BackGround: Young William Tecumseh SHERMAN
Up Dated 30 September 2008
1. William Tecumseh SHERMAN: born 8 February 1820, Lancaster, Fairfield, Ohio; married 1 February 1850 Washington D.C., Eleanor Boyle "Ellen" EWING; died 14 February 1891, New York City, New York, New York.
If the question was asked, "Who was and still is the most hated and despised man in the history of Georgia" the response would be William Tecumseh Sherman. From the onset of hostilities in the Atlanta Campaign on May 6, 1864 and the March to the Sea ending two days before Christmas 1864 with him capturing Savannah, no one created more destruction. As a result of his successful campaign in Georgia, the Confederacy was split in two and deprived of much needed supplies, ending the war quickly with a Union victory.
Born on February 8, 1820 in Lancaster, Ohio, his father died when he was young. Widowed and unable to care for the entire family, his mother sent brother Thomas to be raised by an aunt and William became a foster child to Thomas Ewing, his father's friend. Cump, as he was known, later married Mr. Ewing's daughter, Ellen. Educated at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he graduated in 1840. During the Mexican War, Sherman was posted in San Francisco. He resigned his commission in 1853 to become a partner in a bank there.
Prior to the outbreak of hostilities between the North and the South, William Tecumseh Sherman was Superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary and Military Academy at Alexandria, Louisiana. After the war, the school moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and became Louisiana State University (LSU). Talk of the secession from the Union was rampant, yet the motto of the seminary was "By the liberality of the General Government of the United States, the Union - esto perpetua." On January 18, 1861, Sherman resigned his position stating that he preferred to maintain his allegiance to the Constitution as long as a fragment of it survived. On the 25th of February, Sherman left Louisiana and returned to Ohio. He remained in Lancaster for a month and then moved his family to St. Louis, Missouri where he was elected President of the Fifth Street Railroad.
On May 8, 1861, Sherman wrote to the Secretary of War, offering his services not for three months, but for three years. He did not want to become a political general and on June 20, 1861 accepted the grade of Colonel in the Thirteenth Regular Infantry. He assumed command of a brigade in the First Division of McDowell's army under the command of Brigadier-General Daniel Tyler. His brigade, stationed at a stone bridge during the battle of First Manassas(Bull Run) , was routed by devastating Confederate cannon fire.
In August, 1861, Sherman and George H. Thomas were promoted to Brigadier General and were assigned to the Department of the Cumberland under the command of Brigadier-General Robert Anderson. Anderson was in command of Ft Sumter when P.T. Beauregard opened fire upon it, beginning the war. Sherman had previously served under Anderson, and it was Anderson that requested that Sherman be transferred to his command.
In October, 1861, Sherman relieved Anderson. Filling quotas for Kentucky volunteers was extremely difficult. The State was split on their beliefs and where their allegiance should be placed. Later that month, Sherman told Secretary of War Cameron that if he had 60,000 men, he would drive the enemy out of Kentucky, and if he had 200,000 men, he would finish the war in that section. When Cameron returned to Washington, he reported that Sherman required 200,000 men. The report was given to newspapers and a cry of indignation arose from the public. A writer of one of these newspapers even went as far as saying that Sherman must be "crazy" in demanding such a large force. The public accepted this insinuated statement as a valid one, thus writers have always declared that he was crazy. Due to the pressure of the press and politicians that believed the insinuation, on November 12, 1861, Brigadier-General Don Carlos Buell relieved Sherman of his command, and Sherman was assigned to the Department of the West, in St. Louis, Missouri under Major-General Halleck. After moving to Missouri, newspapers and gossip continued to harass him with reports that he was insane and that he was not fit to command, demanding his recall. He was in a state of depression from all the harassment, but not mentally incompetent. Halleck, in a letter to Sherman's foster father stated, "I have seen newspaper squibs charging him with being "crazy", etc. This is the grossest injustice. I do not however, consider such attacks worthy of notice."
On February 13, 1862, Sherman assumed the command of the post at Paducah Kentucky relieving U.S. Grant of that position. On March 11, 1862, Halleck was assigned to command the Department of the Mississippi and Major-General U.S. Grant to command the army in the field. The organization and the name given to this army was the Army of the Tennessee. Sherman was placed in command of the Fifth Division of this army.
