The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, April 13, Page 16

The story of a man who pioneered in an industry - and grew in stature with that industry - is that of Frank H. Shepard, former Mason Cityan and now recognized as America's outstanding electrical traction engineer.

Whether or not Mr. Shepard read the famous stories by Horatio Alger, Jr., when he was a boy, it is certain that he consciously or unconsciously modeled his life after those set forth in the tales that thrilled generations of American boys in the period between the Civil and Spanish-American wars.

Success was no will-o'-the-wisp for Frank Shepard, for he early in life began to combine ability, hard work and a capacity to seek out those men who knew what he wanted to know to extract the desired knowledge from them. For him, concentration and the work at hand brought the bigger things as a matter of course.

Mr. Shepard was born in Mason City July 26, 1874, in a building which is still standing in the downtown business district. As an early age he landed the coveted job of tending the town herd, driving the cows of well-to-do Mason Cityans out to pasture each day in what is now the Forest Park district of the city.

Always taught by his parents to work hard, he was continually working in one way or another. When not going to school or occupied with tasks given the Shepard children by their parents, he was busy with his own projects. At the age of 9 he built a bookcase which won first prize at the North Iowa fair and when he was 13 a boat constructed in Bashford Waughtal's blacksmith shop was proudly launched on Willow creek. This boat proved unsatisfactory, so a second and a finer model replaced it.

The youth was then known as Francis rather than as Frank as he is known now. He spent as much time as he could in the company of such men as Mr. Waughtal and Frank Patton, who was then operating the local waterworks.

From his association with these men and others, Mr. Shepard learned a great deal, picking up the background and associations that meant much in later work.

School work provided no difficulties for Francis Shepard and he was graduated from Mason City high school in the class of 1989, a month before he reached his 15th birthday. He and Chester Dike, now vice president and chief engineer of the Chicago and North Western railroad, were the only boys in the class.

Revival of an electric light plant in Mason City came at about the same time the youth was graduated from high school and his handy knowledge put him in good stead for he procured a job as assistant to Will P. Fitch, the manager of the plant.

This was his first pioneering, that of installing Mason City's electricity setup. He helped place poles, string wire, install fixtures and then trimmed the arcs and replaced the carbons in the street lights. But the plant soon went on a schedule of 24 hour service and it was necessary for the manager's assistant to fire the boilers on the night shift.

Being too small for that kind of physical labor, Francis Shepard left the light plant work and went to West Milwaukee, Wis., where an uncle helped him get a job in the car shops of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific railroad.

This work was again along new lines, putting wiring into the sleeping cars for electricity. But this was small stuff to the young man, so when the opportunity arose to work for the Milwaukee street railroad, which was then in the process of switching from horse cars to electric trolleys, he jumped at the chance.

Here the Mason Cityan worked on assembling armatures and other motor work and in rebuilding some cars that were damaged when the car barns burned. He later went to Dayton, Ohio, to work for a time. Before he left the Milwaukee job, however, he was assistant superintendent of the car barns.

At 19 the youth entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied for a year, spending his summer vacation in Providence, R. I., installing a pioneer central lighting and heating plant for the General Electric company. It was on this job that he met a company official named Parker who was later to give him a valuable job.

Returning to M.I.T. for his second year, Mr. Shepard was injured in the process of a freshman sophomore interclass struggle and missed enough work so that he was forced to drop out of school. He never got back.

General Electric's parker then came to the fore and hired him to help with the installations of a 96 ton electric locomotive for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at Baltimore. Electrification of part of the road including the Belt tunnel gave him valuable experience. It was the first electric railroad in America.

Working in Baltimore threw Frank Shepard into contact with Lt. Frank J. Sprague, an outstanding electric traction engineer of his day, and inventor of the multiple unit system for controlling several cars, powered by electric motors, from one car. This made possible the elevated railroad on an electric power basis and did the same for the subway.

Lieutenant Sprague was a good businessman as well as inventor and engineer, and soon had young Shepard working for him. Before long Sprague's company was asked to undertake electrification of the south side elevated railroad in Chicago, the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit company's lines in New York, and the elevated systems in Boston. All of these projects were supervised by Frank Shepard, who had invented a motor grouping device of his own. It was one of the many he has patented.

Then followed 30 years of employment with the Westinghouse Electric company, during which time the former Mason Cityan undertook electrification of the western end of Milwaukee railroad and superintended work in several foreign countries, including Brazil, France, Sweden and Chile. He also did electrification work for the Pennsylvania railroad of this country.

Mr. Shepard finally left the Westinghouse company to become a consulting engineer, and he now acts in that capacity for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, the BMT system in New York, the Chicago Surface Railways company and the St. Louis Street Railways company.

He has lately been doing work with modern streamlined, super quiet street cars and was the engineer who handled installation of the new fleet of 100 streamlined street cars on Madison avenue in Chicago.

Mr. Shepard is married to Margaret Livermore of New York. They have three daughters, Margaret, Anna and Marcia, all of whom are now married, and a son, Frank Jr., himself an outstanding engineer in electrical fields. Frank Shepard, Jr. is a graduate of the Sheffield Institute at Yale University, and specializes in radio and allied fields. He already holds several patents.

Frank Shepard is a brother of Hugh H. Shepard, prominent Mason City attorney, Mrs. Ella F. Hitchcock of Hampton, Mrs. John W. Roberts, New York, and Miss Anna Shepard, New York.

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, July 06, 1940, Page 16

Of interest to Mason Cityans is the recent inauguration of 100 stremlined streetcars in St. Louis, for the consulting engineer who played a great part in the construction of the traction masterpieces was Frank H. Shepard, former local resident, and a brother of Hugh H. Shepard of Mason City.

The new cars, carrying in them the ultimate in design and devices, have been in service only a short time but already have received the overwhelming approval of thousands of St. Louis streetcar riders.

The car carries three types of brakers, offering the utmost in safety. There is no rattle or rumble and little other noise coming from the sleek cars as they glide through St. Louis streets, for their typcid gears, rubber springs and rubber wheel cushions kill nearly all sound before it starts. And those same rubber springs and wheel cushions add greatly to the riding comfort.

The new cars are called "the world's finest transit vehicles" in the banner of a special section published by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in honor of the inauguartion of the new service. The Globe-Democrat in telling the story of the new cars, quotes Mr. Shepard's story of how the streamlined type of car was originated. It is as follows:

"Four or five years ago I was in Pittsburgh and received a call from the transit company in Brooklyn, for which I was consulting engineer. I was informed the company was to order 100 new streetcars and I was to work with the vice president in charge of transportation - a man named Rossell." (Mr. Rossell is now the new president of the St. Louis traction company installing the new cars.)

"The completely modern car until that time was merely a dream, which was delayed in materializing because of lean years following 1929, but the Brooklyn order gave the opportunity for realization. From the first discussion with Rossell of preliminary details of the new car I knew we saw eye to eye and in him I found urge and vision, the urge to improve and the vision to carry it through."

The special Globe-Democrat section carries details of the streamliners, including descriptions of the new "blinker" doors and the efficient lighting arrangements. One picture shows Mr. Shepard and officials of the company examining the windshield of the new car, which is placed at an angle to do away with reflections from the car at night.

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2014