Sarah Jones Dow> Zilla Dow Shere> Temple Shere Pierceson

Following down my genealogy path I have posted about my great grandmothers from several generations past- Hannah Bumpass- Eunice Bump- Mourning Lewis- Anne Dickerson- Sarah Ellen Jones Dow.

This post will be about my paternal grandmother Temple Musset Shere who descended from this long line of Pilgrim and Pioneer women.

She was born in 1897 in Yorktown, Illinois- a tiny settlement that was cofounded by her great grandfather Whitcher Dow along with her grandfather Benjamin Franklin Dow and the McKenzie family.

Her mother was Zilla Dow and her father was Will Shere. Will Shere had been married before to a woman named Charity Wilsey and had 4 children with her. Charity died of consumption in Yorktown and later Will Shere remarried Zilla Dow and to them were born two children- my grandmother Temple and her brother Harry Boyd Shere. This created a fairly large family and my grandmother was just a few years old when her oldest half brother Clarence emigrated to Drinkwater, Saskatchewan, Canada with his family.

My grand mother married Arthur Pierceson- a man of direct Swedish descent( his parents having come from Kristianstad, Sweden in 1881).

She and my grand father Arthur had one child- my dad Glenn Pierceson.

Arthur passed away when my father was just 3 years old. Four years later my grand mother married Arthur's brother John and with him had three more children- 2 boys and a girl.

The girl being Janice- my aunt whose garden is pictured in a previous post.

My grandma Temple passed away in 1957 when I was 4 years old - she died from injuries sustained in an auto accident. She was 60 year old.

I do not remember much about her- just the fact that she was very tall and oh so kind.

So it was with awe and amazement when my Aunt janice started sharing photos with me that I saw my grandmother was once a young woman also- she had not always been my Grandma- something I think we all forget!

My grandma true to her Pilgrim & Pioneer roots quilted, needlepunched, embroidered, and wove her own rugs- in fact her rug loom sits in my Aunt Janice's garage and is used to weave rugs by her and her daughter Suzie- they too are carrying on our Pilgrim & Pioneer heritage!