And, of course, the demagogues and the shysters play on this weakness in the nature of “sheeple” and keep their promises shined and polished like the apples in a sidewalk fruit stand.
–Ernest Rogers, 1949
The very early occurrences vary widely in context. They range from a proper name, misspellings (e.g., steeple), OCR errors (Sheepshead, sheep leather, etc).
The Anderson and Rogers references were the oldest I could find in its current context.
