The Town of Shepherd originated near Old Drew's Landing, a Trinity River port where settlers brought in goods and shipped cotton, tobacco, and other products to market, and an early nearby community was Big Creek. Railroad investors of the Houston East & West Texas, including Benjamin A. Shepherd of Houston, entered these pioneer settlements, and in 1875 he platted the townsite here and named it for himself. The town square stood on the west side of the H.E. & W.T., which was completed beyond this point in 1879. The Shepherd post office opened on Dec. 22, 1879, with Jack B. Noble as postmaster. Among early residents, Dr. William Herbert Beazley was a pioneer physician, Mrs. Jessie Fain operated an early hotel, and Mrs. Jane Langham taught the first public school session in the Methodist Church building. James Ephraim Tribe, a native of Canada who came here in 1895, worked as a carpenter, coffin maker, millwright, and wheelwright, and as a Baptist he built a church edifice for that faith in 1896. Native son Robert Scott Lovett later became president of the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads and rendered outstanding civilian service to the nation during World War I. Once a center for the lumbering industry, Shepherd remains an important market town of southeast Texas.