Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/745

 ��CITY OF MANSFIELD.

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��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. Stod- dard 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 v;ills for his parishioners, and did nearly all the busi- ness 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 grand- daughter, for, as one of the grandchildren says, "She made us stand around."

The Hon. Taylor Sherman, having married Elizabeth Stoddard, lived at Nor walk, Conn., lost property by depredations of the enemy during the Revolution ; in- herited a part of the fire lands in Ohio, and came out in 1808 as Commissioner to make a partition of them.

The Hon. Charles R. Sherman, his son, married Mary Hoyt in Norwalk, Conn., in 1810; after being robbed as Internal Revenue Collector by his Deputies, and thus broken up, he came West with his wife and one child on horseback, and settled in the town of Lancaster.

Lancaster at that time was noted all over the State and the West generally, for the learning and talent of its bar, yet Mr. Sherman placed himself in a position in accordance with the splendid history of the Sher- man family. At the age of 35, when he had fairly en- tered upon a successful legal practice, before accumu- lating more than barely enough to pay the expenses of settling in a new country, he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. In a brief memoir by Gen. Reese, it is said, "He rose rapidly to eminence as a polished and eloquent advocate and as a judicious and reliable counselor at law. Indeed, in the elements of mind necessary to build up and sustain such a repu- tation, few men were his equal in Ohio." While on the bench at Lebanon, he was taken suddenly ill, and died on the 24th of June, 1829.

He left a family of eleven children, of whom the eldest was 16 years of age, and the youngest 6 weeks. Of these Gen. W. T. Sherman was the sixth, and the Hon. John Sherman the eighth. The widow, having scant means to maintain herself and family, could do little toward educating them. The Hon. Thomas Ewing adopted William Tecumseh and had him made a cadet at West Point, and he thereby became a distinguished General, being now at the head of the Army of the United States.

��John, at 8 years of age, was adopted by his father's cousin, John Sherman, of Mount Vernon, with whom he remained until 1831, when he went to Lancaster to school. In 1837, he was appointed junior rod-man on the Muskingum Improvement, under Col. Samuel Curtis. In the spring of 1840, his brother, Charles T., then in the practice of law in Mansfield, invited him here ; after four years' study, when 21 years of age, he was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of law. He began public life in 1855 as a Representative in Congress. His upward career was rapid and sure ; he was kept at his post all through the war of the rebellion, doing valiant service^ in the Senate and in organizing troops for the war. After the war, he was continued there until his call to the office of Secretary of the Treasury, which place he has so signally and success- fully filled.

All the other members of Judge Sherman's family lived to grow up and occupy respectable positions in society.

SHERMAN, CHARLES J. (deceased) ; Judge Sher- man was born in Norwalk, Conn., Feb. 3, 1811, and was brought by his parents to Lancaster, Ohio, about a year later ; he graduated at the Ohio University, at Athens, about 1829 ; he studied law with Henry Stod- dard, at Dayton, and, after being educated to the bar, came to Mansfield about 1835 ; he remained here, steadily engaged in practice, until 1867, when he was appointed United States District Judge at Cleveland, where he settled and lived until his death, Jan. 1, 1879. He was married, in 1841, to Eliza Williams, of Dayton ; they became the parents of seven children, five of whom are now living, viz.: Mary Hoyt, born in 1842, now the wife of Gen. Nelson A. Miles, of the U. S. A.; Henry Stoddard, born in 1845, now practicing law in Cleveland; John, Jr., born in 1847, now U. S. Marshal in New Mexico; Charles F. Cook, born in 1848, died in infancy ; Anna Wallace, born in 1850, died .Jan. 1, 1870; Eliza A. Williams, born in 1852, now the wife of Colgate Hoyt, of Cleveland ; Elizabeth Bancroft, born in 1857, now the wife of J. D. Cameron, U. S. Senator from Pennsylvania. Judge Sherman re- signed his judgeship in 1878, and, during the remain- der of his life, held no office. Judge Sherman, while a resident of Mansfield and which crowned the very prime of his life, was active in promoting all the ma- terial interests of Mansfield and the county of Rich- land — specially in the organization of the agricultural society, in the introduction of better modes for the larger production of the better quality of fruits; he was for years one of the officers of the S., M. & N. R. R. Co. (now a part of the B. & 0. R. R.) ; took a very active part in the projection and building of the P., Ft. W. & C. R. R., and was the first general solicitor, or counsel, of said company ; he had a large practice as an attorney, but seldom appeared at the bar, preferring the work of a counselor in 4he office, and was one of the most genial of men in social life, a safe adviser and stanch friend.

SIMPSON, JOHN, PROF., Superintendent of the city schools ; he was born in Richland Co., Ohio, June 26, 1829. He was married, Dec. 25, 1862, to Miss Millie J. Stringer, who was born in Ashland Co.: they have three daughters — Mary Blanche, born Feb. 16, 1864 ;

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