CALIFORNIA CORNERSTONE
Bill Shepard was born October 7, 1926 in Danville, IL. He graduated from University of Illinois with a B.A. in Journalism. After his honorable discharge from the army at the end of WWII, he married his high school sweetheart, Helen Joanne North, first moving to Ft. Collins, CO, where he landed a job as a reporter at the local newspaper, then settling in Woodland, CA, where he wrote for The Daily Democrat. After several more moves around Northern California, including Quincy, Lodi and Sacramento, the two of them returned to Woodland in the 1980s where Bill became editor of The Democrat, eventually settling in Keller, TX for his last professional position as editor of Paint Horse Journal. Bill and Joanne retired in 1992 to Eureka, CA, where they helped create Stark House Press. Bill passed away on March 29, 2012.



$14.95
  • California Cornerstone
  • 978-1-933586-57-1
  • "California Cornerstone" began as a semi-weekly column in The Daily Democrat in Woodland, California, where Bill Shepard worked as a reporter in the 1960's. In these vignettes, Bill wrote about the early California settlers in the 1800's, before and after the Gold Rush. Here are the stories of the miners and the Native Americans, the saloon gals and prostitutes, the financiers and the laborers; the bandits and claim jumpers, the pioneers and the proprietors, the con artists and entrepreneurs. These are the cornerstones of California history.