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H. C. Shepard Residence |
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Lovington Twp. -
M. T. SHEPHERD.
The Shepards, on the paternal side, are of French
ancestry. The grandfather of the subject of this
sketch was one of the patriotic Frenchmen who came with
the distinguished Marquis de Lafayette to America,
during the progress of the Revolutionary war, and
participated with him in that memorable struggle.
In the battle of Yorktown he was wounded, which rendered
him a cripple for the rest of his life. After the
war closed he married and settled in Orange county,
Virginia, where hi three sons, Phillip, Lewis and
William, were born, and raised to maturity.
William, father of M. T. Shepherd, was
born in 1794, and moved to Kentucky in 1825, and was by
profession a school teacher and a prof. of vocal music,
and taught in Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, crossing the
mountains many times on horseback alone.
Highwaymen were numerous, and frequently, for hours, he
carried his life, as it were, in his hands.
John Ball, a wealthy land and slave owner who had
married a Miss Hogsed in Va. - she an own cousin
of Geo. Washington, the father of his country -
with their grown family of sons and daughters, moved to
Jessamine county, Ky., in 1825. One daughter,
Evaline H. Ball, mother of M. T. Shepherd,
was born in Virginia in 1796, and was married to Wm.
Shepherd in Kentucky in 1827. The Shepherd
and the Ball families were among the best
educated in Virginia, and many of them occupied
prominent and honorable positions in the counsels of the
state, and in literary circles were well and favorably
known. Wm. Shepherd remained in Kentucky
until 1859, when he emigrated to Illinois, and settled
in Sullivan, Moultrie county, and died there in 1871.
During the war of 1812-14, between the United States and
Great Britain, he took an active part as a private
soldier. The old soldiers were granted land
warrants of 160 acres. His was issued, and lost 30
years ago, and the 46th Congress authorized the issue of
one of his heirs. His wife, the mother of the
subject of this biography, died in Sullivan, Illinois,
in 1874. There was born to William and Eveline
H. Shepherd, five children - three sons and two
daughters. Their names, in the order of their
birth, are: Tomzen Ann, who married S. P.
Alexander in Kentucky, in January, 1846. He
resides in Moultrie county, Illinois. She died
leaving two children, one of whom was named James W.
He died in 1872, in Sullivan, Illinois.
Louisa Bell, her daughter, is the amiable and
honored wife of W. W. Eden, present County Clerk
of Moultrie county. John B., the eldest
son, married Miss Sarah L. Hoyden, of Shelby
county, Illinois, who was one of the leading
business men of Sullivan, Illinois, and is now a
resident of Texas. Edwin L. married Miss
Ann M. Hawkins, of Franklin county, Kentucky, and is
a resident and proprietor of the fine hotel
known as the "Maple House," Sullivan, Illinois.
Mantius T., the subject of this sketch, is the
youngest of the family. He was born in Franklin
county, Kentucky, Feb. 28th, 1835. What education
he has has been obtained mainly by self-culture,
and a short time spent in the district school of his
native state. He is a man who possesses ore than
an ordinary amount of observation and industry, and
added to these qualities is a retentive memory.
Impressions received are stored away in mathematical
order, and are reality called into existence when
occasion requires. He reads extensively the works
of the best authors, and keeps well posted upon the
current events of the days, and therefore in
conversation is an interesting, and often an instructive
conversationalist.
When young Shepherd was in his nineteenth year
he left home, and went out into the world to make his
own way, and he his own master. He found his first
employment for 1854-5 as guard at the Kentucky
Penitentiary, at Frankfort, Ky. There were but 200
men imprisoned there at that date. During a great
part of the time he locked one of the main rows of
cells, in which slept Calvin Fairbanks, and one
Daylr, who were under long sentences for
assisting slaves to leave their masters. Every
evening the name of each man was called, and he could
recognize every man in the prison.
He next worked as a clerk in the Mansion House, in
Frankfort, Kentucky, where he remained for some time,
and by his close attention to business, and industry,
gained the esteem and good will of his employers and
those with whom he came in contact. He remembers
John C. Crittenden, John C. Brickenridge, Charles S.
Morehead, and John M. Harding, present United
States Judge. He afterward went to the Capital
Hotel, and in same city, and remained there until 1857,
when he went to Versailles, in Woodford county.
Was acquainted with Hon. Thos. F. Marshall, and
also Buford, who killed Judge Elliott two years
ago at Frankfort, Ky., for deciding a great suit against
him; he clerked until the spring of 1858, when he came
to Illinois, and stopped in Sullivan, in Moultrie
county, and engaged with his brother, John B., in
the grocery and restaurant business. He had about
$200. This business was commenced on a small
scale, and grew gradually into large proportions, and
gravitated into general merchandizing, in which the
brothers continued together until 1862, when M. T.
came to Lovington with part of the stock, and here made
additions, and together they carried on an extensive
business, and were the leading merchants of the two
places for a number of years. They continued in
partnership until 1867, when the stock was separated.
