Edwin Sheppard was born on February 25th 1894 in New Jersey (1893 according to the 1900 census), the youngest youngest of 3 surviving children (3 others having died). His mother, Katie, is listed as widowed as early as 1900 (the 1880 census lists Kate's husband as Frank Sheppard, a 20 year old woodturner).

Very shortly after the 1900 Census (probably that year) his mother has remarried a Peter Murchy (probably around 1900), and Edwin is living with them in the 1910 Census. His sister Blanch (now Blanch Christian) is living at the same address, with her husband Marvin and daughter Catrina, and also sharing the house is his other sister, whose name variously appears as Clanito, Elmire, or Elmira!). Ed is listed here as Edward.

Ed's 1917 draft card describes him as an unemployed musician and lists himself as married with one child. His description is as follows: Medium height and build, light hair and blue eyes. He is again listed as Edward, suggesting he habitually called himself Ed and the various officials assumed Edward was his true name.

The earliest extant roll crediting Sheppard as the performer is a DeLuxe roll from around 1916, #15376 And They Called It Dixieland. This small firm, led by Frank Moran, also featured such artists as J. Milton Delcamp, Adam Carroll, and Frank Black, and would later form the nucelus of the Republic Player Roll Co. However, by August 1919, Sheppard was under the employ of the Rose Valley Msuic Co., manufacturers of several brands of roll, the most prominent (and long-lived) being the 'Ideal' brand. An August 1919 press release touts Rose Valley's new 'Peerless' brand of word rolls, and listed the initial release of 10 titles including 4 played by Sheppard - Granny, Daddy Long Legs, When The Preacher Makes You Mine, and That Heavenly Jazz.

In 1920 Edwin is still living with his mother and father-in-law, but has now married Lucy and has two children, Edwin Jr. and Frank. He's listed as 'Musician - Music Roll Co.'.

Sheppard starts to appear in earnest for the Rose Valley roll company around October 1922, no less than 10 of their releases for that month crediting him as the artist. Other Ideal/Rose Valley rolls credit C(arl) H(einrich) Leonhardi, Clayton Hallowell, and Paul (A.) Embrock as pianists, however these were in fact pseudonyms used by one of the founders of the Rose Valley company, Johann C Schmid, for his compositional efforts (amongst many other names!). Although Schmid did hand-play a few rolls for his Rose Valley concern, the rolls credited to his various pseudonyms are all audibly easy to identify as the work of Sheppard, suggesting Schmid as the general manager had assigned his compositional pseudonyms to also be 'house artist' names to increase the perceived size of Rose Valley/Ideal to the consumer. (This was all revealed in my correspondence in the mid 2010s with Lewis Thomas Jr., grandson of Johann C. Schmid). Ideal also supplied rolls to the Plaza Music Company who released them under their own 'Jewel' brand, and Sheppard used his wife's maiden name, L. Bradley, for the Jewel rolls - although the exact same performances as the Ideal rolls, this made the Jewel rolls seem more credible, as if they had their own stable of artists.

Although his mother and stepfather are easily found in the 1930 Census, no trace of the Sheppard family can be found. However, as late as February 1930, Sheppard was still churning out rolls for the Rose Valley Music Co., under their 'Ideal' label.

He appears again in the 1942 WW2 draft index, now 48 years old and living at 2722 Brill Street, Philadelphia. He names his next of kin as 'Mrs E. Sheppard' at the same address, and employer as William Evans at Hainesport, New Jersey. In 1950's Census he specified himself as an electric organ musician for a night club.

His death came from a heart attack in November 1964, in Philadelphia.