Shepherd, Jonathan A.

Jonathan Avery Shepherd (b. Aug. 26, 1816; d. Mar. 30, 1898) was born in Brandon, Vt., the son of Jonathan and Abigail (Avery) Shepherd. He was the grandson of Eunice Weeks, who was a sister of Henry Sheldon's mother, Sarah Weeks. Thus, J. Avery Shepherd and Henry Sheldon were first cousins once removed. Both had a strong interest in their shared Weeks' genealogy. When J. Avery was a child, his father moved the family to Brazil. However, his father died there in 1825, and his mother returned the family to Vermont. J. Avery entered Middlebury College in 1834, where his roommate was Edgar Wadhams, another relative in the extended Weeks family. Wadhams later converted to Catholicism and ultimately became the Bishop of the Diocese of Ogdensburg. After graduating from Middlebury in 1838, J. Avery studied in the Episcopal Theological Seminary in New York City. He was ordained in 1844 by B.B. Smith, the Bishop of Kentucky. Shepherd remained in the South for a number of years, where he taught at several Episcopal schools in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Mississippi. In 1854 he married Miss Evelyn Turner of Baltimore; the couple moved to California, where he opened a young ladies school. He returned to Alabama to establish the Diocesan Female Academy in Montgomery. When the First Confederate Congress met in Montgomery, J. Avery Shepherd opened the first meeting with a prayer. In 1867 he took charge of St. Clement's Hall, an Episcopal School in Baltimore. He stayed for nine years but in 1876 returned to the Pacific coast. He remained at Santa Rosa for the rest of his life, a much respected Episcopal priest and citizen. His only son Herbert died in San Francisco in 1880 at age 25; his wife passed away in 1887.