Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of DC

Alexander R. Shepherd remains a man of contradiction 107 years after his death.  Born in Washington in 1835, the descendant of Charles County, Md. slave-holding tobacco planters, Shepherd left school early to support his family after his father’s premature death.  He demonstrated business acumen when he joined as an apprentice, became a partner, and soon owner of the J.W. Thompson plumbing establishment, Washington’s largest.

After volunteer service in a Washington militia unit at the outbreak of the Civil War, Shepherd found a second calling in politics and was elected President of the Washington Common Council at the start of his second term in 1862.  Shepherd realized the impossibility of creating a modern city in Washington because of its fragmented governing system of three separate jurisdictions and because it had scant financial support from Congress for public works.

Following creation of the Territory of the District of Columbia in 1871, Shepherd took control of the Board of Public Works, through which he gained virtually sole control over public works projects and financing.  After a hectic two-year campaign fighting nature and political opponents, Shepherd put the “flesh” on the “bones” of the Pierre L’Enfant plan for the District by level-grading and paving the streets, covering the fetid Washington Canal (now Constitution Avenue), planting 64,000 trees, and providing street lighting.  In the process Shepherd’s own business affairs deteriorated.  The 1873 Panic followed the collapse of the Jay Cooke financial empire and resulted in Shepherd’s personal bankruptcy in 1876.  But before then, Shepherd served a tumultuous nine months as Governor of the Territory that included a second congressional investigation that turned up mismanagement, massive overspending, and cronyism that damaged his credibility even though no evidence of personal corruption was established.  In the wake of the uproar, Congress cancelled the territorial government and so began 100 years of direct rule over the District.

Determined to recoup his lost fortune and return to Washington in triumph, Shepherd organized an ambitious silver-mining operation in Mexico with large-scale financing from New York businessmen.  He moved his family to remote Batopilas, Chihuahua State in 1880.  Despite early promise, Shepherd’s hopes for the mining venture never met expectations.  A combination of exaggerated ore estimates; over-investment in aqueducts, tunnels, and equipment; and the United States’ decision to remain on the gold standard doomed the project.  Years later, Shepherd’s estate was still unable to make good on promissory notes so confidently given at the time of his 1876 bankruptcy.

Shepherd’s public legacy is one of great personal achievement as the builder of modern Washington, but his obsession with the infrastructure relegated social justice to second place.  Once one of Washington’s richest men, his fortune evaporated while in public office, and the lure of Mexican silver wealth proved unattainable.  Paradoxically Shepherd was a man of great accomplishment and great failure, far-sighted yet obtuse, and ultimately proven wrong in his stubborn conviction that he could overcome all obstacles.

John Richardson is writing the first full-length biography of Alexander Shepherd.  His article on Shepherd and the race issue in Washington will appear in the fall issue of Washington History.  Mr. Richardson made a presentation at the November D.C. 2009 Historical Studies Conference on the multiple attempts to move the capital out of Washington in the 19^th century.