John Sherman

Notable people · Senator · Cabinet

John Sherman

Mansfield lawyer who spent nearly 32 years as an Ohio senator, served as Treasury secretary and Secretary of State, and wrote the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

Born May 10, 1823, Lancaster (137 East Main Street)
Died October 22, 1900, Washington, D.C.

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: May 10, 1823, Lancaster (137 East Main Street) (Fairfield County) source
Died: October 22, 1900, Washington, D.C. source
Buried: Mansfield Cemetery, Mansfield (Section 1) (Richland County) source
Also known as: The Ohio Icicle, Senator Sherman
Education: Lancaster Academy, Lancaster, OH
: Read law with brother Charles T. Sherman, Mansfield, OH, 1840-1844, admitted to bar 1844
Known as: Senator, Cabinet

Life story

John Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1823, the son of Ohio Supreme Court justice Charles Robert Sherman. After his father's death in 1829 he was fostered briefly in Mount Vernon, then returned to Lancaster.

He attended the local academy, worked on the Muskingum River improvement as a surveyor at 14, and in 1840 moved to Mansfield to study law with his brother Charles. He was admitted to the bar in 1844 and married Margaret Cecilia Stewart in 1848.

He was elected to Congress in 1855, led a House investigation into Kansas in 1856, and entered the Senate in 1861. He served as Treasury Secretary under Hayes from 1877, overseeing the return to the gold standard in 1879.

He is best known for the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. McKinley named him Secretary of State in 1897, and he left in 1898. He is buried at Mansfield. His older brother was Union general William T. Sherman.

Ohio ties

Lancaster, 137 East Main Street (1823-1831; 1835-1837)
born in the family home, now the Sherman House Museum; attended a local academy Fairfield County · source
Mount Vernon (1831/32-1835)
lived with his father's cousin John Sherman and attended school Knox County · source
McConnelsville and Beverly, Muskingum River (1837-1839)
junior rodman on the state's Muskingum River improvement under Col. Samuel R. Curtis Morgan County · source
Mansfield (1840-1900)
read law with his brother Charles; lawyer, businessman and congressman; home on Park Avenue West; buried here Richland County · source
Cleveland (1853-1854)
opened a law office with two partners before entering Congress Cuyahoga County · source

Timeline

1823 Born on 10 May in his family's house at 137 East Main Street, Lancaster, the eighth of 11 children of Judge Charles R. Sherman and Mary Hoyt Sherman. source
1829 His father, a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, died suddenly, leaving 11 children. source
1831 Taken into the Mount Vernon home of his father's cousin, also named John Sherman, to attend school (the NHL nomination says 1832). source
1835 Returned to his mother's home in Lancaster after being expelled from school in Mount Vernon. source
1837 At 14 joined the engineer corps of the Muskingum River improvement as a junior rodman, walking from McConnelsville to the survey camp at Beverly. source
1839 Discharged in June when a Democratic administration replaced the Whig work crews; in the autumn he first visited Mansfield. source
1840 Moved to Mansfield to study law in the office of his brother Charles Taylor Sherman. source
1844 Admitted to the bar and joined his brother's firm; addressed a rally for Henry Clay. source
1848 Married Margaret Cecilia Stewart, daughter of a Mansfield judge, and was a delegate to the Whig national convention. source
1854 Elected to Congress from Ohio's 13th district by 2,823 votes as the Anti-Nebraska (later Republican) candidate. source
1856 Spent two months in Kansas Territory on the House investigating committee and was the main author of its 1,188-page report. source
1861 Elected by the Ohio legislature to the Senate seat Salmon P. Chase left for the Treasury, and took his seat on 23 March. source
1877 Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Rutherford B. Hayes. source
1879 Resumption of specie payments took effect; only $130,000 of $346 million in greenbacks was presented for gold. source
1880 Ran third at the Republican convention in Chicago; after 36 ballots the nomination went to James A. Garfield, who had nominated him. source
1881 Returned to the Senate on 4 March. source
1885 Elected president pro tempore of the Senate, and after Vice President Hendricks's death was next in line for the presidency until February 1887. source
1888 Led the first ballot at the Republican convention with 229 votes but lost the nomination to Benjamin Harrison on the eighth. source
1890 President Harrison signed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act on 2 July after it passed the Senate on 8 April and the House 242-0 on 20 June. source
1895 Published his two-volume autobiography, John Sherman's Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet, dating its preface from Mansfield on 30 August. source
1897 Became Secretary of State under President McKinley on 6 March. source
1898 Resigned as Secretary of State in April at the start of the Spanish-American War, his health and memory failing. source
1900 Died at his Washington home on 22 October and was buried beside his wife in Mansfield Cemetery. source
1903 His Mansfield home on Park Avenue West, between Sycamore and Penn, was demolished. source
1910 The John Sherman Memorial Gateway was built at Park Avenue West and Brinkerhoff Avenue in Mansfield (NRHP 1983). source
1964 His Lancaster birthplace was declared a National Historic Landmark, chiefly for its association with him. source

What John is known for

Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
Treasury Secretary 1877-1881
Secretary of State 1897-1898
Sherman Antitrust Act (principal author)

Stories

A sacrifice to a very poor Lord

As a schoolboy in Mount Vernon, Sherman and three friends found a dead sheep on the town common one evening. They carried it into the schoolroom and set it on the seat of their teacher, a small man named Lord whom the boys called 'Bunty Lord'. Sherman added a Latin couplet calling it a very worthy sacrifice to a very poor Lord. His handwriting gave him away, and the four were promptly expelled. Writing his memoirs sixty years later, Sherman said he regretted it, because the teacher also lost his job for failing to control his pupils.