The Army of the Tennessee saw its first battle at Shiloh. With green troops, the North lost the first day's battle, but with re-enforcements from Buell and the Army of the Cumberland, routed the Confederate troops. In July 1862, Sherman was assigned to command the District of Memphis. Later that year Sherman failed to seize the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, but was with Grant in the campaign that finally ended in the capture of that city in July 1863. Sherman was given command of the Army of the Tennessee in the fall of 1863 and fought in the Battle of Chattanooga with his troops unsuccessfully assaulting Pat Cleburne's troops on Missionary Ridge, whose cannon's, especially Swet's Battery, were too much for them to be successful. Later Federals did capture the Ridge and Bragg's troops retreated eastward.
In the spring of 1864, Sherman was made supreme commander of the armies in the West and was ordered by Grant to "create havoc and destruction of all resources that would be beneficial to the enemy." With a grand aggregate of 98,797 troops and 254 cannons, on May 4, 1864, Sherman began the Atlanta Campaign.
The red-haired Ohioan found fierce resistance from the Confederate troops under Joe Johnston. Johnston held off the troops of McPherson at Resaca, but then had to withdraw after the battle when federal troops were endangering his position by outflanking him, a tactic often used by Sherman. The strength of the Union army and the ability to supply themselves was too much for Johnston's struggling forces. Johnston defeated Sherman's armies at the battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864, but once again had to move his troops back southward to Smyrna due to the numbers of troops at Sherman's disposal.
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, had little faith in Johnston's ability to oppose Sherman and on July 17, 1864, Davis relieves Johnston of his command and replaces him with the aggressive John B. Hood . Hood was even more unsuccessful in stopping Sherman's armies. Finally on September 1, 1864, Sherman's troops captured the city of Atlanta, but not before Hood destroyed the railroad yards.
Sherman declared Atlanta to be a military encampment and ordered the civilians to leave the city. He made arrangements with Hood for safe passage of these civilians, that because of where they lived, no matter if they had Confederate or Union sympathies, they could not remain in their homes if they were within the city of Atlanta. From September to November, Sherman's forces were on the defensive guarding the city. Hood tried several unsuccessful attacks but his efforts were futile. Hood then began marching northward, hoping to destroy Sherman's supply line. Sherman made the statement, "If he continues to march North, all the way to the Ohio, I will supply him with rations."
Sherman wanted to split the Confederacy, and began planning his March to the Sea. He kept his most seasoned veterans, 60,000 in all and sent the rest of the troops back to Nashville to be under the command of Major-General George Thomas. With four Corps of troops in two columns, in November 1864, Sherman began his infamous March to the Sea. Prior to leaving Atlanta, he set fire to munitions factories, railroad yards, clothing mills, and other targets that could be resourceful to the Confederacy. Sherman never intended to burn the whole city, but the fire got out of hand and spread throughout the city.
With the four Corps in two columns, Sherman cut a swath 60 miles wide marching towards Savannah, destroying anything that could aid or be resourceful to the enemy. On December 23, 1864, Sherman sent a telegram to Lincoln stating that he was presenting him the city of Savannah as a Christmas gift.
Following his victory at Savannah, Sherman's troops battled the troops of General Joe Johnston through South Carolina and North Carolina. Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865 and General Joe Johnston surrendered to Sherman on April 17, 1865 at Raleigh, North Carolina.
After the war, Sherman was commissioned Lieutenant General in the regular army, and after Grant was elected was promoted to the grade of full general and given command of the entire U. S Army. He retired in 1883.
Wayne C. Bengston
2. Charles Robert SHERMAN: born 26 September 1788 Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; married 8 May 1810, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 24 June 1829, Lebanon, Warren, Ohio
3. Mary HOYT: born 28 December 1787, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 23 September 1852, Mansfield, Richland, Ohio
Charles Robert Sherman, known to many as the father of the famous Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman and U.S. Senator John Sherman, was a man of distinction in his own right. Had he not died at the early age of forty he would have surely attained national prominence.
