Shepley, John R.

Born: 1817-06-15 Saco, Maine

Died: 1884-10-11 Saint Louis, Missouri

Flourished: 1841 to 1884 Saint Louis, Missouri

John R. Shepley, attorney, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1837 then studied law for a year at Harvard University, from 1838 through 1839. Shepley practiced law in Portland, Maine for two years before settling permanently in St. Louis, where he enjoyed a long legal career. He was initially employed there in the firm of Spalding & Tiffany, and in 1861 partnered with Samuel T. Glover in the firm of Glover & Shepley. Abraham Lincoln recommended Shepley for appointment as attorney to a claims commission based at Cairo, Illinois in 1862, and he served in this capacity for several months. At the time of the 1860 census, Shepley owned real estate valued at $120,000, as well as personal property worth $10,000. Politically, Shepley was a Republican and was opposed to slavery, and he worked to keep Missouri in the Union during the Civil War. In religion he was an Episcopalian. He married Louisa Bell as his first wife, and following her death married Mary Augusta Clapp in 1855, with whom he had six children.

“Shepley, John Rutledge,” The National Cyclopædia of American Biography (New York: James T. White, 1937), 26:257; Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the Law School of Harvard University. 1817-1887 (Cambridge, MA: Charles W. Sever, 1888), 14, 221; Missouri, U.S., Marriage Records, 1805-2002 27 December 1855, St. Louis (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2007); U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 6, St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO, 84; Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 5:177; Petition of Samuel R. Filley and Others to Abraham Lincoln; St. Louis Globe-Democrat (MO), 12 October 1884, 9:1; Gravestone, Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, MO.