Source

Sixteen miles to Beverly

Late in 1836 the 13-year-old Sherman asked his brother Charles in Mansfield to find him work, and Charles got him a place as junior rodman on the state's survey to improve the Muskingum River from Zanesville to Marietta. He rode the stage to McConnelsville, where the engineer James M. Love was to take him to the survey camp at Beverly, 16 miles down the river. Against Love's advice Sherman insisted they walk it after dinner. They set out about one o'clock, he was worn out by sundown with six miles still to go, and they reached Beverly about ten that night. He said it taught him 'not to insist upon anything I knew nothing about'. The crew was let go in June 1839 after a Democratic governor took office.

Source

Garfield's speech for Sherman

At the 1880 Republican convention in Chicago, Ohio congressman James A. Garfield nominated Sherman, telling the delegates: 'You ask for his monuments, I point you to twenty-five years of national statutes.' Sherman ran a distant third behind Ulysses S. Grant and James G. Blaine, and he never held even the whole Ohio delegation. He refused to release his delegates through 28 ballots, hoping to emerge as the compromise. When Blaine's supporters finally abandoned their man, they turned not to Sherman but to Garfield, who was nominated on the 36th ballot. Sherman, nicknamed 'the Ohio Icicle', was seen as a poor national candidate.

Source

Honors and things named for them

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

Named for John Sherman

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) source
John Sherman Memorial Gateway (Mansfield, Richland County) source

Family

wife: Margaret Cecilia Stewart Sherman
brother: William Tecumseh Sherman
brother: Hoyt Sherman
brother: Charles Taylor Sherman
father: Charles Robert Sherman

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 John Sherman Birthplace / Sherman House Museum (National Historic Landmark 1964; NRHP 66000609)
137 East Main Street, Lancaster Fairfield County · source
2 Ohio Historical Marker 6-70, John Sherman (1823-1900) / The Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Mansfield Richland County · source
3 Sherman grave, Mansfield Cemetery, Section 1
Mansfield Cemetery, Mansfield Richland County · source
4 John Sherman Memorial Gateway (1910; NRHP 83002046)
Park Avenue West at Brinkerhoff Avenue, Mansfield Richland County · source
Site of Sherman's Mansfield home, Park Avenue West between Sycamore and Penn (demolished 1903) (demolished)
Park Avenue West, Mansfield Richland County · source

Places in Ohio to see

Mansfield Cemetery (Sherman grave) (grave)
389 Altamont Ave, Mansfield, Richland County ZIP 44902 · Mansfield · Richland County

Ohio places

Where John Sherman was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Lancaster, Fairfield County ZIP 43130 · Lancaster · Fairfield County
Lived: Mansfield, Richland County ZIP 44902 · Mansfield · Richland County
Buried: Mansfield, Richland County (Mansfield Cemetery, 389 Altamont Ave) ZIP 44902 · Mansfield · Richland County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about John Sherman, and what the record shows.

Often said The Sherman Antitrust Act passed the Senate 52-1 (Wikipedia).

The record The National Archives gives the Senate vote as 51-1 on 8 April 1890, and the House vote as 242-0 on 20 June 1890. source

Often said Sherman single-handedly wrote the antitrust act.

The record The bill he introduced in the 51st Congress was largely derived from a failed bill by Senator George F. Edmunds, which Sherman had amended in the previous Congress. Until 1888 he had shown little interest in trusts. source

Often said The Sherman House Museum in Lancaster is the house the Shermans knew.

The record Only the narrow frame rear section (1811, enlarged 1816) dates from the family's time. The brick Italianate front was built about 1870, after the Shermans left, and the NHL nomination says it 'has nothing to do with the occupancy of the Shermans'. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

John Sherman's Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet: an autobiography, vol. 1 (Chicago: Werner, 1895) 1895, University of California Libraries (Internet Archive)
John Sherman's Recollections of Forty Years, vol. 2 1895, University of California Libraries (Internet Archive)
National Historic Landmark nomination: John Sherman Birthplace (NRIS 66000609) 1975, National Park Service, NPGallery
Act of July 2, 1890 (Sherman Anti-Trust Act), enrolled act 1890, National Archives (Record Group 11; catalog 5730371)
Shall the United States be coerced by a state? Speech of Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio, in the House of Representatives 1861, Internet Archive (Anti-Slavery Pamphlet Collection)
Lecompton Constitution: speech of Hon. John Sherman of Ohio in the House of Representatives, 28 January 1858 1858, Internet Archive (Anti-Slavery Pamphlet Collection)

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

Collection: Cornell University Collection of Political Americana, Cornell University Library Repository: Susan...
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Title: A cabinet meeting at the White House- Pres. Hayes, John Sherman [Secy. of the Treasury], R.W. Thompson ...
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Portrait drawing of United States Senator John Sherman
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Scan of a page from Harper's Weekly containing an editorial by Carl Schurz: The Politics of Financial Reform, ...
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President Hayes and his cabinet
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A cabinet meeting at the White House- Pres. Hayes, John Sherman [Secy. of the Treasury], R.W. Thompson [Secy. ...
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Hon. John Sherman of Ohio, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
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