Honorable Rank in the Mother Country—Early Migration to New England—Settling in the Connecticut Valley—Playing an Important Part at Woodbury—Long Term of Public Service—The Stoddards—A Military Minister—Seeking New Fortunes in the West—An Early Ohio Judge—The Mother of Great Men.

The artificial law of primogeniture has little effect upon the natural law of heredity. In nations where the family descent outranks all other personal or social considerations, degenerate sons—even first sons—of noble sires are often found, and famous families become extinct, or worse. In other nations, where descent is scorned, and the proud individualism of democracy prevails, hereditary genius appears, and families contribute to the service of society and of the State generation after generation of great men. Thus human nature vindicates its disregard of time and places, and establishes itself as the one immutable factor in the life of the world, albeit changeful, capricious, and kaleidoscopic.

In the United States no laws of entail or descent prevail. Yet scarcely elsewhere in the world, within two centuries and a-half, have there appeared so many striking instances of worth and greatness made hereditary. The names that lived at Plymouth and at Massachusetts Bay in the early sixteen hundreds, live now in the late eighteen hundreds, in old plantations, or in the greater and newer England that has risen beyond the Appalachian ranges. With such a name this memoir has to deal.

The name Sherman is not a common one in England, from which country the family migrated to America, but where it occurs in that country's annals it is mentioned with honor and respect. The will of Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby, dated May 23d, 1521, bears the name of Sir Henry Sherman as one of its executors. In the time of Henry VIII. one William Sherman was invested with a knighthood. The Davy manuscripts relating to the County of Suffolk, which are to be found in the British Museum, contain much mention of the Shermans of Laxley, who were the direct progenitors of the American branch of the family. The direct line of the Laxley Shermans is recorded as follows: Thomas Sherman, of Laxley; Thomas Sherman, 2d, of Laxley; Thomas Sherman, 3d, gentleman, of Laxley and Stutson, and afterward of Ipswich; John Sherman, son of Thomas Sherman 2d; William Sherman, eldest son of John. This William Sherman was born in 1588, and married Mary Lascelles, of Nottinghamshire. Their son, John Sherman, came to America in 1634, and settled at Watertown, Massachusetts. He took a prominent part in the military operations of the infant colony, and was known as Captain John Sherman; by which title he is distinguished from his cousin John Sherman, who also lived at Watertown. This Captain John Sherman was the grandfather of Roger Sherman, famous in American history as one of the chief signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Two brothers, cousins of Captain Sherman, came to America at the same time with him in 1634. One of these was the Rev. John Sherman, already mentioned, who became famous throughout the New England colonies as the most eloquent preacher and most accomplished mathematician and astronomer of the day. The other was Samuel Sherman, the progenitor of the illustrious subject of this work. These two brothers soon removed from Watertown, Mass., to the Valley of the Connecticut, and thenceforward for several generations the family was conspicuously identified with that colony.

In Cothren's "History of Ancient Woodbury," much mention of Samuel Sherman is to be found. "The Court," says Cothren, "grants Mr. Samuel Sherman, Lieutenant Wm. Curtice, Ensign Joseph Judson, and John Minor, themselves and associates, liberty to erect a plantation at Pomperouge; provided it does not prejudice any former grant to any other plantation or particular person; provided any other honest inhabitants of Stratford have liberty to joyne with them in setleing there, and that they enterteine so many inhabitants as the place will conveniently enterteine, and that they setle there within the space of three years." Again, in the same work, appears the following: "In October, 1675, Wm. Curtiss was appointed by the General Court captain of sixty men to be raised in Fairfield County, to serve in King Philip's war, with power to appoint his inferior officers. In May, 1676, when the people of Woodbury were at Stratford, on account of this war, he and Mr. Samuel Sherman were appointed Commissioners for Stratford and Woodbury. Intimately associated with Captain Curtiss in all that related to the welfare of the new town, was the Hon. Samuel Sherman. He was, at the date of its settlement, undoubtedly the most distinguished man connected with the enterprise. He was from Dedham, Essex County, England. He came to this country in 1634, and previous to the date of the new plantation, had been a leading man in the colony. He had assisted in the settlement of several other towns in the colony, and now undertook the same for Woodbury."

