YUBA COUNTY
Biographies
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 showrooms 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 showrooms and also carries a large stock of implements and repairs. He is a member of the California Tractor & 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 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 Club, of which he is still a member.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 378
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