when they needed place to stay, and friends and relatives looked forward to her Sunday dinners of fried chicken, country ham, or pork tenderloin.
With two crude telephone lines terminating in their home, Mary frequently served as a telephone operator to get messages to the country doctor who was needed along one of the lines while he was treating patients on the other. She frequently helped nurse ill friends and neighbors. She worked hard and taught her children how to work, took them to church, and taught them to respect themselves and others. She made many personal sacrifices to raise and educate her children.
Wiley and Mary are buried in the New River Baptist Church Cemetery; Had seven known children:
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After serving as president of Mississippi State University from 1960-1966, Dean became the first chancellor of UNC-Charlotte, where he served from 1966-1978. After retirement, Dean served as first chairman of the board of the NC School of Science and Math, Durham and had various public service assignments in Charlotte and Raleigh.
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Martha grew up in Jefferson City, MO. She and Dean met at Berea although Martha pursued graduate work in medical technology and worked in Kansas City clinical labs until their marriage in the Berea College Chapel on July 7, 1939. Martha enjoys sewing, cooking, golf, bridge, and gardening, which now consists of a balcony full of flowers at their high-rise condo at The Cypress, where she and Dean are guaranteed life-time care. She still does some volunteer work at their church and hospital and belongs to a book club. Dean and Martha currently reside at Cypress Retirement Center, Charlotte, NC.” Had three known children:
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Lynda pursued a master’s degree in nursing at UNC-Charlotte and has taught nursing for most of her career. She is Associate Dean of the nursing program. Active in the field of medical ethics, she serves on several committees, consults and lectures on the topic. Lynda loves gardening, sewing, crafts and cooking. She has been an elder in the church also and currently serves on the wedding committee. Dick is in insurance and investments with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and is a chartered life underwriter and chartered financial planner. He is an elder in the church and teaches an adult Sunday school class. Had two known children:
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After the war, Charles entered N.C. State University where he earned a Master of Science degree in the manufacturing of milk and dairy products.
He met and married Juanita Yoder in 1951 in Hickory, NC. This union resulted in three girls and two boys. As manager of Catawba Dairy in Hickory he was also active in community affairs - President of the Jaycees and the Optimist Club, on the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Association, deacon in the First Presbyterian Church, and Chairman of a 100-man committee to build the 200-bed Catawba Memorial Hospital. Charles also supported various projects on behalf of Lenoir Rhyne College, Catawba Technical Institute, and formation of the N.C. Milk Commission.
The family moved to Greensboro in 1965 where he served as manager of the N.C. Milk Producers Federation. Here he represented dairy farmers in matters of state and national policies and regulations and educated managers and directors. In 1976 he became the Executive Vice- President of the Cooperative Council of North Carolina and moved the office to Raleigh. His work in Raleigh dealt with educating cooperative directors and managers, educating youth, and informing regulators and policy makers about economic and educational needs of farmers and rural people. He organized a young couples conference each year to educate and encourage young people to stay on farms.
Charles served six years on Governor Hunt's advisory board on Agriculture, Forestry and Seafoods, six years on the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences at NCSU, and on the boards of the Dairy Foundation, the Tobacco Foundation, the Education Foundation at NCSU, the N.C. Dairy Products Association, National Milk Producers Federation, the American Institute of Cooperation for Education, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, and the N.C. Council on Foods and Nutrition.
Honorary awards received during his life include N.C State Grange Man of the Year in 1977, Phi Cappa Phi scholastic fraternity, Gamma Sigma Delta honorary agricultural fraternity, and FFA of N.C. State Farmer's Degree in 1978. Upon his retirement, Governor Hunt referred to him as "one of the greatest advocates" for rural people in N.C. Had five known children born in Hickory, NC:
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Cindy doesn't remember being born in New York City, but does remember growing up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and the DC suburbs of Virginia. College in Bloomington, IN and jobs in the DC area preceded her jump to the left coast nearly twenty years ago. Carl and Cindy met while both were working as volunteers at Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic in Palo Alto. Cindy attends yoga classes regularly, and continues her interest in creative writing and her pursuit of growing the perfect tomato. Carl spent a lot of time swimming competitively in high school and college, expanded that to triathlons for several years, and continues with Masters swimming today. He avoids improvement projects on their house and yard in Redwood City by indulging in b&w conventional darkroom photography, shortwave radio listening, and a recent interest in climbing trees.
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Jim is national sales manager for the Allison Boat Company. Carol is a training support specialist for a payroll service bureau. Jim enjoys watching NASCAR races, riding his two BMW motorcycles, and collecting guns. Carol and Jim are members of the local YMCA, where they work out regularly. Currently live in Louisville, KY; Had two known children born in Indiana:
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Brad works for Res-Care in the home-health- care field. Debbie is a purchasing manager for an automotive parts company in Somerset. They have a 20-acre country home that they spend a great deal of time working on, and Brad is studying for Microsoft Computer Systems Engineer certification.
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Lori is also a physician of internal medicine, working part-time as a hospitalist. Lori and Matt are also avid runners. Had two known children: Patrick James, born May, 1999, and Elizabeth Ann, born December, 2000.
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Tracey graduated from the University of Delaware and is a design professional and mother of three. Currently live in Wilmington, Delaware, where Dan is a practicing patent attorney. Had three known children: Leila Morgan, born January, 2003, Peri Elizabeth, born November, 2004 and Rose Frances, born December, 2007.
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As soon as Frank finished high school he enlisted in the U.S. Army. His first skirmish took place in Mexico in 1916 where there had been trouble with General Pancho Villa for some time. Frank was then sent to France and took part in several battles during WWI. After the war, Frank worked as a postman in Winston-Salem, NC.
After marriage to Lillie Mae Anderson, he soon opened a small grocery store on the outskirts of Winston-Salem, NC. They later bought property in Ashe County, NC. Lillie operated a service station and country store at Glendale Springs, NC while Frank operated a grocery store on Jefferson Ave. in West Jefferson, NC called "Frank's". He also operated a little store across the street from West Jefferson Elementary School so the school children would have a convenient place to buy their paper, pencils, pens, candy, soft drinks, and ice cream.
Frank kept the birthday dates of every school child. On a child's birthday, he or she knew to go to Frank's to get the present Frank always gave the birthday child. During a lunch break, Frank would sometimes throw pennies, nickels, and dimes into the air in front of his store. The children would scramble for the coins which tey immediately spent in the store. Frank continued keeping people's birthdates in his book, and at his death, he had collected over 2,000 names.
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The Colvard store and service station on the mountain burned in the 1960s. Frank and Lillie then converted the little school store into a "den" where they lived a good part of the time for the past 20 years for the sake of convenience, although they had an attractive home near Glendale Springs.
Frank and his wife have been featured in The Winston-Salem Journal and local papers several times. Frank was a member of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He was interested in world and local affairs. He was generous with the many local drives and was especially interested in the Cancer and Heart Fund drives. Frank is buried in the West Jefferson Cemetery.; No children.
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Along with information from the normal genealogical sources (Census Records, History Books, Cemetery Records, etc.) the following people have contributed family history information and/or photos presented on this page. If you have information/photos on the descendants of Wade Hampton Colvard, and would like to see your family history added to this page, send an email to author@reddiesrivershepherds.com
Sallie E. Colvard - William Rhoades (Photo of Leander Whittington and information on his descendants; Photo of Phoebe Whittington Warren with twin daughters)
William H.H. Colvard - Mack Dee Colvard (Information on the family of Mack Dee Colvard)
Thomas Jefferson Colvard - Cliff Cantrell (Photos of Charles Hampton Colvard Family)
