Shepherd, Theodosia Burr

Biography

Theodosia Burr Shepherd was born in Keosauqua, Iowa; she was the daughter of Augustus Hall,a lawyer who later became Chief Justice of Nebraska; she married W.E. Shepherd on September 9, 1866, and they moved to California for her health in 1873; in 1881 she sent a package to Peter Henderson, a seedsman in New York, who encouraged her to grow seeds and flowers in the Ventura climate; she built up a business, the Theodosia B. Shepherd Company, which annually issued a retail catalogue and two wholesale lists; in 1902 the business was incorporated, and the stockholders were members of her family; she wrote and lectured on plant life, her hybridization work, and her success as a pioneering woman in the seed industry; she died September 6, 1906 in Ventura, California.