Shepley, Oliver

Born: 1786-08-07 Massachusetts

Died: 1863-11-17 Canton, Illinois

Flourished: Canton, Illinois

Shepley was a physician who received his medical education in Paris, France. He lived and practiced in Massachusetts, Florida, and Mississippi. While traveling from Mississippi, back to Massachusetts, in 1814, his first wife, Atlanta Phelps, passed away. In 1832, he married his second wife, Lydia Lawrence. Shortly after, Shepley moved his family to Illinois, and settled in Fulton County in 1840. Shepley, a Jacksonian Democrat, was elected into the Illinois House of Representatives for one term, 1840 to 1842, representing Fulton County. In 1850, he owned $80,000 in real estate.

Gravestone, Greenwood Cemetery, Canton, IL; History of Fulton County, Illinois (Peoria, Illinois: Chas C. Chapman, 1879), 567-68, 610; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 209; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Canton, Fulton County, IL, 282.