An explorer and surveyor, he was born in Pennsylvania on March 21, 1757. He came to Kentucky ca. 1781 to survey land for his father. Named a justice of the peace in 1793, he founded Shepherdsville on 50 acres on the north side of the Salt River that same year. Shepherd was a member of Ky. legislature, 1799, 1800, 1802. He died in 1819.