Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1065

NAME SHELDON 1043 SHERMAN on February 7, 1805, and had five children by this marriage. He died at his home at Charleston, June 1, 1837, of paralysis. A voluminous writer, the following are among his chief works : "Flora Carolinensis, an Historical Medical Economical Display of the Vegetable King- dom," Charleston, South Carolina, 1806; "A Treatise on Climatic Conditions in South Carolina (a rare book) ; "Medical and Philo- sophical Essays," Charleston, South Carolina, 1819, containing topographical, historical and other sketches of the city of Charleston; "An Essay on the Prevailing Fever of 1817;" "An Essay on Contagions and Infections;" "An Essay on the Principles and Properties of the Electric Fluid ;" "The Elements of Natural Philosophy and a New Theory of the Earth;" "The Eagle of the Mohawks," a novel, New York; "The Scout, or the Fort of St. Nicholas," a novel of the seventeenth century, New York. There is also in posses- sion of his descendants a manuscript work entitled "Trinitarian Universalists." Robert Wilson, Jr. Sheldon, Alexander (1766-1836) Alexander Sheldon was born in Suffield, Connecticut, October 23, 1766. He graduated at Yale University in 1787 and went to Mont- gomery County, New York, and became active in politics; was judge of the County Court and speaker of the New York Assembly in 1804, 1806 and 1812; he was the last speaker to wear the cocked hat, the badge of office. In 1812 he received an honorary M. D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. He was regent of the University of New York, and was a member of the con- vention which framed the State constitution in 1820. He espoused the cause of Thomas Jeffer- son in the presidential contest with John Adams. Sheldon died in Suffolk, New York, September 10, 1826. His son was Smith Sheldon (1811-1884), publisher, one of the incorporators of Vassar College and of Madison University; his grandson was Isaac E. Sheldon, a publisher of New York. Appleton's Cyclop, of Amer. Biography, N. Y., 1887. Shepard, Charles Upham (1804-1886) Charles Upham Shepard, physicist, was born at Little Compton, Rhode Island, June 29, 1804, graduated at Amherst College in 1824 and received a year's instruction under Thomas Nuttall at Cambridge. Then he gave private lessons in botany and mineralogy in Boston and was for two years an assistant in the laboratory of Professor Silliman (q. v.), at Yale, subsequently taking charge for a year of an institution in New Haven for furnishing the citizens with popular lectures on science. In 1832-33, under a commission froni the United States Government, he investigated the cultivation and manufacture of sugar in the Southern States, the results of which were embodied in Professor Silliman's report to the secretary of the Treasury in 1833. According to the Catalogue of Yale University 1701-1904, Dr. Shepard held the degrees of M. D. and LL. D. Dr. Shepard was lecturer on botany and natural history in Yale College from 1831 to 1847; professor of chemistry in the Charles- ton Medical College from 1854 to 1861 ; in 1835 he was appointed associate of Dr. Perci- val in the state geological survey of Connecti- cut, and he was professor of chemistry and natural history in Amherst College from 1845 to 1852. In the investigation of minerals and meteorites Dr. Shepard visited Europe seven times and he had a very large collection of those articles. In 1832 he published a "Trea- tise on Mineralogy." New Amcr. Cyclop., Appleton. 1866. Dictny. of Amer. Biog., F. S. Drake, Boston, 1872. Sherman, Benjamin Franklin (1817-1897) The youngest of five brothers, all phy- sicians; he was a descendant of Henry Sher- man, born in Devonshire, England, in 1516, and John Sherman, who came to Connecticut in 1634. Benjamin was born in Barre, Ver- mont, May 24, 1817, graduated from the Og- densburg Academy, studied at the Berkshire Medical Institution and took his M. D. at the Albany Medical College in 1841. After practising in Hammond and Potsdam he final- ly settled in Ogdensburg, where he married Charlotte C. Chipman of Waddington and had five children, two of whom became doctors. Taking long journeys by stage and sailing vessels to reach recognized teachers, he fitted himself to be one of the best men around. He eagerly kept pace with every advance, so that, in his eightieth year, younger men came to him to take advice and borrow books and instruments. Often he had to mount at sun- rise, fill his saddlebags with home manufac- tured drugs and set out on a long tour, not knowing whether a major operation or a deli- cate piece of eye surgery would be required en route. As physician and chemist he was also called on for evidence in important trials and litigations. Besides being coroner for his county he was chemist and microscopist for the public prosecutor. Among his appointments