San Joaquin County
Biographies
EDWIN BROWN SHERMAN
EDWIN BROWN SHERMAN was born
in Nantucket, Massachusetts, September 5, 1838, his parents being Frederick
Roland and Sarah (Folger) Sherman; the former a
native of Massachusetts the latter was also a native of the same State, a
descendant of Benjamin Franklin, and also a relative of Secretary Folger. In 1838 or 1839 Mr. Sherman moved his family to
Maine, settling in Augusta, where they afterward made their home. Mr. Sherman
was the captain of a whaling vessel, and followed the business until retiring
on account of old age. He died in Augusta at an advanced age. Mrs. Sherman is
still residing there, at the age of seventy-three years. She is the mother of
six children, three sons and three daughters, of whom two sons and one daughter
are now living.
Edwin B., the subject of this
sketch, is the oldest of those now living. He was raised in Augusta. At the age
of fourteen years he left home, since which time he has made his own way in the
world. He worked at anything he could get to do until he was eighteen, when he
commenced teaching school, which he continued off and on for several years. In
1860 he started for California, sailing from New York in November and coming
via the Isthmus. He stopped in San Francisco one winter and then came to this
valley. He taught school at Woodbridge for several years.
In 1862, during the Cariboo excitement in British Columbia he made his way
there and mined one season. From 1865 up to 1869 he was connected with the
butcher business of Thompson & Folger, of
Woodbridge. Four years he was engaged in a flouring mill at Woodbridge. In 1874
he purchased his present ranch on 160 acres of choice farming land in Liberty
Township, where he has made his home, off and on, since that time. He has made
five different trips East, on one occasion staying four years, connected with
his brother, William Penn Sherman, in the manufacture and importation of
artists’ brushes and material, at New York.
Mr. Sherman was married, in
1870, to Margaret Mahoney, a native of Massachusetts, who died in Woodbridge in
1875, the mother of three children, all of whom are dead, one dying prior to
and two after the death of their mother.
Politically Mr. Sherman has
always been a Democrat, casting his first presidential vote for Stephen A.
Douglas, and has been from that time an earnest supporter of the party. He has
been a Mason since 1867, first joining the order at Woodbridge, since which
time he has taken all the degrees as far as the council.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 451-452. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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