SHEP, TEXAS. Shep is south of Lake Abilene and the Callahan Divide in the southwest corner of Taylor County. The first settler in the area was John Robert Crayton, who arrived in the 1870s and described it as an immense, beautiful valley with several clear creeks. Other settlers, mostly ranchers, followed, finding homes on Spring Creek, Cottonwood Creek, and Valley Creek. The community was later called Shep after an early settler, Andrew Martin Sheppard, who owned a ranch and a store and was the postmaster.