Yuba County CA Archives Biographies.....Shepard, W. J. 1881 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 8, 2012, 9:04 pm

Source: See below
Author: Peter J. Delay

    W. J. SHEPARD. — An enterprising, far-sighted business man whose extensive
operations have contributed much toward the wide and satisfactory introduction
of tractors and tractor implements in Yuba and Sutter Counties, is W. J.
Shepard, a native of La Salle, Ill., where he was born on February 26, 1881, the
son of George E. Shepard, a farmer in the Prairie State. When W. J. Shepard was
a baby, his mother died; and soon afterwards the father removed with his
children to Nebraska, locating near Franklin, where he was one of the early
settlers, deserving all the credit due to those pioneers who make straighter and
easier the paths of the generations that follow. 

    W. J. Shepard went to school in the winter time and worked in the summer,
and at the age of fourteen he left school altogether, to give all of his time to
working on the home ranch. Later he took a course in the Franklin Academy at
Franklin, Nebr., but continued on the ranch until he was twenty-three years of
age. He then engaged in blacksmithing at Macon, and from that drifted into the
implement business, and continued to sell farm implements under the firm name of
W. J. Shepard until November 1, 1910, when he went on the road in Nebraska as a
commercial traveler for the International Harvester Company, with which
well-known concern he remained until March, 1914, when he came out to the
Pacific Coast and joined the California Moline Plow Company. On March 9 he went
on the road for them as their representative, with headquarters in Stockton; and
he remained with them, traveling throughout the Sacramento Valley, until
September 1, 1919, when he resigned to engage in business for himself in
Marysville. He is now distributor of the full line of Killifer Deep Tillage
Implements, including subsoilers, chisels, automatic disc harrows, cover-crop
disc harrows and power-lift cultivators; and also of the entire line of J. I.
Case machinery, including threshers, harvesters, tractors, tractor plows, hay
balers, automobiles, and a complete line of repairs, as well as the Pacific
one-man tractor land-leveler. He also carries a line of shelf and heavy
hardware. His show-rooms and headquarters are located at 420-422 F Street, where
he has ample space for the display of his various lines of implements. He now
employs eight men regularly, and his territory includes all of Northern
California north of Roseville and Woodland. 

    Straightforward and reliable in his business methods, Mr. Shepard's business
expanded to such an extent that he found it necessary and advisable to
incorporate his interests. This he did in June, 1923, the corporate name being
the W. J. Shepard Co., with a capital stock of $100,000. He is president and
manager of the company, and gives his personal attention looking after every
detail and seeing to it that his customers have the most careful attention. On
August 1, 1923, he opened a branch store at 720 Broadway, Chico, with two
experienced men in charge of the place, where he has large show-rooms and also
carries a large stock of implements and repairs. He is a member of the
California Tractor & Implement Dealers' Association. 

    Mr. Shepard is the pioneer in the introduction of Killifer deep-tillage
methods in the Sacramento Valley and throughout Northern California. His
enthusiasm and missionary work in that line are bringing forth rich results, and
have done much towards educating the grain- and fruit-growers to the use of deep
tillage, whereby they have increased their crops many fold. The method is now
well past the experimental stage and is rapidly coming into very general use. 

    In national political affairs he is by preference a Republican; in local
matters he is non-partisan and does all in his power to help advance the best
interests of the home community. A favorite in social circles, Mr. Shepard is a
member of the Elks, and was one of the organizers of the Lions Culb, of which he
is still a member. 


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF YUBA and SUTTER COUNTIES 
CALIFORNIA 
WITH 
Biographical Sketches OF 
The Leading Men and Women of the Counties Who Have Been Identified with Their
Growth and Development from the Early Days to the Present 

HISTORY BY 
PETER J. DELAY 

ILLUSTRATED 
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME 

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY 
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1924


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