By the early 1840s Sidney Shepard was operating a hardware store on Main Street in Buffalo, and he had become a prominent and well-to-do member of the community. By 1844, son John D. Shepard had joined the business, and in 1847 a foundry and iron works in a new brick building on Ohio Street was established, John D. Shepard & Co., making steam engines, lake vessels and mill machinery. The name J. D. Shepard & Co. was also used. In 1849 there was some kind of upheaval: John D. was apparently no longer in charge of the Works, which was now operating as Shepard & Co.'s Foundry. By 1852 Sidney Shepard was listed as the owner of Shepard's Iron Works, and by 1854 John D. Shepard was listed as the company's agent (in essence, the head of sales). By 1856 the name had become the Shepard Iron Works.

By that time the Works had gained a reputation for quality work and their engines were shipped all through the Great Lakes area; their largest engines were particularly well regarded. Besides engines, they were also making sawmill machinery and stave dressers. By 1872 it appears that they were also making a steam-powered trip hammer.

Information Sources

• 1842 H. N. Walker's Buffalo Directory lists "Shepard Sidney, hardware tin and copper store 66 main h seneca e ellicott" and "Shepard John D. clerk 66 main".
• 1844 Walker's Buffalo City Directory lists "Shepard Sidney & J D. hardware 66 main". Both Sidney and John D. were living at 58 Pearl.
• 1847-48 Commercial Advertiser Directory for the City of Buffalo lists
  • Shepard, Sydney & Co., hardware, stoves &c 66 main
  • Shepard, Sydney, firm S. Shepard & Co h 58 pearl
  • Shepard John D., firm J. D. Shepard & co h michigan nr elk
  • Shepard John D. & Co., machinists and iron founders cr ohio and moore
  Sidney Shepard is listed as a director of the Buffalo and Hamburgh Turnpike Co.; a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church John D. Shepard was a member of the Council of the University of Buffalo.
• 1848-49 Commercial Advertiser Directory for the City of Buffalo lists "Shepard J. D. & Co. steam engine and boiler manufacturers, Ohio. John D. Shepard was living at 5 West Seneca; there are also listings for Sidney Shepard and his hardware store.
• 1849-50 Commercial Advertiser Directory for the City of Buffalo lists "Shepard, John D. h. 5 West Seneca"; "Shepard, Sidney, firm S. Shepard & Co. h. 58 Pearl"; "SHEPARD, SIDNEY & CO. hardware, stoves, &c. 66 Main".jjj
  • 1850-51 Jewett, Thomas & Co.'s Commercial Advertiser Directory for the City of Buffalo lists "Shepard Sidney & Co. hardware, stove, &c. 66 Main"; John D. Shepard was residing at 14 Delaware and Sidney was at 58 Pearl. Numerous people are listed as employed at "Shepard & Co's foundry".
  • 1852 Jewett, Thomas & Co.'s Commercial Advertiser Directory for the City of Buffalo lists "SHEPARD'S IRON WORKS, Sidney Shepard, Ohio".
  • 1853 Jewett, Thomas & Co.'s Commercial Advertiser Directory for the City of Buffalo has the identical listing to the 1852 directory.
  • 1854 Jewett, Thomas & Co.'s Commercial Advertiser Directory for the City of Buffalo lists "Shepard John D. 14 Delaware"; "Shepard, Sidny, hardware, stoves, &c. 54 Main, h. 58 Pearl"; "SHEPARD'S IRON WORKS, Sidney Shepard, Ohio". John D. Shepard is listed as their agent.
  • Leading Pursuits and Leading Men Edward Young 1856 pgs 295-296.

    In Buffalo, the leading concern engaged in the construction of machinery for the Lake steamers and propellers is the Shepard Iron Works, of which John D. Shepard is Agent. This establishment is well known as the initiator of an improvement in the manufacture of screw-wheels for propellers, of which the advantages are so manifest, that in all the large vessels of this class, of recent construction, it has been adopted. The navigation of the Lakes is a peculiar one, inasmuch as almost all the harbors are shallow, varying in depth at the entrances from 9 to 12 feet; hence, in using the screw propeller, a small screw wheel was formerly supposed to be an absolute necessity. In 1850, Mr. Shepard, of the Shepard Iron-Works, built the machinery for the propeller "Buffalo," of 600 tons, and put on her a screw propeller wheel of 16 feet in diameter, the shaft just touching the water when the vessel was loaded to ten feet. Although a failure was confidently and generally predicted, the experiment was entirely successful, and since that time, in all the large screw vessels with their wheel, the elevated screw propeller has been universally used.

