Early Life and Career
Born in southwest Washington on January 30, 1835, Shepherd dropped out of school at 13 and took a job as a plumber's assistant. Eventually, he worked his way up to becoming the owner of the plumbing firm. He then invested the profits from that firm in real estate development, which made him a wealthy socialite and influential citizen of the city. (One of his luxurious properties was Shepherd's Row, a set of rowhouses on Connecticut Avenue designed by Adolf Cluss; Cluss would later be the star witness at Shepherd's congressional investigation hearings.)
Two days after the Battle of Fort Sumter that initiated the American Civil War, Shepherd and his brother each enlisted in the 3rd Battalion of the District of Columbia volunteers. The term of enlistment at that time was only three months, after which Shepherd was honorably discharged. Approximately six months afterwards, he was married to Mary Grice Young, with whom he had seven surviving children.
He was an early member of the Republican Party and a member of the Washington City Councils from 1861 to 1871, during which time he was an important voice for D.C. emancipation, then for suffrage for the freed slaves. Frederick Douglass would later say of him, "I want to thank Governor Shepherd for the fair way in which he treated the colored race when he was in a position to help them."
Read more about this topic: Alexander Robey Shepherd
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or career:
“Everyone in our culture wants to win a prize. Perhaps that is the grand lesson we have taken with us from kindergarten in the age of perversions of Dewey-style education: everyone gets a ribbon, and praise becomes a meaningless narcotic to soothe egoistic distemper.”
—Gerald Early (b. 1952)
“when this life is from the body fled,
To see it selfe in that eternall Glasse,
Where time doth end, and thoughts accuse the dead,
Where all to come, is one with all that was;
Then living men aske how he left his breath,
That while he lived never thought of death.”
—Fulke Greville (1554–1628)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)