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The following excerpts are from various publications that all relate to her death in July of 1894

Shepard, Marie Louise Creuzet

From the Gallipolis Journal, July 7, 1894
     Mrs. Marie L. Shepard died at the residence of her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Vance, on Friday night, July 6, 1894, at 9:30 o’clock after an illness covering a period of several weeks. The Journal has noted her precarious condition from time to time, and with a sense of profound sadness records her death.
     Mrs. Shepard was born at Gallipolis on the 2d of July, 1823. She was the second of three daughters of the late Charles and Genevieve Creuzet. One brother died in early youth. The younger sister, the wife of the late Charles Henking, died some years ago, and the elder, Mrs. Frances A. Heisner, is left to mourn the death of one whom in life she devotedly loved, and who returned that love with a touching tenderness that increased with the passage of the years that brought them nearer to the shore where there are no partings.
     In 1839, she was married to John C. Shepard, who died in 1852. Four children were born of this union, Charles C., John C., Emily and James. The latter died in infancy, and Charles died in 1854. John and Emily are living, and together with their children, are bowed with grief, that cannot be assuaged, over the loss of a mother who was even more than mother. She was counselor, companion, friend, with thoughts only for the happiness of those near and dear to her.
     Mrs. Shepard was a woman of strong and commanding character, which made itself felt in everything in which she became interested. While she took no part in matters that were discussed in public assemblages, nor attended the latter, yet her sympathies were with all enterprises having for their aim the advancement of the community, the alleviation of suffering, and the succor of the poor and the needy. One notable fact connected with her history may be mentioned: it was at her suggestion that the movement was inaugurated which resulted in the erection of the Ohio Hospital for Epileptics, and until the matter was settled and the institution assured, her interest in every step of the important enterprise was intense, and her counsel and advice wise and sagacious.
     Her death will be mourned by the poor. Her charities were large and dispensed unobtrusively. It can be said to her honor that a large part of her income was devoted to relieving those afflicted with poverty. Never was appeal made to her without hearty, cheerful, and liberal response. There are today scores of families in Gallipolis and Gallia county whose members will shed tears of heartfelt regret over the loss of their best friend, and whose prayers have ascended to the Good Father in thankfulness that one so unselfish and so thoroughly imbued with the heavenly gift of charity should have brightened their lives. Her good deeds will live so long as memory lasts in the hearts of those she helped when lonely, distressed, and can never be forgotten by those who sought her when looking for means to forward enterprises for the public good.
     Mrs. Shepard was possessed of literary ability of high order, and had she so chosen would have attained high rank in that line. It was in her home life that the beauties of her character shone most brilliantly. Only those who have had the privilege of entering that charmed circle, can know or appreciate the devoted love she had for her children and others who were dear to her. No sacrifice was too great should it conduce to their happiness. To her children, the memory of her life-long love is sacred, and her death is to them a shock that words cannot describe.
     Those who knew her well, and to whom her good deeds were known, recognize in her death a loss that will be difficult to replace. The unbidden tears came over our eyes as we bid farewell to one whose every thought was kindness and pure love. But we are consoled by the thought that she has found rest.
     Yes -

From the Gallipolis Journal, July 7, 1894

Shepard, Marie Louise

     The funeral obsequies of the late Mrs. Shepard were largely attended this afternoon, and the address of Rev. W. E. I. d’Argent was very impressive. The funeral procession may be probably classed as one of the largest that ever went out of this city, and the floral tributes were simply unsurpassable in point of beauty, design and abundance, all of which attested the high esteem in which the deceased was held by the community. Daily Journal 10th

