Mary Beasley's Influence On John Sheppard

Mary Beasley was seven years old when she first met John Sheppard. It was the middle of harvest season, and he was working with his daddy in the shed where he ran his smithy. David Sheppard was one of the few Negro men to have his own business, and while he wasn’t taking in enough work to make the white men mad, he was doing enough to get by. John Sheppard was eight years old and already learning the trade. With a family owned business being so rare, John knew he would take over for his father when he could work no longer. Though he couldn’t quite lift the heavy hammers or work the intricate tools, he helped where he could, refilling the fire and getting new buckets of water. Mary Beasley’s father Matthew was a cropper, and her mother did

She enjoyed being useful, and helping where she could. There was no great moment as Mary and John talked, no recognition of soulmates. In the back of her head, she acknowledged he was handsome, as much as seven-year-olds can do so. They developed the fast friendship of young children, bonding over, of all things, their love of wisterias. When David was finished and paid, and Mary and Matthew were walking back to the farm plot, she told her father about John. Mary had no siblings, and they were the only family working the land. She didn’t leave the farm much, and Matthew was delighted she had someone new in her

John was taking care of half the workload by his 15th birthday, so Mary would often come sit in the shop and tell him about her day. She would fetch more wood and water like they did together as kids, and he realized that he worked better with her there. He was 18 when he told Matthew Beasley that he would like nothing more than to spend his life with Mary. With her father’s permission, they married in September, and moved into the house with his own father. MARY GAVE A halfhearted glance at the wisteria bushes in front of the house. She could hear her youngest, Pearl, humming in the living room. Marion, her oldest, had only just been married, and now lived a little ways down the street. Hattie though. Hattie was most likely off with that boy from a few streets over. August. The two had met the month after the Sheppards moved into the neighborhood, and had scarcely been seen without each other since. He was respectful to the family and always had Hattie home before late. But there was something about that man that made her uneasy. She was going to have to talk with her soon. Mary remembered being 16 and in love; mistakes could be made if she wasn’t