page_title: Alexander Robey Shepherd
section_title: Last years
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Robey Shepherd / Last years
caption_attribution_description: English: Alexander Shepherd in Batopilas, Mexico. Taken ca. 1885. In the public domain.
context_page_description: Alexander Robey Shepherd, better known as Boss Shepherd, was one of the most controversial and influential civic leaders in the history of Washington, D.C., and one of the most powerful big-city political bosses of the Gilded Age. He was head of the DC Board of Public Works from 1871 to 1873 and Governor of the District of Columbia from 1873 to 1874. He is known, particularly in Washington, as "The Father of Modern Washington."
context_section_description: Shepherd remained in Washington for a further two years, still a real-estate magnate and a celebrated and influential member of Washington society. In 1876, however, he declared personal bankruptcy and, once his accounts were settled, moved with his family to Batopilas, Mexico, where he made a fortune in silver mining and instituted many of the same reforms he had championed in the District of Columbia.
  He died in Batopilas in Mexico on September 12, 1902, from complications of a surgery to remove his appendix.  His body was returned to Washington and buried in a large personal (not family) vault in Rock Creek Cemetery.
caption: Shepherd during his years in Batopilas, Mexico
exif: {}