J. B. taking the stock and store house in
Sullivan, and M. T. the Lovington storehouse and
stock. Mr. Shepherd continued the business
in the latter place with great success. In 1870 he
added private banking to his business. This latter
branch of the business gradually absorbed so
much of his time that he began curtailing his
merchandizing, adding the real estate business, and a
few years later went out of the goods business entirely,
since which time he has given all his attention to his
private banking, and taking care of his real estate, of
which he has considerably over 1,000 acres of land, and
a large number of the best dwelling and business houses
in Lovington and Sullivan.
On the 7th of February, 1810, he was united in marriage
to Miss Maria J. Mullikin, a native of Johnson
county, Indiana. This marriage has been blessed with
five children, the second of whom is living, named
Justin M., aged 8 years, who reads well in the
fourth reader. The first in the family, Ollie Jewell,
died in her second year; Earl T. at the same age;
Blossom in infancy; and Paul T. in his
second year. Mrs. Shepherd is a member of
the Christian church. Politically, Mr. Shepherd
is a member of the Democratic party. Mr.
Shepherd recognized in early life that if he would
succeed in business, he must steadily adhere to certain
business principles, and bases his future success upon
strict integrity, industry and economy. In the absence
of any of these principles all business must of
necessity be a failure. It may live and flourish
for a time, but no permanent and honorable success can
be achieved without the combination of the three. That
he has been successful beyond
ordinary men is due to his adhesion to these business
principles.
No man has ever gained success and a competency in any
locality without having to some extent excited the envy
of his less fortunate neighbors. That Mr. Shepherd has
not been free from the jealousies of others is only an
additional proof of human weakness and far from his
wish. He is in his family and among his friends, a
generous, open-hearted man, of warm and ardent impulses,
though somewhat blunted by contact with a selfish world.
As a business man he is methodical and exact, and does
business upon strict business principles. He has for
years tried to instill these principles into the minds
of the people, and has often felt sorry to see so many
who could not, and wounded to see so many who would not,
honor ably try to meet their liabilities, and hence they
and he are the copatentees of the motto that are so
plainly printed on his bill-heads, viz. as a rule but
little should be said about honesty among dealers, and
much said about responsibility. He never held an office
or sat on a jury, or joined a church, secret society,
army, good templars, or carried a lamp, banner or flag
in a campaign, or made a trust deed, or mortgage,
(unless compelled by law). Was never sued for a debt of
his own, or got drunk (since a man), or played
billiards, smoked or chewed tobacco. He uses alcohol as
he does water or fire, believing them all to be good
servants, when properly used or controlled, but knowing
them to be hard masters when not properly used or
controlled.
Source:
1763 Combined History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois - Published by
Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia -
Corresponding Office, Edwardsville, ILL -
1881 - Page 227 |
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JOHN A. STEWART. The genial
Supervisor of Penn Township, and who
owns two hundred acres of fine land
located on section 36, is he whose
name is found above. He was
born in Center County, Pa., in Shore
Creek Valley, Nov. 3, 1848. He
is a son of John G. Stewart,
who was born in the same State, and
the father of John G., the
grandfather of our subject, was born
in Scotland, and came to America at
an early day, and with his parents
located in Pennsylvania, settling in
Huntington. He was there
engaged in the mercantile business
and passed the remainder of his life
in that place. Our subject's
father learned a trade but did not
follow it long, turning his
attention to farming. He
removed from Pennsylvania to
Illinois in 1867, and resided in
Moweaqua until 1884, then went to
Missouri and settled in DeKalb
County, and there made his home
until his death, which occurred in
1888.
The mother of our subject was in her girlhood Miss
Mary Ann Elder. She was
born in Pennsylvania and was a
daughter of Abram Elder.
She still survives, making her home
in DeKalb County, Mo. She is
the mother of nine children.
Our subject was reared and educated
in his native State, and coming to
Illinois when quite young with his
parents, again located on the farm
and there remained until his
marriage, after which he came to
Penn Township and bought eighty
acres of land on section 27.
Our subject did not occupy the farm that was his first
purchase, but rented other land and
worked it until 1887, when he bought
the place TO BE CONTINUED
Source: Portrait and
Biographical Record of Shelby and
Moultrie Counties, Illinois -
Published: Chicago: Biographical
Publishing Co. - 1891 - Page 681 |
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