Shepard House circa 1770

209 Front Street
Plaqued "Sloo House circa 1768" - it should be Shepard House circa 1770.
The original house was much smaller.
1997 Survey: House has lost all of its exterior 18th-century characteristics.
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In September 1768, two deeds were registered for Old Town Lot 28, one from Beaufort Commissioners to Nathaniel Sloo, the other deed from Sloo to Solomon Shepard's bride-to-be Jane Miles. As noted in the 1777 sale to William Fisher, Jane and Solomon Shepard had improved the lot with a house. (Lt. Col. Solomon Shepard was listed as one of the Field Officers of the Minute Men during the Revolution.)

Before 1773, Solomon Shepard's brother Jacob Shepard and wife Sarah Lewis* moved into the house, perhaps with his brother Solomon's family.

Solomon Shepard (1728‒1780) was the son of David Shepard and Sarah Jarratt. David Shepard (c.1700‒1774) first purchased land in Carteret County in 1723; he lived on Bogue Sound and the mouth of Goose Creek (later Shepard's Point).
    
Capt. Charles Manly Biddle (1745–1821) wrote of the year 1778 and the house of Jacob Shepard and wife Sarah Lewis, "Here it was I first became acquainted with Miss Hannah Shepard, who I afterwards married. Mr. Jacob Shepard [1733–1773], the father of Miss Shepard, had been a respectable merchant of Newbern, and removed here on account of his health. Taking a voyage to Philadelphia, he was seized soon after with the smallpox and died in a few days [June 16, 1773]. His widow, finding this a very healthy place, concluded to reside here."
     
Charles Biddle and Hannah Shepard (1758–1825) married November 25, 1778. During their 1½ years in Beaufort during the Revolution, Biddle became a leader and helped build a town fort. The couple lived in "a small house belonging to an uncle of Mrs. Biddle, being the first house as you entered from the eastward." 

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     209 Front Street was home for decades to the Sanders family. 

Cotton-broker David Sanders had a cotton gin on Front Street.

 

Beaufort News 3 Dec 1942

Born in Onslow County in 1844 to Eli Walter Sanders and Belinda Ajax Eason, in 1865 David Simmons Sanders married Emily Frances Sabiston, daughter of William Sabiston and Susan Jane Furlow (113 Moore). 

David Sander's paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Burns, wife of John Sanders, was the sister of privateer Otway Burns.

David and Emily's daughter Charlotte Vance Sanders (1879–1951) was the last Sanders in the home. "Miss Lottie" Sanders was superintendent of Ann Street Methodist children's church school in 1941; in 1950, the Lottie Sanders Building named in honor of her years of service.     

The home was later owned by Evelyn Marie Chadwick (1911–1986), widow of Harvey Ward Smith (1908–1976), who was well known in the menhaden fishing industry. Evelyn Marie Chadwick was born in Beaufort to Richard Whitehurst Chadwick and Maude Hunter Quick. In the 1980s, Mrs. Smith donated land on Front Street for a new maritime museum; opened in 1985, the museum displays many artifacts collected by Mr. Smith. In 1982, Mrs. Smith donated the old Paul Motor Company across from the museum; this was converted for boat building and later named the Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center. Harvey Ward Smith has an inscription "Grand Master of Masons of North Carolina 1960" on his gravestone in St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery.

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In Carteret County during the American Revolution 1765-1785, 

Jean Bruyere Kell wrote of Solomon Shepard:

    The first record of activity growing out of these new concerns of the people of the County details the election of delegates to the First Provincial Congress, held in New Bern on August 25, 1774. William Thompson and Solomon Shepard, of Carteret County, took part in passing the resolutions of the Congress.
    ...The Second Provincial Congress, held in New Bern on April 3rd, was also attended by William Thompson and Solomon Shepard.
    ...When the Third Provincial Congress was called at Hillsborough August 20, 1775, there were five men representing Carteret County: John Easton, William Thompson, Brice Williams, Solomon Shepard and Enoch Ward.
    ...The Assembly appointed field officers for the companies of 50 men to be called minute men. The officers appointed for the company to be raised in Carteret County were William Thompson, Col.; Solomon Shepard, Lt. Col.; Thomas Chadwick, First Major; and Malachi Bell, Second Major.
    ...Carteret County was represented by William Thompson, Solomon Shepard and John Blackhouse when the Fourth Provincial Congress met at Halifax on April 23, 1776.
    ...During the Congress, a letter from the Committee of Beaufort in Carteret County was referred to a committee whose members were John Campbell, William Thompson, James Coor, Matthew Locke, Thomas Person, John Spicer and Solomon Shepard.
    ...The Fifth Provincial Congress met in Halifax on November 12, 1776. Those sent from Carteret County were Solomon Shepard, Brice Williams, John Easton, William Borden, and Thomas Chadwick. During the session, which was not adjourned until December 23rd, the Declaration of Rights (Bill of Rights) was adopted (on December 15th) and on December 17th the North Carolina State Constitution. 

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*The Old Burying Ground tour guide brochure inaccurately reads: Sarah Gibbs (d.1792) & Jacob Shepard (d.1773) – Sarah was married to Jacob Shepard, a seaman. Jacob’s ship went to sea, but never returned. He was presumed to be dead. Later, Sarah married Nathaniel Gibbs and had a child with him. After an absence of several years, the shipwrecked Jacob Shepard unexpectedly returned to Beaufort to find his wife married to another man. The two men agreed that Sarah would remain with Gibbs as long as she lived, but must spend eternity at the side of Jacob Shepard.

  THE FACTS on Sarah Lewis, Jacob Shepard and Nathaniel Gibbs:

Click to enlarge images

Before 1753, Sarah Lewis (c.1740‒1792) married Jacob Shepard (1733‒1773). After Jacob Shepard's death from smallpox in 1773, widow Sarah married Nathaniel Gibbs (who first married Mary Whitehurst). After Sarah's death, Gibbs married Alice Easton in 1795. Gibbs died in 1806 and was buried in Washington, Beaufort County. Of Jacob and Sarah’s children, their daughter Hannah met and married Capt. Charles Biddle when he sailed into Beaufort during the Revolution and helped build a small fort.