Forney Welch Shepherd was born in Alpine, Alabama, in 1879. He lived in Forest City, Florida, where his father owned citrus groves, from the time he was six months old until he matriculated at high school in Olean, New York. He attended Syracuse University for two years before moving to Winter Park, where, upon noticing there was only one grocery store, he established a general store in 1901 at what is now Park and Morse. In 1912 Shepherd tore down his wooden store and erected in its place the second brick business building in Winter Park. He sold this store in 1923 and entered into a partnership with R.S. Fuller, creating the firm Shepherd and Fuller dealing in feeds and fertilizers.
Active in city life, F.W. Shepherd served as a member of city council for 16 years, director of the Bank of Winter Park, president of the Union State Bank, and president of the Winter Park Country Club. In 1955 Shepherd was elected president of the Half-Century Club, an organization of men who had lived in Winter Park more than 50 years. Harold Anson Ward had founded the club in 1950.
In 1908 Shepherd wed Martha Funkhouser, a niece of Dr. Miller Henkel, Winter Park's first physician. They had two daughters, Dorothy and Kathleen. F.W. Shepherd died in 1962.
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| Forney Shepherd, Rebecca Funkhouser, and Martha Funkhouser Shepherd | Front row: Mary Hanna Shepherd, Fourney W. Shepherd, Martha Funkhouser Shepherd, and unidentified woman. Back row: Marie Darby Dickinson, C. P. Dickinson, unidentified woman, Girard Denning, Rebecca Funkhouser, and Miriam Shepherd. |
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| Martha Funkhouser Shepherd | Dorothy and Kathleen Shepherd in 1917 |
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