The Bulletin
Saturday, July 14, 1894
Transcribed by Sandy Lee Milliron

Remarks of Rev. W. E. I. D’Argent At The Funeral of Mrs. Marie Louise Shepard
     We come, my friends, to render sympathy to these sad hearts that mourn in Mrs. Marie Louise Shepard not only a relative beloved, but one who has so filled their lives by tender thoughtfulness, by loving care, by wise counsel, by ready beneficence, that when she “fell on sleep” and God withdrew from this cold form her kindly spirit, life seemed to lose its best of good, and the long vista of the coming years that they must spend without her look dark, and dull, and drear.
     You whose presence in such numbers testifies your high appreciation of her worth, you knew her as a woman of grand and noble parts, refined in tastes, and with a mind broad in its view of matters and of men. You knew her thoughtful kindness and her enterprise, not only because they were manifested for her family and their fruit recounted to you, but because they reached for others far beyond the walls of home. She was public-spirited, gave energy for common good, enlisted other workers, and directed other minds to securing benefits to all; and has thus left memorials to her fame more lasting than any device that shall be placed upon her grave.
     I cannot lift the veil that should conceal the life of home to hold to gaze her rare domestic virtues, but I will mention what I believe concerns us all, her charity. For I believe her one of those concerning whom, their lives complete, the Scripture is “They may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.”
It may interest some here to learn that Mrs. Shepard was baptized in the Presbyterian Church, and gave to God and our Lord Christ both love and worship. It concerns me more that her quiet, unobtrusive, yet abundant benefactions were such as gave the fullest evidence that she was truly follower of Him Who “went about doing good.” Not only all who came to her hungry in body or in heart, chilled by the world or by the elements, found full supply for all their needs, but she sought out unostentatiously objects of benevolence, and these so many that to adopt the sentiment if not the exact words of a great orator, if every one to whom she has done good should come today and lay one flower upon her bier, her funeral pall would be concealed beneath a mound of fragrant beauty.
     That it is well with her we know, for it is to such as she that our dear Saviour utters the invitation: “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered and ye gave Me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave Me drink, I was a stranger and ye took Me in; naked and ye clothed Me; I was sick and ye visited Me,” and to whose wondering demur there comes assurance, “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it until Me!”

From the Gallipolis Journal. July 7, 1894

     Mrs. Marie L. Shepard, the mother of Mrs. Col. Jno. L. Vance, died at the residence of her daughter, in Gallipolis, on Friday night at 9:30 o’clock. She was a most excellent lady and many will mourn her demise. Huntington Times-Citizen.

From the Gallipolis Journal
July 7, 1894
Transcribed by Sandy Lee Milliron

Shepard, Mrs. Marie Louise

     Marie Louise Shepard is dead! The record of a good life is complete. That record will perpetuate her virtues and the services she rendered to her fellow-creatures as long as time shall endure.
Her task is finished! She has no part or lot in all that is done beneath the sun. No more for her the voice of love, the song of gladness, the load of care, the cup of sorrow. Not for her the beauty of spring, the splendor of summer, the glory of autumn, the uncrowned majesty of winter. Flowers will spring from her grave; storms will beat upon it; morning will greet it with her earliest light, night crown it with her stars, and the earth, rolling in her great orb of infinite space, will bear her dust with other dust till time shall be no more.
     Ah, mystery of death, and greater mystery of life! Both are in the hand of Him without whose knowledge not a sparrow falls; in obedience to Whose will the tides of human destiny ebb and flow, and unto Whom a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is gone, or a watch in the night.
Good mother, wise counselor, cherished friend! When the earth closed over your mortal remains, the tomb shut forever from our view one whom we had known only to love, and have lost only to lament.

