San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES H. SHEPHERD
A popular and useful official in San
Joaquin County is Charles H. Shepherd, bridge tender on the Grant Line Canal,
about seven miles north of Tracy. Mr.
Shepherd is the brother of George W. Shepherd, the county jailer at
Stockton. He was born on November 14,
1858, in San Joaquin County, twelve miles from Stockton, at the old Shepherd
Ferry, now known as Mossdale, in memory of Captain Moss. His father was Major James Albert Shepherd,
who settled in this state in 1850, and soon after established the Shepherd’s
Ferry on the San Joaquin River, an enterprise that soon proved most profitable,
as there were no other ferries this side of tidewater, and bridges were unheard
of for many years, and many Argonauts found there a comfortable and safe
crossing on their way to the southern mines.
James A. Shepherd was born in Kentucky of Scotch-Irish parentage. When a young man only nineteen years old he
crossed the Great Plains with an ox team and located in this county, where he
owned at one time thousands of acres of land in the environs of his ferry.
When Charles H. Shepherd was nine
years old the family removed to Elk Grove, Nevada; and on their return to this
county in 1876, Mr. Shepherd founded the railroad hotel at Lathrop, and Charles
worked there for nearly thirty years, finally becoming the manager. In 1886 Major Shepherd was elected
supervisor; and in that important office he served for sixteen consecutive
years until his death in 1902. He was
always a good judge of horse-flesh, and the family became widely known as
owners of fine saddle and harness horses.
He had married Miss Martha Isbel, who crossed
the plains from Kentucky with her parents in 1849, and located at Beliside, her father being Levy Isbel,
who established the Eagle Hotel at Stockton, the first American house in that
city.
The eldest of nine children born to
Major and Mrs. Shepherd, both of whom are now deceased, Charles Shepherd
received a good common school education at Lathrop, and then spent some six
years on the range in Nevada, and engaged in stockraising. He was married at Lathrop to Miss Alice
Lampson, a daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Lampson of Sonora, and to them was born two
children, Roy L. Shepherd and Gladys, who is now Mrs. Wicks, of Los Angeles,
and the mother of two sons. Mr. Shepherd
was married a second time at San Jose, California, to Miss Florence McIntyre, a
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. McIntyre, both prominent pioneers of the county. Her father, formerly exalted ruler of the
Elks, passed away in September, 1921.
Mrs. Shepherd was born at Sutter Creek and was reared in Stockton. She is now the sole survivor of that family. Her maternal grandfather, Hicks by name, was
a partner of Kit Carson, and roamed the West before the day of Fremont. In May, 1914, Mr. Shepherd was appointed
tender of the large drawbridge at the Grant Line Canal, seven miles north of
Tracy; and here, in a comfortable home by the canal, he and his wife have
resided ever since.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1496-1497. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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