Samuel Sherman died in 1682, leaving a son, John Sherman, who became the leading man of Woodbury and one of the most conspicuous citizens of the colony. Beginning in 1684, he was for forty-four years an Associate County Court Judge; for seventeen sessions a Representative in the Legislature; for two terms Speaker of the Law House; for twenty-five years Town Clerk; and for nine years Judge of Probate for the District of Woodbury, beginning with the organization of that Court in 1719. A direct descendant of John Sherman was Daniel Sherman, of whom it is recorded that on November 17th, 1774, he was Moderator of a great town meeting at Woodbury, held to take into consideration measures for carrying into effect the "Resolves of the late General Congress," and of the House of Representatives of Connecticut, one of which resolves was to have no dealing with the "foes to ye Rights of British America." On September 19th, 1775, another mass-meeting of the people of Woodbury was held, at which a "Committee of Inspection" was appointed, consisting of thirty members. The heads of this committee were Daniel Sherman and Gideon Stoddard, who held their places during the entire War of the Revolution. Again, at a similar meeting held on April 3d, 1777, Daniel Sherman was chosen Moderator and it was "Voted, that the selectmen in this town, for the time being, be a committee, as is specified in the Resolve issued by his honor, the Governor and Committee of Safety, dated March the 18th, 1777, to take care of such soldiers' Famelys as shall Inlist into the Continental army." This order was given by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Council of Safety, which Council was appointed annually by the Assembly and consisted of from nine to fourteen of the most distinguished men in the colony, whose duty it was to assist the Governor when the Assembly was not in session. Daniel Sherman represented Woodbury in this Council for four years, beginning in May, 1777; and another member of the Council was his kinsman, Roger Sherman.

To quote again from Cothren's history: "Daniel Sherman was perhaps the most distinguished man that had arisen in the town to his day. He was a descendant of Samuel Sherman, of Stratford, was a Justice of the Quorum for twenty-five years, and Judge of the Litchfield County Court five years, from 1786. For sixteen years he was Probate Clerk for the District of Woodbury, and Judge of that District thirty-seven years. He represented his native town in the General Assembly sixty-five sessions. This was by far the longest period of time any one has ever represented the town. He was of commanding powers of mind, of sterling integrity, and every way qualified for the various public trusts confided to his care. His son, Taylor Sherman, the fifth from Samuel, was married in 1787 to Elizabeth Stoddard, the great grand-daughter of the parson who shot one Indian after church on Sunday and another before breakfast the next morning. He lived and died as a lawyer and judge in Norwalk, Connecticut. He was one of those who went West to arrange a treaty with the Indians in 1808, and the same year came to Ohio again to make a partition of the Fire Lands. He died in May, 1815, and his widow came to Ohio, and died in Mansfield, in 1848."

The Stoddard family, which became closely allied with the Shermans, demand some notice here. Their American progenitor, Anthony Stoddard, came from the West of England to Boston in 1638 or 1639. His first wife was Mary, daughter of the Hon. Samuel Downing, of Salem, and sister of Sir George, afterwards Lord George Downing. Solomon Stoddard, a son of Anthony, was graduated at Harvard College in 1662 and ten years later was settled as minister at Northhampton, Mass. His son, Anthony, was graduated at Harvard in 1697, and settled at Woodbury, Conn. The first wife of this second Anthony Stoddard was Prudence Wells, and his second, Mary Sherman. The great grand-daughter of Anthony Stoddard and Prudence Wells, Elizabeth Stoddard has already been mentioned as the wife of the Hon. Taylor Sherman, the grandfather of the subject of this work.

Anthony Stoddard was for sixty years minister of the church at Woodbury, at the same time a successful lawyer and physician, and for forty years Clerk of Probate for the District of Woodbury. One Sabbath evening during the French and Indian war, it is related, while walking in his garden after the services at church, the Rev. Anthony Stoddard discovered an Indian skulking with hostile intent among the trees and bushes near by. Without seeming to notice the movements of the intruder, he managed to return to his house and obtain his gun. Going back to the garden he crept to within easy range, took careful aim and fired and the Indian fell dead. He then gave the alarm to his neighbors who barricaded themselves within their houses and kept guard for the night. The next morning Mr. Stoddard observed another Indian near his house, and shot and killed him also.

Both the Shermans and Stoddards were strict Presbyterians, and of Mrs. Taylor Sherman (Elizabeth Stoddard) it is related that she could never be induced to enter a church of any other denomination. "She always made us stand around," says one of her grand-children. "Her will was law. I could coax mother to let me do as I pleased, but never grandmother."

Judge Taylor Sherman, as already recorded, went to Ohio as a commissioner to survey and apportion the Fire Lands. The State of Connecticut ceded to the National Government in 1786 her claim to a part of the great western domain, but reserved a considerable district in what is now northern Ohio, which is even still known as the "Western Reserve." Half a million acres of this, known as the Fire Lands, and comprising the present counties of Huron and Erie, were to be divided among the people of Norwich, Norwalk, New London and other Connecticut towns whose houses had been burned by Generals Arnold, Tryon and other British raiders, to indemnify them for their losses. Judge Taylor Sherman received two sections of land in Ohio to pay him for his work as commissioner, and was much impressed by that country's prospects of future greatness. He, however, returned to Norwalk, where he died in 1815; after which the remainder of his family migrated to Ohio. His wife and daughter went to Mansfield, where the latter married Judge Parker; one of his sons, Daniel, settled at Monroeville as a farmer; and of the other son, Charles R. Sherman, some more extended notice is necessary.

Charles R. Sherman was born in 1790, and during his early life lived in Norwalk, Conn., of which place he was a conspicuous citizen. He was married to Mary Hoyt, a member of a numerous and influential family, who were among the first settlers of Norwalk. Mr. Sherman was admitted to the bar in 1810, and during the administration of President Monroe was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue. While he held this office two of his deputies defaulted for large amounts, and as he was responsible for them, almost his entire fortune was taken to make good the loss. From this financial embarrassment he never fully recovered; but the incident had a most important effect upon the future history of the family, and indeed it is to this turn in affairs, apparently so disastrous, that the subsequent prosperity and greatness of the Shermans may be directly traced.

Charles R. Sherman, being thus apparently ruined by his rascally subordinates, determined to seek new fortunes in the Western country of which his father had given such a glowing account. He at first intended to settle at Zanesville, Ohio, but finally selected Lancaster, in Fairfield County. Having established himself there as a lawyer, he returned to Norwalk for his wife, who meanwhile had become the mother of their first-born, Charles Taylor Sherman. Then, in 1811, he and his wife set out on horseback for Ohio, he carrying their infant child on a pillow on the saddle before him. After a weary and perilous journey, largely through a wilderness, they reached the village of Lancaster and there made their new home. By lovers of curious co-incidences it will be observed with interest that Sir Henry Sherman, the first English Sherman mentioned, was a resident of the County of Lancaster, England.

Mr. Sherman rapidly rose to eminence in Ohio as a painstaking and trustworthy counsellor at law and a most eloquent and forcible advocate. He also maintained the reputation of his family for earnest and practical piety. It is told that, failing one Saturday night to reach the place where Court was to be held on Monday, he, in company with several other eminent lawyers, resolved, out of regard to the day of rest, to remain at the small town where they were over Sunday. There was no minister of the Gospel in that place and so Mr. Sherman, who was then Judge of the Supreme Court, was selected to preach a sermon and conduct other religious exercises, which he did with great acceptability.

At the age of thirty-five, Mr. Sherman was made by the Ohio Legislature a Judge of the Supreme Court. It was an honorable position, and offered prospect of a brilliant future. He did not occupy it long, however. While on the bench at Lebanon he was stricken with sudden illness, and died on June 24th, 1829, being then only forty-one years old. His salary had been small and he had been able to save almost nothing. His widow therefore, was left practically penniless, with eleven children to care for, the oldest eighteen years of age, and the youngest six weeks. This was a desperate situation indeed. But Mary Hoyt Sherman was not the woman to be daunted. She addressed herself to the training and education of her children with energy, patience and prayer, and was remarkably successful in her arduous work. From four of her children she was for a time partially separated in order that they might enjoy the advantages offered to them by kind relatives and friends. Two of them were thus taken into the family of their aunt, Mrs. Parker, one into the family of the Hon. Thomas Ewing and one into the family of her kinsman, John Sherman, a merchant of Mount Vernon, Ohio. The last mentioned child was John Sherman, who has since become one of the foremost of American statesmen, while the ward of Mr. Ewing was William T. Sherman, whose famous career we are now about to consider.

The Hoyt family were Episcopalians, but Mrs. Charles Sherman, on going to the West, found there no church of that denomination, and accordingly attached herself to the Presbyterian Church, of which her husband was a member. Later in life she had an opportunity to return to the Episcopal Church, and remained in its communion until her death, in 1852. She was a woman of quiet and unobtrusive, but most earnest piety. In manner she was courtly and affable, and in temper calm and placid. She had, however, a strong will and great energy. These latter traits were inherited by her illustrious sons, and indeed it is to her example, precepts and untiring labors that we must largely attribute their sterling characters, and the great success which they have achieved in their widely differing life works.