Charles Sherman read law with his father and the distinguished Judge Asa Chapman, a graduate of Yale, and was admitted to the bar in Connecticut before his 21st birthday, becoming a sixth generation lawyer. In 1810 at the age of twenty-one Charles Sherman came to Ohio from Norwalk, Connecticut originally heading to the Firelands in Northern Ohio. The Firelands, which now are Huron and Erie Counties, were 500,000 acres of land that Connecticut claimed by royal charter and had reserved for their citizens who had been burned out or suffered under the British during the Revolutionary War. Charles' father, Judge Taylor Sherman, had been appointed in 1805 as commissioner to survey and apportion this land. After making several trips to Ohio, he acquired two tracts of land for himself. In the summer of 1810 he sent his son Charles to Ohio to determine what opportunities were possible. Leaving his new bride, Mary Hoyt, behind Charles set off for Ohio. As he approached his destination he learned that the Indians were on the warpath in northern Ohio and the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh was organizing the tribes to resist the settlers moving onto their land. Being wary, Charles turned south and traveled Zane's Trace to Lancaster. Finding the town impressive and assured there would be sufficient legal work to sustain a family on the Ohio frontier, he returned to Connecticut. The following spring of 1811, Charles, Mary, and infant son, Charles, made the arduous six-week journey to Lancaster on horseback, accompanying a wagon train. They set up housekeeping in a little four-room house half way up the hill from the center of town. This little house later grew to an eight-room home to shelter the ten more children who would eventually be born there.
No sooner had the small family settled in than the War of 1812 took precedence over Charles' law practice. At an Ohio Militia recruitment meeting in Lancaster, Charles, being elected Major, served as recruiting officer. As such, he delivered a stirring speech which began, "Fellow soldiers, the crisis has arrived in which your country calls upon you, her constitutional guardians, to rally round her standard and to defend her rights and liberties." Fifty years later his son William Tecumseh would profess the same convictions as he fought to defend the constitution of his country in the Civil War. It would seem as if he was answering his father's call.
Although the war was not over, peace came to the frontier by the decisive victory in 1813 of General William Henry Harrison at the Battle of the Thames in Canada. The great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh was killed in this battle. He and 1,200 warriors had joined the British fight and although he was now a determined warrior against the encroaching settlers, he was respected as a humanitarian and for some time had been the hope of the white settlers as he had tried to remain on the Indian land in a peaceful manner. Seven years later, Charles Sherman would name a son after Tecumseh, declaring him "a great warrior.”
Charles turned back to his law practice and actively sought a presidential appointment as an Internal Revenue Collector. On November 9, 1813, President James Madison appointed him Collector for the Third District of Ohio. The appointment proved to be financially disastrous. United States Bank currency was scarce on the frontier and most of the money used was issued by local banks. It varied in value, depending on location and was never stable. In April 1816, the Federal Government passed a resolution stating that after February 1817, only United States Bank notes or gold would be accepted for payment of obligations to the Government. Although there was a ten-month period before the resolution took effect, it immediately greatly devalued the local bank currency. Charles had six deputies collecting under him, and they all had accepted local notes, which then became worthless. Instead of refusing the local notes, Charles assumed the burden of his deputies, and took on a great debt to the Federal Government which he would shoulder the rest of his life.
He then began to practice law on the Circuit Court, nicknamed the "Stirrup Court" as more time was spent in the saddle than in the court. Good friend and lawyer Thomas Ewing, who he had encouraged to settle in Lancaster, often joined him. They traveled by horseback accompanying other lawyers and the Supreme Court Judges to try the cases that awaited them throughout the district. There was great camaraderie among them and Charles was known to be gregarious and outgoing. The Supreme Court Judges were required to visit each county in their district once a year, and this made the circuit trips as long as two or three months. In 1823 the Ohio Legislature elected Charles Sherman Judge of the Ohio Supreme Court. While holding court in Lebanon, Ohio in June 1829, he fell ill and died six days later at the Golden Lamb Inn. He left his wife, Mary, and eleven children in bad financial straits, but he was rich in friends and family and they came to the rescue. Several of his children were raised by family and friends. Thomas Ewing raised William Tecumseh who would later marry his daughter, Ellen.
Charles Sherman was well known for his legal integrity and in Judge Moses M. Granger's 1872 review of Judge Sherman's legal opinions he wrote "not one has ever been overruled,” and "he possessed a legal ability and acumen of a very high grade, his grasp of legal principles was firm, his reasoning clear and his logic precise,” and "Judge Charles R. Sherman must ever hold a high place among the Supreme Judges of Ohio.”
There is probably no braver heroine in Fairfield County’s early history than Mary Hoyt Sherman, the mother of Civil War General, William Tecumseh Sherman. Nothing in her gentle and genteel upbringing could have prepared her for the hardships, heartache and eventual poverty that she endured and survived.
