Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2014 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== A Standard History of Starke County, Indiana McCormick, Joseph N. - 1915 [236-239] ADAM G. W. SHERMAN, whose death occurred November 1, 1914, was a well-known retired merchant and honored citizen of Knox. He had been prominently concerned with the public and business interests of Starke County for many years, had exerted his influence along lines of benignant order and had so ordered his course as to retain the unqualified confidence and esteem of the community in which he maintained his home for many years, his commodious and attractive residence standing on the site of the one that became his place of abode fully forty-five years ago, a fact that shows that he was entitled to prestige as one of the sterling pioneer business men of the City of Knox, judicial center of the county. MR. SHERMAN came from Laporte County, this state, and estab- lished his residence at Knox in the year 1867. Here he engaged in the retail grocery business on Washington Street, but in the following year he removed to more eligible quarters, on Main Street. There he built up a large and prosperous business and after his establishment was destroyed by fire, in 1886, he erected near its site a substantial frame building, now known as the Swartzel Block, and in 1894 built a brick building on Main Street, which is still known as the Sherman Block. In the Swartzel Block he resumed business, and he continued to be one of the representative figures in local business circles until 1893, after which time he lived virtually retired, his enterprise and well ordered endeavors en- abling him to acquire a substantial competency. About the time of his retirement from business MR. SHERMAN erected his residence, on the site of the house in which he took up his abode nearly half a century ago, as previously noted. At the time of the construction of the Nickel Plate and the Chicago, Indiana & Southern railroads through this section of the site, MR. SHERMAN became a successful contractor and supplied ties for the building of many miles of the two lines. His civic enterprise was further shown by his erection of a second business block in Knox, the Sherman Block referred to, and he was liberal and influential in the material upbuilding as well, as the social progress of the county seat. MR. SHERMAN claimed the historic Old Dominion as the place of his nativity. He was born in Shenandoah County, Virginia, on the 11th of September, 1834, and is a son of ADAM S. and ELIZABETH (NICHOLAS) SHERMAN, both natives of Virginia and representatives of old and honored families of that commonwealth, the father of the subject of this review having been a first cousin of GEN. WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. ADAM G. W. SHERMAN was only a few weeks old at the time when his parents removed from Virginia to Ohio and numbered themselves among the pioneer settlers of Marion County, where the father purchased a tract of land and instituted the development of a farm. This property he later sold and on a portion of the same was established the present Village of Cardington. ADAM S. SHERMAN purchased another farm in the same county and on this homestead he continued to reside until the death of his wife, who had passed the psalmist's allotted span of three score years and ten, and he pas- sed the closing years of his life in the home of one of his daugh- ters, at Greencamp, Marion County, Ohio, where he died when nearly eighty years of age. He was originally a whig in politics but transferred his allegiance to the republican party at the time of its organization and ever afterward continued a stalwart supporter of its cause. He was a man of strong character, mature judgment and well fortified convictions, both he and his wife having been honored for their sterling worth and both having early become mem- bers of the Christian Church. Of the children, JACOB, a brother of the subject of this review, is the only one now living, the daugh- ters, ELIZA, SARAH, MARY and REBECCA having married and reared children before they were summoned to the life eternal. Of the sons the eldest was JOHN, who likewise married and left children. JACOB was youngest of the three sons that attained to maturity, and the ouly one now living. In Marion County, Ohio, ADAM G. W. SHERMAN was reared to ma- turity under the conditions and influences of the pioneer days, and his initial experience of a practical order was that gained in con- nection with the work of the home farm. In the meanwhile he duly availed himself of the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period. In 1851, when about seventeen years of age, MR. SHERMAN came to Indiana and after residing for a time in Starke County he indulged his propensity for adventure by going to the State of Texas, where he remained two years and had a varied experience in frontier life. He then returned to Indiana and estab- lished his residence in Laporte County, where, in 1857, was solem- nized his marriage to Miss MARY A. BENSON, who was born on the 31st of January, 1840, a daughter of ELIJAH and ANN (SANDERS) BENSON, natives of Ohio, and her parents, born in North Carolina, removed from that state to Ohio in an early day, MRS. SHERMAN having been born in Greene County, that state. In 1840 MR. BENSON removed with his family to Randolph County, Indiana, where he remained until 1851, when he established his residence in Laporte County, where he reclaimed a farm in the virgin forest and became a substantial and influential citizen, the old homestead having been near the little village of Durham. He and his wife passed the declining years of their lives at Westville, Laporte County, where MR. BENSON died at the venerable age of eighty-four years, his wife having been somewhat more than eighty years old at the time of her demise and both having been zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. MR. BENSON was first a whig and later a republican in politics. Of the children NOAH died when young; ELIAS is a sub- stantial farmer of Laporte County; MRS. SHERMAN was next in order of birth; JOHN died young; ELZABANK died in early childhood; LORENZO died also in early youth; and MINERVA died at the age of seven years, two of the children having been victims of a cholera epidemic in Randolph County, and two had died from an epidemic of diphtheria in Laporte County. After his marriage MR. SHERMAN continued his residence in Laporte County and there two of his children were born prior to his earnest response to the call of patriotism, when the Civil war was precipitated on the nation. Upon PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S first call for volunteers he enlisted in Company I, Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, commanded by COLONEL MILROY. The regiment went to Vir- ginia, and there was soon called upon to participate in the engage- ments at Greenbrier and Cheat Mountain. From that time onward MR. SHERMAN was found with his command in all of the battles in which it participated during his three years of service, save that for two months he was confined to the hospital, after having received an accidental wound by the explosion from his own gun of a cartridge shell, a fragment of which destroyed his right eye. This was at the time of the Atlanta campaign, incidental to which he was drying and caring for shells that had been soaked in a rainstorm, the explosion of one of these shells causing his injury. Among the specially desperate battles in which MR. SHERMAN took part were those of Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing, in the former of which he narrowly escaped death, as a Confederate bullet plowed through his scalp but failed to break his skull. He proved a faith- ful and valiant soldier and his record in the war will reflect en- during honor upon his name. In later years MR. SHERMAN perpetuated the more gracious memories and associations of his military career through active afBliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. After the close of the war MR. SHERMAN continued his residence in Laporte County until 1867, when he came to Starke County and en- gaged in business at Knox, as noted in a preceding paragraph of this sketch. During his service in the Civil war MR. SHERMAN'S wife, with all of self-abnegation and patriotic spirit, assumed the burdens that were thrown upon her shoulders, and with utmost devo- tion cared for her two little children, MR. SHERMAN'S fine physical powers having made it impossible for him to gain even a furlough in which to visit his loved ones. Concerning the children brief record is here given: ANNIE E. is the wife of FRANK HOFFMAN, a skilled mechanic residing at Knox, and they have one son, SHERMAN F.; at the time of her marriage to MR. HOFFMAN ANNE E. was the widow of DR. STURGES S. YELEY, and the one child of the first marriage is CAPITOLA G., who is the wife of GROVER PEMBERTON and has one daughter, IMOGENE E.; CLARA D., the second child, is the wife of RITZ L. CALLAHAN, a prosperous farmer of Center Township, Starke County, and they have one son, GUY LAVAN, a young man of twenty-four years; a son, ADAM G. W., Jr., died age twelve, and IDA M. and CHARLES G. died in infancy. MR. SHERMAN was a member of the Christian Catholic Church, of Zion City, Illinois, as is also his wife. In national politics he gave his allegiance and support to the republican party, being non- partisan in local affairs. ===========================================================================