1273373838.jpg &&& WEATHERFORD — On Saturday, Gail Shewmake and her granddaughters, Alex, 14, and Dani, 12, went on a Texas history trip.They traveled to Fort Richardson in Jack County, which was established in 1867. They also saw Fort Belknap in Young County, established in 1851.Gale Shewmake wants to continue a family tradition started nearly 50 years ago when she and her husband, Phillip, spent vacation time traveling to learn about the early frontier. Their travels later always included their three children."If there was history to be seen, we saw it," said Gail Shewmake, a retired high school history teacher. Mr. Shewmake died Tuesday in Weatherford of lung cancer. He was 69.A longtime banker, he made American history his avocation. He devoured as much information about the American frontier and American Indians as he could. He was part Cherokee, his wife said."Dad was probably born 100 years late," Charles Shewmake, his oldest son, said. "He would be a senior vice president of a bank 50 weeks out of the year and for two weeks of the year he went and lived in a teepee."He definitely inspired a big sense of adventure in his kids."Mr. Shewmake’s daughter, Heather Shewmake, won’t know for at least another nine days that her father has died, Charles Shewmake said. She’s hiking on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa."Dad would want her to complete that trip," he said.Mr. Shewmake was born Jan. 30, 1939, to Wade and Hazel Shewmake. He grew up in Mineral Wells and graduated from Mineral Wells High School in 1958.Gail Shewmake said she and her future husband became good friends in third grade. In junior high, he always saved her a seat on the school bus. But they didn’t start dating until their junior year in high school. They were married after their freshman year at Tarleton State University, where they graduated from in 1964.They both earned degrees in history. Mr. Shewmake went on to earn graduate degrees in banking from Southern Methodist University and the University of Oklahoma.He commuted from Weatherford to work in Fort Worth for Fort Worth National Bank and Camp Bowie National Bank. Just before retiring, in 1999, he was president of the Keene Bank branch in Itasca.Shelves on two full walls and half of a third in one room in the Shewmakes’ house are filled with books on American Indian history and frontier days.In their bedroom, five shelves hold books on Texas history, Gail Shewmake said.The couple’s youngest son, Kenneth, said his father was a wealth of information."He loved Western movies, but every time we watched them he took some of the fun out of it," he said, because he’d question the accuracy of the props and the time period. Mr. Shewmake also established and operated an authentic blacksmith shop in Mineral Wells, traveling to the Midwest to find the best tools. At one time, he owned 11 anvils, seven forges, and 500 to 600 hammers and tongs, Gail Shewmake said.Two of their grandest vacations were motor home trips along the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon and the 4,600-mile Lewis & Clark Trail, from Washington, D.C., to the Pacific Ocean, Gail Shewmake said. On one trip, Mr. Shewmake bought a rundown chuck wagon, brought it back to his shop and repaired and outfitted it. He sold it to Alice Walton, heir to the Wal-Mart fortune, who lives in Mineral Wells. It was one of about a half-dozen chuck wagons he built and sold.Declining health forced Mr. Shewmake to give up blacksmithing about five years ago because it became too hard for him to stand over the forge, Gail Shewmake said. Other survivors include siblings Logan Shewmake, Yvonne Williams and Ann King.The family plans a private memorial gathering.