EDWARD LEWIS SHEPHERD is a resident of Sullivan, Moultrie County, being for many years a merchant and saloonist on Main Street. He came here first in 1861, and began first as a restaurant keeper, merging this establishment finally into a general store until 1871, when he opened a bar on the west side of the square where he has been engaged for several years. He has been a very careful man in his business. He allows no game of chance to go on within the walls of his house, and no loafing or carousing and keeps strictly within the bounds of the law.

Mr. Shepherd was born in Scott County, Ky., August 11, 1832. His father, William Shepherd, was a native of Virginia, and the grandfather a Frenchman, who died in the Old Dominion. In that State William Shepherd grew to manhood and took part as a private soldier in the War of 1812. After seeing much hard fighting in that conflict, he came to Woodford County, Ky., and was there united in marriage with Evaline Ball, a native of Virginia, who came to Kentucky before her marriage. William Shepherd and his wife lived in Kentucky until their children had all grown to maturity, and in 1854 they came as a family to Sullivan, and here the father died March 15, 1871, having reached the age of seventy-six years. His wife survived him, but passed away April 29, 1875. They were members of the Christian Church, and in politics Mr. William Shepherd was formerly a Whig, and later a Democrat.

Our subject was the third child and second son in a family of five children. The two daughters are deceased, viz: Ann, formerly the wife of S. P. Alexander; and Belle who passed away in infancy; John B. took to wife Sarah Haydon, and now lives in Texarkana, Ark.; and M. T., a banker who resides in Lovington, this county. His wife bore the maiden name of Jenny Mullikin. Our subject was married in Franklin County, Ky., to Miss Ann M. Hawkins, who was born in Kentucky in 1842, on June 30, and died in Sullivan, December 16, 1889, her death being caused by a cancer. She was a woman of kindly impulses and had a host of friends among the good women of Sullivan, and was an earnest member of the Baptist Church. She was the mother of one child, Laura B., who died in early childhood, in 1864. Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd have been foster parents to two children, Maggie, who is now married to Walter Craig and lives in Sullivan, and Etta, the wife of George B. Bohling, who is a jeweler in Versailles, Morgan County, Mo.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, 1891 - p. 659/660

Transcription copyright 2003/2007, Moultrie County ILGenWeb/USGenWeb