Mary was born December 28, 1787 in Norwalk, Connecticut. Her father, Isaac Hoyt, was a wealthy merchant and her mother, Mary (Raymond) Hoyt, was also from one of the founding families in Norwalk. It was not a common practice in those days for girls to obtain higher education but Mary’s parents sought for her the best school they could find. They selected Harlem Seminary in Norwalk. When Mary was only 13 the English ladies, M. E. and A. Sketchley, who ran the school, moved to Poughkeepsie, New York to open a boarding school for privileged young women. Mary followed them to Poughkeepsie where she became a boarding student. She studied reading, writing, ciphering, grammar, French, geography, dancing, drawing, music and embroidery. Like other students of the school, Mary became accomplished in elegant needlework and she completed a number of samplers and pictures that her mother had framed and included in her dowry.
On May 10, 1810, Mary married her neighbor and childhood sweetheart, Charles Robert Sherman. He was born September 26, 1788 to Judge Taylor Sherman and his wife Elizabeth Stoddard Sherman. Charles had read law under his father and another noted attorney and then was admitted to the Connecticut Bar.
The young Shermans had been married only a few months when Charles left Mary in Connecticut while he traveled to the young state of Ohio to explore the 1280 acres his father owned in northeastern Ohio. Charles was eager to see the land in this new territory and perhaps settle there and open a law practice. When he arrived in Ohio he learned that the Indians were engaged in war with white settlers in the northern part of the state. Feeling it was not safe to go north at that time, he instead followed the southern route of Zane’s Trace through Zanesville to Lancaster. So pleased was he with the beauty and the promise of a bright future in Lancaster that he returned to Norwalk to convince Mary that they should settle there. He arrived in Connecticut in time to be with Mary for the birth of their first child. Charles Taylor Sherman was born February 3, 1811.
Shortly after the baby was born, the Shermans began to prepare to move to Ohio. Mary spun sheets to cover the wagon they would use to carry the few possessions they could take with them. Carrying the baby on a pillow in front of her as they started the trip on horseback, they began their trip with other families headed west. Mary bravely, but sadly, said goodbye to her family, her friends and the comforts of her home. It took abundant courage and faith in her husband to leave that civilized established community for almost two months of hard, wilderness travel to a place she had not seen. She never again returned to her native Connecticut.
When the Shermans arrived in Lancaster they moved into a little brown salt-box shaped, frame house near the center of town. Settlement in Lancaster had only begun to take place in 1800, and it was still a fledgling town. Future growth was almost assured because it was located on a major mail route from Washington, D.C. to Kentucky.
Charles and Mary established a comfortable home and it became a social gathering place for stimulating, intellectual conversation. Many visiting dignitaries such as Henry Clay and New York Governor DeWitt Clinton were welcomed into their home and enjoyed the company of the Shermans who were among the most educated couple in town. Mary’s finishing school experiences had prepared her for such entertaining.
The Shermans’ first few years in Lancaster were probably the most prosperous times in their married life. As Charles’ law practice grew, their family also continued to grow. Daughter, Mary Elizabeth was born on April 21 the year after they arrived in Lancaster. James, their second son, and named for Mary’s brother, James Hoyt, was born December 12, 1814. This baby was only a few months old when Charles’ father, Judge Taylor Sherman, died unexpectedly and Charles’ mother and his sister, Elizabeth, came to live with them.
The little brown house, with only a kitchen, a parlor and two upstairs bedrooms was now extremely overcrowded. So the Shermans added a larger parlor and a law office for Charles downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs in 1816. By the time the family was able to occupy the new rooms, another daughter, Amelia, had been born on February 18, of that year.
It was also in 1816 that the Sherman family began to experience financial difficulties from which they would never recover. Charles had been appointed by President James Madison to supervise deputy collectors of Internal Revenue for the Third District in Ohio, a position he held for 4 years. In 1816 the U.S. government decided no longer to accept paper currency issued by local banks for payment of taxes. Charles’ deputies had already collected payment in now worthless local script so he mortgaged his home and borrowed money against his future earnings to pay the taxes in acceptable legal tender. He spent the remainder of his life trying to pay off this debt.
Mary delivered her third daughter, Julia Ann, July 24, 1818. Two years later, their third son, whom they named William Tecumseh was born February 14, 1820.
In order to earn more money Charles took on the added job of serving as a circuit-riding attorney. In 1823 he was made a Justice in the Ohio Supreme Court, an appointment also required that he often be away from home riding the circuit. With his mother and sister living with the family, Mary could sometimes get away from home and ride the circuit with Charles.
