Passing of R.W. Shepherd, Sr.

The people of Madison and Morgan county were shocked and grieved Wednesday morning to learn of the death of Mr. R.W. Shepherd, Sr., at the home of his son Mr. Robert Shepherd near Godfrey. While he was in feeble and failing health, his death was altogether unexpected. He ate supper Tuesday night and seemed to be in his usual health. When members of the family went into his room next morning to awake him for breakfast, he was found dead in bed.

The remains were brought to Madison next morning to the home of his daughter, Mrs. E.L. Walker, whence funeral services will be conducted this (Friday) morning at 11 o'clock by Rev. T.W. Smith, pastor of Antioch church, assisted by Rev. A.W. Quillian. Interment will be in the city cemetery beside his wife, who died last May.

A choir composed of Mrs. A.G. Foster, Mrs. E.G. Atkinson, Miss Virginia Turness and Mr. C.M. Furlow, with Miss Helen Atkinson as pianist, will sing "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere," "Gathering Home," and "Abide With Me."

The deceased was born December 20, 1849, at the old homestead in South Morgan. His boyhood days were spent in Madison, his parents moving here while he was a small boy. His parents were Carter Shepherd and Nancy Whitfield Shepherd.

 

He was married June 5, 1873 to Mary Page Moseley, at the ancestral of the Moseleys in Putnam county. To this union five children were born: Mrs. L.H. Walker, Mrs. E.L. Walker, Mr. R. W. Shepherd, Jr. and Mr. Carter Shepherd, all of Morgan county, and Mrs. R.F. Davis, of Decatur. There are thirteen grandchildren. He had two brothers - William, the father of Mr. W.E. Shepherd, of this city, and Carter, who was sheriff of Morgan county. Carter never married, and he and his brother, William , have been dead for many years. Of his sisters, there were three - Sarah E., who married Samuel A. Burney; Annie M., who married Capt. Chas. W. Baldwin; and Florence P., who married Dr. W.E. Adams. They are all dead.

The object of this sketch is the last of his father's house.

There was not in all the county a better known or more highly esteemed citizen than Mr. Bob Shepherd. He was a man of the finest spirit and finest fellowship. Everybody who knew him liked him, and as a neighbor said of him, "if he had an enemy in the world, he didn't know of it." He was baptised into the membership of Antioch church over 80 years ago by his brother-in-law, Rev. S.A. Burney, and was a deacon of the church for more than a quarter of a century. 

Mr. Shepherd was a fine representative of the long line of strong men and pure women from which he sprang - men who stood for all that was highest and noblest and best in the home, in the country and in the state. He was a good man and will be missed from his accustomed places for a long while.