San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JESSE F. SHEPHERD
An energetic, progressive contractor
of exceptionally wide experience and enjoying an enviable reputation for
dependability is Jesse F. Shepherd, of the well-known firm of Shepherd &
Riley, of 303 Yosemite Building, Stockton.
He was born in Mexico, Missouri, the day after Christmas, in 1878, and
there reared and educated until he was eighteen years of age. Then he went to Kansas City, learned the
carpenter trade, and became superintendent of construction for Messrs.
Hollinger & Mitchell, one of the largest contracting firms in Kansas City;
and while there, he profited by the experience obtained in assisting to erect a
number of notable buildings. The great
fire following the earthquake that overwhelmed San Francisco drew Mr. Shepherd,
as the necessity for help drew so many thousands of other skilled artisans,
westward to the Pacific Coast, and at San Francisco he became superintendent of
construction for one of the large contracting firms, and erected a number of
structures requiring experience and natural ability to progress successfully to
the end. Among these difficult or
extensive enterprises was the construction of Recreation Baseball Park, for the
San Francisco team of the Pacific Coast League; and on that job Mr. Shepherd
made a record which will probably never again be equaled. He laid out one and one-half million feet of
lumber in six weeks’ time; the work was carried along daily during all the
twenty-four hours, and Mr. Shepherd had all his meals brought to him, and slept
only a few hours each night until the contract was finished. Later he became the superintendent for Grant Phee, the contractor in San Francisco, and erected a number
of buildings.
In 1909 Mr. Shepherd was called to
Stockton to superintend the building of the Hotel Stockton, by Frank H. Martin,
who had the contract; but before coming to Stockton, he was sent to Prescott,
Arizona, to superintend the construction of twenty-eight buildings for the U.
S. Government. Having successfully
completed the hotel which made Stockton more famous, Mr. Shepherd joined F. H.
Martin in forming the firm of Martin & Shepherd; and not long after that
Mr. Martin was killed in an automobile accident. In 1911 Mr. Shepherd undertook contracting
for himself in a small way, putting up in Stockton some neat cottages and then
selling them; and later he branched out in larger work. He erected the Del Monte Hotel, a residence
for G. E. Bartholomew costing $18,000, the Kitts Garage, on North El Dorado
Street, the brick warehouse for the Wagner Leather Company, and a number of
modern garage buildings, as well as the theater at Lodi, another at Merced
costing $55,000 and various other houses.
During war-time, when business was slack, he went to the Island district
and erected 800 corn cribs, some of them for the Rindge Land & Navigation
Company. He also went to Yolo County, on
the Sacramento River, on Liberty Island, and built $40,000 worth of camps.
In 1919 Mr. Shepherd formed a
partnership with E. F. Riley, and under the first name of Shepherd & Riley
they did much work in this section. They
built the theater in Pittsburg, Contra Costa County, costing $60,000, and a
warehouse for the California Packing Corporation, costing $40,000, a warehouse
for the Sperry Flour Company, put up at an equal outlay and a $55,000 warehouse
for the Stockton Canning & Packing Company.
They were also the builders of the Fair Oaks School, and of schools at Salida and at Atlanta, in Stanislaus County. Among the recent work completed and under
construction by Shepherd & Riley may be mentioned the McKinley School in
Stockton, $145,000; the Oakdale grammar school, $52,000, and commercial
buildings in the city of Stockton aggregating $100,000. They have under construction at the present
time the high school auditorium in Stockton, $90,000; a $78,000 addition to the
El Dorado School; addition to the gymnasium and high school manual training
shop, $35,000; and the new Roosevelt School, $129,000. Shortly after coming to Stockton, Mr.
Shepherd was the superintendent of construction on a number of bridges built by
the county, and the successful completion of the work to the entire
satisfaction of the authorities proved one of the best of references. In April, 1923, the partnership was
dissolved, Mr. Shepherd continuing at the old location.
Mr. Shepherd, who is a member of
Lodge No. 218, B. P. O. E., Stockton, was married on April 15, 1904, at Kansas
City, Missouri, to Martha Trafas of Olathe,
Kansas. They have one son, J. Corbin
Shepherd.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1200-1203. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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