Mary delivered her seventh child, Lampson Parker Sherman, October 13, 1821. Just nineteen months later, on May 10, 1823 another son, John, was born. His sister, Susan Denman Sherman followed on October 10, 1825. On November 1, 1827, the Sherman’s 10th child, Hoyt, was born. Their last child, Frances Beecher (Fanny) was born May 5, 1829.
In June of 1829, Mary Sherman was dealt a devastating blow. Her husband had become ill with suspected typhoid fever while serving on the circuit in Lebanon. She left immediately to be with him but by the time she reached Washington Court House, she was notified that he had died. Their son, Jim, and Charles’ cousin were with him. Charles was only 40 years old.
The grieving widow was suddenly left with a baby who was only 7 weeks old and 10 other children (the oldest of whom was only 18), a mortgaged house and almost no means to support her family. Mary had to face the heart wrenching decision that she would not long be able to keep all of her children with her. Over time she was forced to consent to giving them over to loving relatives and caring friends to raise.
The oldest, 18 year old Charles, was near the end of his studies at Ohio University. He went to live with an uncle who was an attorney in Mansfield and to “read law” under him. Sixteen yearold Elizabeth soon married William Reece and they took 10 year old Julia to live with them. Fourteen year-old Jim was already a store clerk living with friends in Cincinnati. Amelia, who was thirteen was taken in by relatives in Mansfield. Nine year-old Tecumseh (known by his family as “Cump”) went next door to live with Sherman family friends, the Thomas Ewing family. Lampson, who was 7,went to live with Cincinnati newspaperman, Charles Hammond. For a while, 6 year old, John, stayed with his mother and later was taken in by relatives in Mt. Vernon.
Mary was able to keep 3 year old Susan, 1 year old Hoyt and baby Frances with her. She stayed in her little brown house until Fanny was 15 but she had a difficult time. She took in boarders to help make ends meet and she was able to pay off her house. By then John, now 21, had passed the bar and was becoming a financially successful attorney. The year was 1844 and he persuaded her to come to Mansfield to live with him.
Just before her 65th birthday, Mary went to Cleveland to the Ohio State Fair. She caught cold which worsened into a probable case of pneumonia. She died quietly in Mansfield in 1852. She is buried beside Charles in Elmwood Cemetery in Lancaster.
We know of no photos or paintings of Mary Hoyt Sherman but her children remembered her as a kind and loving mother who intervened in their behalf when their stern grandmother, whom she adored, was living with them.
Mary didn’t live to see her “Cump” recognized following the Civil War as one of the two most distinguished generals of his time and his subsequent advancement to Commanding General of the U. S. Army. It was 2 years after her death that her son , John, was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives where he served for 6 years and elected to the U S Senate where he served for thirty years. He was author of the Sherman Anti-trust Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. He was Secretary of the Treasury in President Rutherford B. Hayes' Cabinet and Secretary of State under President McKinley. Hoyt, her 10th child, became an attorney in Des Moines, Iowa, was elected Clerk of the Polk County District Court and was appointed by President Zachary Taylor as postmaster o Des Moines. After a career in banking he was one of the organizers of the state bank of Iowa. As a major in the Civil War, he was appointed paymaster of the Union Army by President Lincoln. He was a elected to the Iowa House of Representatives and was president of the Equitable Life Insurance Co. of Des Moines.
But Mary’s other eight children were also special. Charles became a highly respected lawyer in Mansfield. Mary Elizabeth married wealthy Philadelphia lawyer and merchant, William Reese, who built for her the beautiful mansion next to Mary’s house (now the Decorative Arts Center.) James moved to Des Moines, Iowa where he was a successful businessman. Amelia married a Lancaster man and they moved to Mansfield where he became a business partner with her uncle, Judge Parker. Julia Ann married John Gibbie Willock ,a Scotland native, and she died just 4 years after her marriage. After careers in newspapers and banking in Cincinnati, Lampson and his family moved to Des Moines, Iowa where he was a newspaper editor and mayor of the city. Susan married Thomas Wells Bartley, a Mansfield attorney, who became a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, a State Senator, a judge of the Ohio Supreme Court, President of the Senate and acting Governor of Ohio. Fanny married attorney Charles Moulton in Mansfield. He also served as a Colonel in the Civil War. They later moved to New York City.
