Alexander Knowles Shepard

Alexander Knowles Shepard

• Father: Seth Shepard
• Mother: Mary Fontaine Williams b. 24 August 1786, d. 29 June 1862

• Alexander Knowles Shepard was born on 16 May 1819 in Matthews County, Virginia.
• He married Elizabeth Evans Pegues, daughter of Christopher Butler Pegues and Eliza Hodges Evans, on 12 January 1858 in Dallas County, Alabama.
• Alexander Knowles Shepard and Elizabeth Evans Pegues appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1860 in Uniontown PO, Perry County, Alabama. Children Alexander and Mary are not enumerated in the household.
• Alexander Knowles Shepard became a widower at the 16 October 1867 death of his wife Elizabeth Evans Pegues.
• Alexander Knowles Shepard appeared in the 1869 Louisville, Kentucky, City Directory boarding at 12 Magazine..
• Alexander Knowles Shepard appeared in the 1873 Louisville, Kentucky, City Directory listed as vice president of the Walnut Street Railroad, boarding at 218 Walnut..
• Alexander Knowles Shepard (and Alexander Knowles Shepard Jr.) appeared in the 1880 Louisville, Kentucky, City Directory at 164 Sixth A. K. Jr. is listed a bookkeeper employed by the Board of Trade.
• Alexander Knowles Shepard appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, at 275 West Chestnut enumerated in a boarding house.
• Alexander Knowles Shepard died on 21 October 1898 at age 79 in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama.
• He was interred at Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama.
• The following appeared on 22 October 1898 in The Age-Herald: Colonel A. K. Shepard, one of the oldest citizens of Birmingham, died last night at the residence of his son-in-law, Thomas S. Forbes, 1309 Eleventh avenue, South. Colonel Shepard has been in very feeble health for some time, and his death was not a surprise to his family.
       Colonel Shepard retired from active business several years ago, having formerly been identified with the commercial and industrial development of the city. He was a man of great energy and public spirit, and not until compelled by the encroachments of old age did he retire from the active field of life. Several children are left. Funeral arrangements will be announced today.
• The following appeared on 23 October 1898 in The Age-Herald: The f[uneral] of Colonel A. K. Shepard will take place from the residence, 1311 Eleventh avenue, south, at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Interment at Oak Hill.
• The following appeared on 25 October 1898 in The Age-Herald: Colonel A. K. Shepard made his mark in the higher walks of life; and apart from all previous attestations of public respect for him, the attendance at the solemn funeral services over his dead body held at his house Sunday afternoon was of a character most gratifying to his surviving family and friends.
       The numbers were large, but the presence of so many of the leading gentlemen of the city, and ladies also, was quite remarkable. The floral tributes were bountiful.
       Alexander K. Shepard, in the early years of his manhood, entered public life in Virginia, his native state. He came to Alabama, bringing his widowed mother with him, about the year 1851, and began cotton planting in that splendid prarie country that surrounds Uniontown, Perry county. In 1855 he was elected to the lower house of the Alabama legislature. In 1856 [sic] he married Elizabeth Evans Pegues, a daughter of one of the leading families of Dallas county, and a young lady of far more than ordinary intelligence and beauty. His relations to her large connections, mother, brothers and sisters, were singularly kind and affectionate. Three daughters and two sons were born to them, one only surviving at this time, A. K. Shepard, of Chicago. The last daughter, Mrs. Forbes, died in Birmingham a few years ago, and in the Church of the Advent there is a memorial of her placed there by the Sunday school class taught by her. Her little girl, four years old, was often seen hanging to the hand of her venerable grandfather, walking the streets of the city. His white flowing beard and the infantile steps of his companion presented a striking and touching contrast--life ahead linked in affection to life behind.
       Colonel Shepard was a blood-horse fancier, a good narrator of anecdotes, a good companion at table, a good political stump speaker and a man of active and intelligent sympathies with all public enterprises sprung in the community where he lived.
       These qualities made up the ante-bellum cotton planter who must move in the front ranks of the society around him. He was direct, candid and earnest in his utterances and undertakings. He was a man of dauntless physical courage.
       In 1861, Colonel Shepard, assisted by the late Colonel J. W. Bondurant, recruited for the confederate army that splendid field battery, the "Jeff Davis Artillery," from the country between Selma and Demopolis. Camp life did not agree with him. He came home and began the manufacture of iron for the government at Brierfield.
       Immediately after the war he operated successfully in the cotton market and acquired a fortune. The fall in cotton from 40 cents in 1866 to 7 cents in 1867 ruined him financially. He took railroad contracts on General Forrest's road from Marion to Akron; later he went to Louisville, Ky., as superintendent of a street railroad.
       In the "boom" time he came to Birmingham with considerable money and was one of the daring real estate investors. The Thompson house, on Third avenue, was a conception of his.
       The magnetic influence of Colonel Shepard's zeal in his enterprises was attractive to all with whom he came in business relations. He died at the mature age of 78 years, sound in mind to the last.

• Last Edited: 28 Feb 2015

• Charts: Descendants of PEGUES Claudius & Marcia Saunders