The small Cass County town of Wheatville was first settled in 1852. At some time, the citizens picked up, moved three or four miles down the road to become Naples.
Rev. Sam Morris arrived in town from Alabama. Evidence leads to the good reverend being a Methodist, but no concrete proof is available. About the same time, his son-in-law W. B. Sheppard also arrived from the same county in Alabama. Sheppard helped raised two units of Confederate volunteers; many never returned, including Sheppard. The daughter of Rev. Morris was W. B. Sheppard’s widow.
Her oldest son John Levi Sheppard took a great interest in his own children, probably as a result of being orphaned as a lad. While reading law, John taught his oldest son Morris Sheppard to read and write before he entered school. It is reported young Morris read the entire New Testament before age six. Morris was noted for powerful speeches and beautiful poems.
John Levi was admitted to the Texas bar in 1879. By 1882 he was District Attorney in the Fifth Judicial District. Six years later he came a District judge and active in the Texas Democratic party. John Levi was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1898.
While John Levi was still in Texas, he made sure that son Morris attended schools in East Texas towns of Pittsburg, Daingerfield, Cumby, and Linden. Since there was no public supported education in Texas at this time, all of the above towns had quality private schools.
As a young man, Morris Sheppard completed both a baccalaureate and law degree at the University of Texas in Austin. He would attain a Master of Laws degree from Yale Univeristy in 1898. It was at Yale that Morris made an iron-clad oath to himself. He would not imbibe in alcohol, coffee, or tea; and would try to convince others of such a path.
Once out of Yale, Morris returned to the largest city in that part of East Texas. He practiced law in his father’s firm in Texarkana, Texas. His father died in 1902 after a long bout of Bright’s Disease.
Once he won the seat in the House of Representatives, Morris began a decade-long career from Texas’ Fourth Congressional District. He soon won the reputation as one of the most entertaining public speakers of his era. Many politicians asked him to speak during an election campaign.
In 1912, Texas was without a senator for the term beginning in 1913. Those in the House of Representatives were elected by their district according to the U. S. Constitution, but not so for senators who were chosen by their current state legislature. Morris won the election, moved to Washington where he remained until 1941, one of the longest continual U. S. senators in history.
Morris Sheppard was a Progressive Democrat who served under Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was an ardent supporter of women’s suffrage, served on such Senate committees as agriculture, forestry, commerce, and immigration. He was in the group of diplomats that visited Germany before Chamberlain signed off on the agreement with Hitler to give Czechoslovakia to the Nazis. His report of the Luftwaffe’s strength helped start a modernization of our Army Air Corps.
But Morris Sheppard is best remembered for the 18th Amendment, the one that outlawed alcohol. He became known as the Father of Prohibition. Senator Morris Sheppard died of a brain hemorrhage while in office in 1941.
Little Wheatville produced a giant politician in Sheppard.