He served as member of the North Carolina General Assembly of 1862-1864 House of Commons (1862–1864).

He was appointed Chief Clerk of the United States Senate in the Forty-fifth Congress.

On January 6, 1889, James Francis Shober, the first black physician with a medical degree to set up practice in North Carolina, died.

His son was born in the Moravian community of Salem in 1853 and was the first documented African-American physician in NC.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress