Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman. / Late Retired General. U. S. A.

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

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.

MRS. GENERAL SHERMAN.

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.