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Author: Sherman, John

Biography:

SHERMAN, John (1772-1828: ancestry.com)

Minister, schoolmaster, and hotelier, John Sherman was born in New Haven, the son of Rebecca (Austin) and John Sherman. His paternal grandfather Roger Sherman (1721-93) was a Founding Father and Mayor of New Haven. An uncle on his mother's side, the Rev. David Austin, was a Yale graduate (Class of 1779) as were Sherman, two of his brothers, and two brothers-in-law. (Dexter, however, hints at a family susceptibility to mental illness.) After graduating in 1792 he began to study theology with his uncle David; he was licensed to preach in 1796. In 1797 he was ordained at the First Congregational Church in Mansfield CT. He married Abigail Perkins in 1798 and with her had nine children, two of whom died in infancy. Though Sherman was a popular and effective preacher who attracted over a hundred new parishioners to the church, his theological views evolved in the direction of Unitarianism. He therefore fell out with the church hierarchy (though not with his congregation) and was ultimately dismissed, in 1805. In 1806 he moved to Oldenbarneveld NY (later renamed Trenton, then Barneveld) and began again as the incumbent of the first Unitarian church in New York State, the Reformed Christian Church in Oneida County, which had only fourteen members. He had to resign from that position in 1810 because the salary could not sustain his family. Instead he established a successful school--a byproduct of which is probably his textbook on grammar, The Philosophy of Language Illustrated (1822). Sherman was "the first proprietor and resident" (Willis) of Trenton Falls, which he had originally seen in 1805 and which he helped to make into a tourist attraction by building a hotel and publishing a small guidebook (1822). He died there and is buried on the grounds of the hotel. There is a family monument in the Sherman-Moore Family Cemetery in Trenton Falls. His wife outlived him by more than thirty years. (ancestry.com 16 Sept. 2020; Dexter; N. Parker Willis, ed., Trenton Falls [1851])

 

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