Person:William Sheppard (23)

SHEPPARD, HENRY, SR., was born in Snow Hill, January 10th, 1813. His father, James Glascow [sic] Sheppard, was a son of Benjamin Sheppard. His mother was Mary J. Harper, who married James Glascow [sic] Sheppard after the death of W. H. Armstrong, her first husband. She died when Henry was only three years old. He attended the Snow Hill school until his father moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1827, and put him into a printing office. An only brother, Harper Sheppard, became a very prominent lawyer and newspaper man in Tennessee.

Henry was very anxious to return to North Carolina and the day he was twenty-one, began the journey on horseback, through the snows of a severe winter. Arriving at Greenville he accepted a position in the store of Sherrod Tyson, Sr. Two years later became a partner with his employer in a business at the Tyson place about ten miles west of Greenville. Marrying a daughter of his partner in 1841, he quit merchandising and went to farming. In 1849 he was elected Clerk of the County Court, being the first democrat elected in many years. He was four times reelected, but had to resign in 1861 on account of ill health, but was soon thereafter a war candidate for the legislature, being defeated by Dr. E. J. Blount, a Union man. Having several times refused to become a candidate for any office, in 1874 he accepted the nomination for Clerk of the Superior Court. He was elected and also the entire democratic ticket, it being the first elected since the war. In 1878, owing to confusion in the convention, a later convention nominated B. W. Brown for Clerk. Sheppard claimed the nomination by the first convention, went before the people and was elected. He died October 30th, 1881, lacking one year of completing the term, and one year of having served in the same office twenty years. He was buried at the old homestead.

"As an officer he was always courteous, obliging and efficient. As a public man, he was of a retiring honest nature. ...He was conservative in politics...In his private life he was a devoted husband and father, a true friend and a generous open-handed, affectionate man. He was devoted to his county and State."

He was married three times. January 21st, 1841, he married Margaret Ann, daughter of Sherrod Tyson, Sr. They had twelve children. The first died young. Elizabeth (married J. T. Williams), James G., B. S., Mary, Alice, Pattie, Henry, Margaret, Susan E., William, Alexander.

Mrs. Sheppard died in 1863 and in 1865 he married Mrs. Ann E. Turnage, widow of Benjamin Turnage and a daughter of Dr. Neal. They had two children, Lawrence B. and Harper D. She died in 1870 and in 1875 he married Ella Williams, daughter of Richard Williams. They had two children, Annie W. and Hernie. -- Sketches of Pitt County, A Brief History of the County, 1704-1910, by Henry Thomas King, Raleigh, 1911, pp. 218-19

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 James Glasgow Sheppard Bible, Sheppard Memorial Library, Greenville, Pitt County, N. C.

   "William H. H. Sheppard son of the same was born 10th January 1813"
   "William Henry Haywood Sheppard was born 10th January 1813 -- Died Oct. 27, 1881"
   Transcription published in Pitt County Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. VII, No 1, August, 2000, at Page 23.

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Sketches of Pitt County, A Brief History of the County, 1704-1910, by Henry Thomas King, Raleigh, 1911
   Pages 218-19.