Mary would be pleased to know that, after serving as home to several other families, her treasured “little brown house” on Main Street has been faithfully restored and is lovingly cared for by the Fairfield Heritage Association. Two of her beautiful needlework pictures done while she was at Sketchley School are back in her home and are displayed there in all their splendor. The Sherman House is open every afternoon except Mondays from 1-4 PM, April through early December or by appointment.
4. Honorable Taylor SHERMAN: born 5 September 1758 Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut; married 1787, Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut; died 4 May 1815, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut
5. Elizabeth "Betsey" STODDARD: born 1 June 1769, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 21 August 1848, , , Ohio
6. Isaac HOYT: born about 1754, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; married 30 June 1776, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 2 October 1804, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut
7. Mary RAYMOND: born 13 May 1655, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; died
The sixth eon of the Hon. Daniel Sherman was Taylor Sherman. He was married in 1787 to Elisabeth Stoddard, a descendant of the Rev. Anthony Stoddard, one of the justly noted men of New England. To know what is in the present Sherman family, and whence it came, it is necessary to give some account of this line of their ancestry. The ministry of Mr. Stoddard was remarkable for its duration and the peace and prosperity that attended it. From the date of his first sermon as a candidate, to that of his last, immediately preceding the brief illness that terminated his useful labors, he numbered sixty years in his holy calling. "We have contemplated him," says Cothren, (page 140). "hitherto only as a minister of the Gospel ; but his labors ended not here. He was at the same time minister, lawyer and physician. Like many of the early ministers of the colony, he prepared himself for the practice of physic, that he might administer to the wants of the body as well as the mind.
"He was Clerk of the Probate for the District of Woodbury, then comprising many towns, for a period of forty years; in this capacity, he drew most of the wills for his parishioners, and did nearly all the business of the office. * * * All the records of the court during the time he was Clerk, appear in his handwriting. '
The characteristics of the Rev. Anthony Stoddard appear in the widow of Taylor Sherman, his granddaughter, for, one of the grandchildren says, "She made us stand around."
The Hon. Taylor Sherman, having married Elizabeth Stoddard, lived at Norwalk, Conn., lost property by depredations of the enemy during the Revolution ; inherited a part of the fine lands in Ohio, and came out in 1808 as Commissioner to make a partition of them.
Taylor Sherman, our grandfather, who was born in 1758. Taylor Sherman was a lawyer and judge in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he resided until his death, May 4, 1815; leaving a widow, Betsey Stoddard Sherman, and three children, Charles R. (our father), Daniel, and Betsey.
When the State of Connecticut, in 1786, ceded to the United States her claim to the western part of her public domain, as defined by her Royal Charter, she reserved a large district in what is now northern Ohio, a portion of which (five hundred thousand acres)composed the "Fire-Land District," which was set apart to indemnify the parties who had lost property in Connecticut by the raids of Generals Arnold, Tryon, and others during the latter part of the Revolutionary War.
Our grandfather, Judge Taylor Sherman, was one of the commissioners appointed by the State of Connecticut to quiet the Indian title, and to survey and subdivide this Fire-Land District, which includes the present counties of Huron and Erie. In his capacity as commissioner he made several trips to Ohio in the early part of this century, and it is supposed that he then contracted the disease which proved fatal. For his labor and losses he received a title to two sections of land, which fact was probably the prime cause of the migration of our family to the West. My father received a good education, and was admitted to the bar at Norwalk, Connecticut, where, in 1810, he, at twenty years of age, married Mary Hoyt, also of Norwalk, and at once migrated to Ohio, leaving his wife (my mother) for a time. His first purpose was to settle at Zanesville, Ohio, but he finally chose Lancaster, Fairfield County, where he at once engaged in the, practice of his profession. In 1811 he returned to Norwalk, where, meantime, was born Charles Taylor Sherman, the eldest of the family, who with his mother was carried to Ohio on horseback.
Judge Taylor Sherman's family remained in Norwalk till 1815, when his death led to the emigration of the remainder of the family, viz., of Uncle Daniel Sherman, who settled at Monroeville, Ohio, as a farmer, where he lived and died quite recently, leaving children and grandchildren; and an aunt, Betsey, who married Judge Parker, of Mansfield, and died in 1851, leaving children and grandchildren; also Grandmother Elizabeth Stoddard Sherman, who resided with her daughter, Mrs: Betsey Parker, in Mansfield until her death, August 1,1848.
