James Shepherd 1800-1880

SHEPHERD, SHERMAN

Posted By: Volunteer - Sharyl Ferrall
Date: 7/30/2003 at 20:12:47

"Transactions of the Grand Chapter of the State of Iowa, for the Years 1878 to 1882, Inclusive", Vol. IV, Original Edition; Muscatine, Iowa - published by order of the Grand Chapter, 1883; pg. 173-174.

Companion James Shepherd, by Comp. Ben. Johnston.

James Shepherd was born on the 15th of March, 1800, at Harper's Ferry, Maryland. In 1803 his parents moved to Ohio. He moved to Illinois in 1827, and from there to Iowa in 1844, when he located at Keosauqua, where he died on the 14th of September, 1880, aged eighty years and six months.

While living in Illinois he held several positions of honor and trust, having been several times elected assessor and collector of Sangamon county, and was a colonel of the state militia several years. He was an intimate friend of both Douglas and Lincoln. In 1840 he bacame a resident of Springfield, and assisted in the editorial department of the 'Illinois State Register'. In 1844 he assumed editorial control of the 'Iowa Democrat', published at Keosauqua, which was the only paper at the time in Iowa not on the Mississippin river, south of Iowa City. He was connected with a paper some ten or twelve years of his residence in Iowa, and was extensively known in southern Iowa, having also been engaged in the hotel business for many years, when stages were the only means of conveyance. He made two trips to the Pacific coast -- one in 1870, and again in 1878, returning the last time in October, 1879.

He married Miss Jane Sherman, of Ohio, in 1821. The fruits of this marriage were thirteen children, of whom eight and his wife passed away before his departure.

Mr. Shepherd united with the Methodist Episcopal church in 1836, and remained a consistent and zealous member up to his death. In the later years of his life his zeal increased so greatly that in his seventy-third year he accepted license to preach, and earnestly devoted himself to that work until called from labor to reward.

For more than forty years of his life he was an honored and worthy member of the masonic order, and a diligent worker in speculative Masonry; a charter member of Keosauqua Lodge, No. 10, he was its first Master, and occupied that chair many years. He was also a Royal Arch Mason, and a member of the Council. He filled the office of Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, and was Deputy Grand High Priest in 1864. He was a lover of the institution, and his counsel was sought by his brethren of the fraternity on many ritualistic points and disputed landmarks. He was always warmly greeted when present at the meetings of the Grand Lodge, and was called a "father in Masonry" as well as a "father in Israel." His brethren of No. 10 say: "We shall miss him, but we grieve not for his going; to him had been allotted more of time and a wider range of useful labor than ordinarily falls to the lot of man. That his work was well done, his fellow-men where he has lived and labored bear willing witness. The frosts of age and activities and burdens of life bore him down until he felt that his labors were finished. There was nothing more for him to do here, and with quiet resignation he waited the summons that should call him to his reward. When it came he welcomed it gladly, and peacefully his disembodied spirit soared aloft to the realms of light and life everlasting."