A native of Rhinelander, Shepard (1854-1923) is best-known for hoodwinking the press with accounts of the mythical hodag, a beast combining the features of several animals.

But he was also a cartoonist, ventriloquist and prodigious liar.

"He was high-spirited and full of fun, especially if he'd been drinking, and he was always ready to take advantage of anyone's gullibility," local schoolteacher Isabel Ebert recalled. But, she added, "We were all afraid of him."

Once, while Shepard was riding a train with a friend, a very proper, middle-aged woman boarded their car with a big umbrella. Shepard persuaded his companion to crawl on hands and knees up the aisle, reach under her seat, and pinch her on the ankle, promising that at the same moment he would let out a bark like a dog.

His friend carefully snuck up the aisle and gave the woman's fleshy leg a sharp pinch. Shepard, however, did nothing at all — except stare silently out the window while the woman beat his friend with her umbrella and summoned the conductor.

All of Shepard's charm was needed to keep the pair from being thrown off the train.

Shepard also once tried to convince listeners that on a trip through the North Woods, the mosquitoes were so bad at night that he took refuge under his canoe.

They stung him right through it, though, and in the morning it had so many holes he had to walk home.

— Wisconsin Historical Society
www.wisconsinhistory.org

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