About John Morris Sheppard John Morris Sheppard (May 28, 1875 –
April 9, 1941) was a Democratic United States Congressman and
United States Senator from Texas. He authored the Eighteenth
Amendment (Prohibition) and introduced it in the Senate, so that
he is referred to as "the father of national Prohibition." John
Morris Sheppard was born in Morris County in east Texas, the
oldest of seven children, to lawyer and later judge and United
States Representative John Levi Sheppard and his wife the former
Margaret Alice Eddins. Through his mother Margaret, Morris was a
direct descendent of Robert Morris (1734–1806) who had signed
the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation,
and the United States Constitution. Sheppard enrolled at the
University of Texas at Austin in 1891 and received his B.A.
degree from there in 1895, as well as his LL.B. from University
of Texas School of Law in 1897. It was while enrolled at UT-
Austin Law School that Sheppard became a member of the Methodist
Church. He was als