Sacramento County
Biographies
WALLACE SHEPARD
WALLACE SHEPARD.--It is interesting to note that the worthy representative of the federal government in California, Wallace Shepard, the popular ex-United States commissioner, is a native son, he having been born at Auburn, in Placer County, on August 28, 1895, the son of W. A. and Mattie Fan (Hamilton) Shepard, the latter, a daughter of Gen. Joe Hamilton, whose record for gallantry is well known. W. A. Shepard was at one time secretary to Congressman
J. E. Raker, in Washington; but being by profession a journalist, he is in his right place as proprietor of the wide-awake "Placer Herald," in which he exerts an important influence in that section for both local and state progress. Both parents are still living, enthusiastic witness of the actual growth of a commonwealth they used to confidently dream of.
Wallace Shepard attended the grammar and the high schools of his locality, and then went to the George Washington University, at Washington, D. C., from which he received, in 1915, the degree L.L. B. Continuing his post-graduate work at Columbia University, New York City, he received the following year the coveted degree of L.L. M. Returning to California, he was made deputy county auditor, in Placer County, and then deputy county clerk, and finally acting county clerk in the same county.
Enlisting, as an exemplary patriot, in the aviation service during the World War, Mr. Shepard devoted eighteen months to duty at Key West, in the exacting division of patrol work. On coming back to Sacramento, he joined the firm of Meredith, Landis & Chester, attorneys, and continued there until October, 1919, when he was appointed United States commissioner, which office he resigned January 1, 1923, for the purpose of devoting his entire time to his law practice. He is a member of the American Legion, of which he was an organizer, and is one of the Legions' trustees. Socially, Ex-Commissioner Shepard is as popular as with his colleagues in the professional world; and in the Masonic order, the Shriners, and the Elks, he has ample opportunity to exhibit the rare qualities of his personality.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G. Walter,
History of Sacramento County, California
With Biographical Sketches, Pages 793-794.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.