    The buildings of the Shepard Iron-Works were erected in 1847, and consist of a brick foundry and machine shop, 120 feet square, and a boiler-making shop adjoining, 100 feet square. In this establishment the boilers of some of the finest passenger boats on the Lakes were built, as those of the "Southern Michigan," "Northern Indiana," "Crescent City." "Queen of the West," "St. Lawrence," and others. In addition to the manufacture of machinery for steamboats and propellers, the Shepard Iron-Works make all kinds used in saw and flouring mills. They are also the head-quarters of Mr. Zadock C. Allen, who for twenty years has been a well-known millwright in Buffalo, and who, in his zeal in improving and introducing the Portable Flouring Mills of his manufacture to the notice of the people, has made his name familiar to many at a distance from the centre of his operations. He has now facilities for manufacturing as many of these mills as may be called for, and warrants them equal to any made.

    The capital of the Shepard Iron-Works is $125,000, the annual product about $175,000; and, from information derived from Buffalo and elsewhere, we have no hesitation in saying that the work made at this establishment justly enjoys a reputation for first quality of material and workmanship.

  • 1862 Thomas' Buffalo City Directory lists "Shepard, John D. agt. Shepard's iron works, Ohio n. Chicago, h. Franklin cor. Allen.", and "Shepard, Sidney & Co. hardware dealers, 54 Main." "Shepard Iron Works, Ohio cor. Miami" is listed under Foundries, (Iron); Iron Works; Machinists and Machinery Dealer; Mill Furnishing; Millstones; Millwrights; and Steam Engine Manufacturers.
  • 1866 book, The Manufacturing Interests of the City of Buffalo.

    The Shepard Iron Works, located on Ohio street, were erected in 1847, and consist of a brick foundry and machine shop, one hundred and twenty feet square, and a boiler shop adjoining, one hundred feet square, which, since that time, have been very much enlarged and various improvements added. In 1850, Mr. John D. Shepard built the machinery for the propeller "Buffalo," one of the largest class propellers on the Lakes at that time, and attached a screw propeller wheel sixteen feet in diameter, the shaft just touching the water when the wheel was loaded A ten feet. Although a failure was confidently and generally predicted, the experiment was entirely successful, and the reputation of the elevated screw propeller wheel fully established. There were also built at these works some of the best steam engines on the Lakes, and the boilers of some of the largest passenger boats; as for instance the "Southern Michigan," Northern Indiana," "Crescent City," "Queen of the West," "St. Lawrence," and others. There have also been manufactured at this establishment for the city of Buffalo since the year 1859, six Steam Fire Engines, which have given the utmost satisfaction in extinguishing fires. They also manufacture in large quantities propeller wheels, of which they have made over six hundred in the last fifteen years. A supply is kept on hand at all times to fill orders. The engines, twenty-two in number, for the Rolling Mill and Blast Furnaces of the "Union Iron Works" of this city, were constructed at this establishment.

    We saw here a part of the cylinder of the old steamboat "Walk-in-the-Water," which was afterwards lengthened out and used in the old "Superior," and is now turned into a blower, to blow the cupola. They have at present in process of construction an engine for the "Star and Crescent" Flouring Mill of Chicago, which will cost $18,000. It is said this mill is to be the most complete in all its parts of any flouring mill in the United States. The proprietors, Thayer Brothers, sent an agent to all the large machine shops in the country to examine engines and machinery, style of work, &c . He awarded to the Shepard Iron Works the credit of turning out the best specimens of engines he had seen,—a compliment not only to the Shepard Iron Works, but to the city of Buffalo.

  • 1894-01-11 The Iron Age has an obituary for Sidney Shepard, complete with a hand-drawn portrait.
  • 1913 book The Progress of the Empire State, Volume III: Buffalo, Rochester and Utica. "In the same year [1848], the Shepard Iron Works, known later and still known as the King Iron Works, were opened, manufacturing engines, both stationary and marine. They are now under the management of H. G. Trout."