8. Honorable Daniel SHERMAN: born 14 August 1721; married 14 February 1744; died 28 July 1799;
9. Mindwell TAYLOR: born 1720, Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 18 May 1798, Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut
10. Iarael STODDARD:
11. Elizabeth REED:
12. Joseph HOYT: born 24 May 1708; Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; married about 1733, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 28 January 1774, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut
13. Hannah GOULD: born about 1715, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 31 December 1778, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut
14. Eliakim RAYMONE:
15. Hannah STREET:
16. John SHERMAN: born 19 June 1687, Bridgeport, , Connecticut; married 22 July 1714, Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut; died 20 May 1727, Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut
17. (Hockaliah) Emma PRESTON: born March 1688, Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut; died
18. Nathan TAYLOR: born 7 February 1581/82, Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut; married 1706, , Fairfield, Connecticut; died 29 October 1782, Bethel, Fairfield, Connecticut
19. Hannah BENEDICT: born , , Connecticut; died 1783
20. Anthony STODDARD:
21. Prudence WELLES:
24. Joseph HOYT: born 4 October 1670, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; married 16 March 1698, Saybrook, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 1 January 1731, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut.
25. Mary PICKETT: born 30 March 1677, of Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 10 November 1732, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut
26. John GOULD:
27. Hannah HIGGINBOTHOM:
32. Deacon John SHERMAN: born 8 February 1650/51, Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut; married before 1680, , , Connecticut; died 13 December 1730, Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut
33. Elizabeth Unknown: born before 1745; died
36. Thomas TAYLOR: born 1643, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut; married 14 February 1667/68, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 17 January 1734/35, Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut
37. Rebecca KETCHAM: born about 1645, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 17 January 1734/35, Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut.
40. Rev. Solomon STODDARD: born 1643; died 1729
41. Esther WARHAM: born 1644; died 1736
48. Zerubbabel HOYT: born about 1652, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; married about 1673, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 25 January 1735, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut
49. Hannah KNAPP: christened 6 March 1642, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died 4 June 1695; Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut
50. John PICKETT:
51. Mary CROSS/CROSE:
64. Honorable Samuel SHERMAN: christened 12 July 1618, Dedham, Essex, England; married 1640 , Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 5 April 1700, Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut
65. Sarah Mary MITCHELL: born about 1621, S Owram, , England; died before 1700, , , Massachusetts.
72. John TAYLOR: born in 1605 Haverhill, Suffolk, England; married about 1638/40, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died 24 November 1645, at sea off Massachusetts
73. Rhoda TINKER: christened 16 June 1611, Cluar Parish, New Windsor, Berkshire, England; died before 11 February 1695, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut
82. Rev John WARHAM: born 1595; died 1670
83. Jane DABINOTT: born about 1610, , , England; died 1645
96. Walter HOYT: christened 30 November 1618, West Hatch, Somersetshire, England; married about 1748, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut; died 1698/99, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut
97. Rhoda TINKER: christened 16 June 1611, Cluar Parish, New Windsor, Berkshire, England; died before 11 February 1695, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut
98. Nicholas KNAPP: born about 1592, , , England; married before 1631; died 16 September 1670, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut
99. Eleanor _______: born about 1609, , , England; died 16 August 1658, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut
128. Edmund SHERMAN: christened 23 June 1572, Dedham, Essex, England; married 1598, , , England; died 14 June 1643, New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut
129. Joan MAKIN: born before 1575, , , England; died
174: John TAYLOR: born about 1563 Hexton, Middlesex, England; married 10 December 1590, Abbey, Saint Albans, Hertfordshire, England; buried 21 March 1623/24 St. Albans Hertford, Hertfordshire England.
175: Margaret WILLMOTE: born about 1550, Hexton, Middlesex, England; buried 7 April 1616, St. Albans Hertford, Hertfordshire, England
176. Robert TINKER: born about 1565, , , England; married 25 January 1600/01, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England; buried 2 June 1624, New Windsor, Berkshire, England
177. Mary MERWIN: born about 1575, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, died afrer 1648
192. Simon HOYT: born about 1590, , Somersetshire, England, married about 1616, Somersetshire, England; died 1 September 1657, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut
193. Unknown:
194. Robert TINKER: born about 1565, , , England; married 25 January 1600/01, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England; buried 2 June 1624, New Windsor, Berkshire, England
195. Mary MERWIN: born about 1575, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, died afrer 1648
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