     But that is not the end. When the flowers shall fade that now bloom in fragrance, it will symbolize a resurrection. The stone shall be rolled from the door of the sepulchre and its portals be no more sealed. The lost shall be regained and the separated forever reunited!
     The looms of time are never idle, and the busy fingers of the fates are ever weaving the many threads and colors that make up our several lives, and when these are exposed to critics and admirers there shall be found few of brighter colors or of nobler pattern than the life here of the one who has just left us.
Mrs. Shepard was the second daughter of the late Charles and Genevieve Creuzet. She was born on the 2d of July, 1823, and died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. John L. Vance, at 9:30 o’clock on Friday night, July 6, 1894, aged seventy-one years and four days.
     A brother died in early youth, and her youngest sister, the late Mrs. Charles Henking, died many years ago. Her elder sister, Mrs. Frances A. Heisner, is left, the only one of the family. She mourns, with grief that it is hard to master, one whom in life she loved and whose death leaves a vacancy that only the Good Father can fill. The tie that bound these sisters together was no ordinary one, and only those who knew them both intimately can picture the sorrow that dwells in the heart of her who is left.
     On the 19th of December, 1839, Marie Louise Creuzet and John C. Shepard were married. Four children were born to them ~ Charles, John, Emily, and James. Her husband died in 1852, followed by James (an infant 6 months of age) in a month, and Charles (the eldest) died in 1855. John and Emily (Vance), with their children, are left in desolation, consoled only by the sacred memory of a mother whose every thought was for their happiness. This sacred memory of a mother’s devotion and love, and tender care, will remain with them while life lasts.
     Her last illness was long and painful. Loving hands and hearts ministered to every want and anticipated every wish. When the final hour came, all was quiet and peace, and her gentle spirit, as a child falls asleep in its mother’s arms, returned to the God Who gave it.
The funeral services were held at the old homestead, at the corner of Second and Court Streets, on Tuesday afternoon, July 10, at 2:00 o’clock. The religious services were conducted by Rev. W. E. I. d’Argent, of the Presbyterian Church, in the presence of a great concourse of friends, and all that was mortal was laid to rest, in the Old Cemetery, surrounded by the forms of the loved ones who had gone before. The pall-bearers were George House, W. G. Brading, John T. Halliday, John C. Hutsinpiller, W. B. Shober, W. H. Hutchinson, W. G. Fuller, Ernest Halliday, C. W. Uhrig, A. P. Menager, A. L. Langley, and E. F. Maddy.
     The hand that holds this pen falters when attempt is made to write of the many virtues that adorned the life of Mrs. Shepard. Unbidden tears cloud our eyes when there comes before our vision the long life filled with good deeds.
     She was a warm-hearted woman, and none could know her well without finding a gentleness of character and a depth of affection that were most winning. Her attachments were as tenacious and enduring as they were disinterested and cordial. She was sincere and constant in her friendships ~ open and magnanimous Deceit could not cross the confines of her heart, whose inmost citadel was held by honor and truth. Possessed of rare conversational powers and a cultivated mind, amiable disposition, and genial manner, she drew around and cemented to her those whose friendship she desired.
In the truest and noblest sense of the term she was a Christian woman. In faith she was a Universalist, but her creed was not circumscribed. It was broad, liberal, and embraced in its boundless capacity all creeds and all churches.
     She was charitable, and ever took an interest unequalled in the struggles and trials of those in distress and trouble. Her benefactions were without number. She will be remembered for her contributions to the poor and the struggling. No appeal for help to relieve suffering was ever unheeded by her. In the very depths of her soul she was generous, charitable, and true.
     She daily practiced the greatest of all virtues ~ charity. There are many, very many, left behind who will miss her generous heart and open hand. All along the pathway of her life are scattered jewels of charity that will finally be gathered home by the angels in eternity.
    “The ways of Providence are inscrutable and past finding out.” But this we know, that it is appointed unto all once to die. She has gone before us. We must soon follow.
If [...] To live in hearts here left behind Is not to die.
     Mrs. Shepard has only gone nearer the Eternal Light - has but crossed the lowlands to dwell on the mountaintop. But she is dead, and died all too soon.
     Into the quiet of her home death entered, and her “spirit drifted away on the bosom of that dark and shadowy river” that flows with resistless sweep into the shoreless sea.

The Bulletin
Saturday, July 14, 1894
Transcribed by Sandy Lee Milliron

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