Chief Justice Shepherd
Hi* will go «lowii into liis(or> «is one of Ihc*
greatest men anil one of (lie greatest law¬
yers that ever lived in Norlli Carolina. A
man of exeeptional ability and eliaracter.
“He slepl— and as by habit long
directed,
His soul slipped out into the goal
he loved,
So simply, with a good life’s
quiet dignity,
He entered the courts of Cod.”
— Lilia Vass Shepherd: On Chief
Justice Shepherd.
THE quoted lines of the poet give
you u» eorreel. accurate ami ample
a mental image of Chief Justice
Shepherd as could given of his
physical form in a portrait done in
oil by a Gaine* ho rough or a Sir Joshua
Reynolds.
In my day the primates of the Beau¬
fort County Bar were Charles F.
Warren, father of Congressman Lind¬
say Warren; Col. William B. Rod¬
man, General Counsel of the Norfolk-
Southern Railroad, still in active
Eractice; Angus Dhu McLean, former
olicitor General of the United States;
Judge George II. Brown and his
brother-in-law, Chief Justice James
Edward Shepherd. I practiced before
Judge Brown before his elevation
from the Su|«rior to the Supreme
Court Bench, and when 1 came to the
Bar in 1898, the ablest of the nisi
rius Judges were considered to be
udge Brown from the East and Judge
William
Л.
Hoke (later Chief Jus¬
tice) from the West.
The careers of Judge Brown and
Shepherd were curiously similar, in
that neither possessed a college degree,
and in that most of their career was
passed upon the bench of either the
Superior or the Supreme Court, and
both men served upon both benches
with high distinction. Judge Shep¬
herd had retired from the Bench when
I came to the Bar, but from 1S98 until
his lamented and sudden death in
1910, 1 knew him well. I bowed before
him for his great legal ability; I
worshipped at his shrine for the ex¬
ample of his manly character.
Born in Virginia
Judge Shepherd was born in Xansc-
mond County, Virginia, in 1846; but
in his early youth his family removed
to Hertford County, ami it was at
the Academy at Murfreesboro that
young Shepherd acquire*! such aca¬
demic training as he bad. After the
outbreak of the Civil War, although he
was then hut fifteen years old, he at¬
tached himself to the Sixteenth Regi¬
ment of Virginia troops in the Con¬
federate M'rvice. As he was too young
to be entrusted with a rifle, they made
him a "marker" for the regiment.
A marker was a lad who took up
his position at a place directed by the
officer in command to designate the
place where the regiment should turn
or wheel; in short fie acted as a pivot.
I)r.
С.
T. Bailey (father of United
States Senator Bailey) was a private
in this same regiment.
Later ho studied telegraphy and be¬
came an adopt in that line, after which
ho again returned to service in the
Confederate army, and was attached
to tin* headquarters of Major General
John C. Breckinridge, former Vice
President of the United States.
The close of the war found things
in parlous shape for young Shepherd
His mother had died when he was but
two years old ; his father died when he
was twelve. And then the brother with
whom he made hi* home was killed
- Iff/ -
R. C. LAWRENCE
at the head of hi* company at the bat¬
tle of Sharpsburg. Moreover, the war
had wrought havoc with the family
fortunes. Young Shepherd had to fend
for himself, and aloiio and unaided
he wrote hi* name deep upon the heart
of his adopted State.
Thomas A. Edison began life as a
telegraph operator, and so did young
Shepherd ; but the voice of ambition
spoke loudly to him. He herded this
call, ami while serving a* a telegraph
operator at Wilson he liegan poring
over the pages of Black-toue. Coke.
Littleton. Form* ami other sages of
the law; drinking deep at thee foun¬
tains of learning; 1-ing hi- own in¬
structor. He was finally able to attend
the Law School at the University for
several month* and was admitted to
the Bar in 1S68. In 1871 he moved
from Wilson to Washington, North
Carolina, and it i- with the name of
that city that the fame of the Chief
Justice is associated. There he married
a sister of Judge Brown. Elizabeth
Bowen Brown, and embarked upon a
career which was to write hi« name
high upon the roster of trial Judge*;
and where he was to become a primate
of our court of last resort.
Early Recognition
Although he was but newly come to
the county, he wa* elected a- a member
of the Constitutional Convention of
1875, where the Democrat- ami lb-
publicans were so evenly balanced
that the three so-called independents
hehl the balance of power. In this
Convention, although lie wa* b-. than
thirty years old, he was named as a
member of the Committee on the
Judiciary- -prophetic of the years to
come. In I *>7«1 he began hi- «ervice on
the Bench, becoming Chairman of the
Inferior Court of Beaufort Comity—
wlmt we would now call the County
Court.
In lSSi there was a vacancy on the
Superior Court Bench of that district,
and Governor Jarvis, who lived in
the adjoining county of I‘itt, and who
was well acquainted with the legal
ability and attainment* of Judge
Shepherd, named him to till the exist¬
ing vacancy. Anyone who knew Gov¬
ernor Jarvis will know that his se-
