Shepard was born in 1876 to Elliott Fitch Shepard, Sr. and Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard, eldest daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam.
While the South Pennsylvania Railroad never came to fruition and is known in history as "Vanderbilt's Folly", the Quemahoning Tunnel has the distinction of being the only tunnel of the nine tunnels constructed on the South Pennsylvania alignment that was actually used by railroads, as it was used by the Pittsburgh, Westmoreland and Somerset Railroad from 1909 to 1916.
By 1879, William H Vanderbilt owned most of its stock, and several other Vanderbilts served on its board.
•
Vanderbilt and the New York Central and Hudson River contended, often in dramatic terms, against Fisk, Gould, and Drew's Erie Railroad.
However, William Henry Vanderbilt of the NYC had bought the Nickel Plate in 1882, killing that plan.
# Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt (1845–1924) who married Elliott Fitch Shepard, Sr. in 1868, they were the parents of Alice Vanderbilt Shepard and Elliott Fitch Shepard, Jr.
William Shakespeare | William Laud | Henry VIII of England | Henry VIII | Henry Kissinger | William Blake | William | William III of England | William Morris | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | Henry II of England | William McKinley | William Howard Taft | William Ewart Gladstone | Vanderbilt University | William the Conqueror | William S. Burroughs | Henry II | William Shatner | William Faulkner | William Randolph Hearst | Henry III of England | Henry IV of France | Henry IV | Henry | William Wordsworth | William Tecumseh Sherman | William Hogarth | Prince William, Duke of Cambridge | Henry Ford |
His grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, had been one of America's most revered businessman; his great-grandfather, William Henry Vanderbilt had been the richest man in the world.
He lived there on an annuity from his father’s estate and worked as an agent for art collectors and dealers in the United States such as Samuel Putnam Avery, John Taylor Johnston, Cyrus Lawrence, William Henry Vanderbilt, and Henry Field.
William Henry Vanderbilt III (1901–81), 59th Governor of Rhode Island, grandson of William Henry Vanderbilt