The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-04-27
HENRY E. SHEPHERD. LII. D.
A Distinguished North Carroll
nian Whose Eminent Scholar
ship is Recognized Abroad.
Wilmington Messenger. |

Wilmington Messenger.
While we have warm admiration
and the kindest personal friendship
for Henry E. Shepherd, Ii. D., Pres
ident of the College of Charleston, S.
c., we have not known many of the
particulars of his life. From sketch
in the Xlush ated american for April,
1898, we get some facts concerning
this eminent North Carolina scholar
whom we regard as faeik brlnftbs
among the men of letters of this State,
past and present. We mentioned that
DR.. Shepherd had been appointed on
the Council of Historical Literature
for the Worlds Columbian Exposition.
The illustrated american has very
high praise for him and says that he
els probably the most progressive, as
also the first, English scholar of Amer
ica." We like that. 1t says farther {:
CDR. Shepherd has earned for himself,
by his great literary attainments, a
name alike honored in this country
and Europe, where genius like his is
always accorded hearty welcome. ="
1t refers to the great distinction paid
him by the University of Oxford, Eng
land, to which the Messenger has al
ready referred. At the close of the
introduction to the great Historical
Dictionary of the English Language"
now being issued by the Claren don
Press, at Oxford, special mention is
made in most laudatory terms to an
article written by him, at the request
of Dr. Basil Gildersleeve, for the Amer
ifan Journal Of PhiloIosy, and pub
lished in the October number of that
magazine in 1880. Students of Eng
lish in every part of the world are ad-
vised by the editors of the English
dictionary to consult this article which
is SO conspcuously called to their at
tention. 1t consists merely of the his
tory of the two words, "Coincide"
and " Coincidence" traced through a
period of over six hundred years-that
is, from medieval Latin into English,
through all their mutations and vicis-
STUDIES.
Now for a few biographical data.
He was born at Fayetteville, N. c., in
1914. He early volunteered in war
times, entering at seventeen. He was
almost mortally wounded at the battle
of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, but, re-
covering was made Captain. Being
too young to accept the commission
he served as a non-commissioned Off
Ger to the end of the war.
DR.. Shepherd was educated at the
University of Virginia, and had an es-
pecially high rank in literature and
the languages His professional life
began in Baltimore soon after the close
of the war, and he made his home
there until the end Of the year 1882,
at which time he assumed the presi-
dency Of the College of Charleston,
S. c. He was engaged in many i'm
portant academic trusts in Baltimore,
and was Superintendent of Public In
struction from 1875 until 1882.
DR.. Shepherd has published three
volumes, is very eminent and gifted
lecturer upon literature, never writing
his lectures, but speaking with the ut
most facility and using the choicest,
most scholarly, most precise dictlon.
He is also a voluminous contributor to
leading Northern and Southern literary
and pathological journals. We lately
referred to his excellent paper in the
Seaoanee Qua,terLy-the able, schol-
arly magazine published at the Episco-
pal University of the South. The IL
MstrateI american says that his L" work
has been time and again recognized
in Europe and in the amplest and
most generous way. He has been a
lecturer in English in nearly every
part of the country-North and South
having spoken in that capacity to
classes of college presidents and pro-
fessors at least five hundred times"
The first time we heard the Doctor
lecture we thought Of course he was
speaking memoriter, although he had
not a note before him. His English
was SO elegant and his fluency SO per-
feet that it never occurred to us that
he was merely doing as was his wont
-extemporizing. North Carolina may
we'll feel proud of such a scholar and
such a Christian Gentleman.