Shepherd was born on March 11th, 1822. Shepherd's father was Joseph Brown and his mother was Susannah Simmons. His paternal grandparents were Josiah Brown and Rachel Fellows. He had four brothers and two sisters, named Josiah, George, Andrew, Jonathan, Emily and Martha. He was the third youngest of the seven children. He died at the age of 79 on October 5th, 1901.