Sherman Township, Huron County

How Sherman Township, Huron County began

Sherman Township, on Huron County's western edge, is named for Taylor Sherman, a Connecticut lawyer and legislator who served as the Connecticut Land Company's agent to survey the Firelands and, through that role, acquired substantial landholdings here. Sherman was also the grandfather of Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, making this thinly populated western township -- Huron County's least populous, with only about 500 residents -- an unlikely genealogical root of one of the war's most famous commanders. The township never incorporated a village; its notable landmark is St. Sebastian's Catholic Church at Bismarck.

Settled 1812 (Daniel Sherman, Burwell Fitch and Samuel Seymour, first settlers), by Daniel Sherman (son of Taylor Sherman and uncle of General William Tecumseh Sherman), Burwell Fitch and Samuel Seymour, all of Norwalk, Connecticut.

Where the name comes from

The 1909 county history says the township, number three in the twenty-fourth range, was named in honor of Taylor Sherman, one of the directors of the Firelands company, at a meeting of the directors at New Haven, Connecticut, on November 9, 1808, when the lands were divided by lot among the holders of 'sufferer's' claims.

Before the town

The 1909 county history says Indians were not very numerous in Sherman Township but were often seen in hunting parties after the War of 1812, that at one time they had a camp there, and that among them was the noted chief Seneca John. An Indian trail ran northwest and southeast through the township and was visible for many years. The 1879 history records that Samuel Seymour, one of the three first white settlers of 1812, was killed by Indians and refers to its Ridgefield Township account. The Firelands also have a wider Wyandot (Huron), Seneca and Lenape (Delaware) history.

• Indian trail through the township (trail) — northwest to southeast across Sherman Township, early 1800s (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1794-1796 — Taylor Sherman, the township's future namesake, serves in the Connecticut House of Representatives for Norwalk, Connecticut.
2. 1806-1808 — Taylor Sherman, appointed agent to survey the Firelands' half-million acres, acquires land in what becomes Sherman Township.
3. 1808 — The Firelands Company's directors, meeting at New Haven, Connecticut on November 9, name the township for director and land holder Taylor Sherman as the fire-sufferer lands are divided by lot.
4. 1812 — Daniel Sherman (a son of Taylor Sherman), Burwell Fitch and Samuel Seymour, all of Norwalk, Connecticut, become the township's first settlers, traveling the newly opened Portage road and spending their first night in the woods disturbed by wild animals; Seymour is later killed by Native people.
5. 1814 — Land in the township is held at $1.50 an acre; a settler named Blanchard buys fifty acres, and Daniel Sherman gives him fifty more to induce him to stay.
6. 1815 — Taylor Sherman dies; his son Charles Robert Sherman later becomes an Ohio Supreme Court justice, and his grandson William Tecumseh Sherman becomes a Union general.
7. 1815 — At the first meeting of the Huron County commissioners on August 1, Sherman is attached to Greenfield Township; in December it is detached and, with the south half of Oxford, united with Ridgefield.
8. 1820 — About this year Sherman is united with Norwich, and the first general election held while the two are joined takes place on October 10; Henry M. Read builds the first frame house soon after, on Slate Run.
9. 1821 — Abby (Guthrie) Sherman, wife of first settler Daniel Sherman, dies and is buried in the township's burial ground -- the township's first burial and second recorded death.
10. 1824 — George Hanford teaches the first school, about 1824 or 1825, to eight or ten scholars in a building on lot 18 in the third section; about 1827 the township is divided into east and west school districts and Sarah Mason teaches the first public school, paid in silver half dollars, to fourteen or fifteen scholars.
11. 1827 — On March 6 Norwich is detached and Sherman becomes a distinct township; the first election on record after the separation, April 6, 1829, casts fifteen votes.
12. 1834 — Coles and Albert Bloomer open the pioneer tavern; Coles Bloomer also builds the township's first brick house, and about 1835 the Underhill brothers of Ridgefield open a short-lived store at Weaver's corners.
13. 1871 — A mail route is established from Bellevue to Lodi, and an office later opens at the German settlement of Bismarck, one mile south of the center, with C. Westrick as postmaster.
14. 2020 — The census counts 519 people in Sherman Township, the least populous township in Huron County.

Stories

A general's grandfather surveyed the Firelands

Taylor Sherman never lived in Ohio, but the state's westernmost Firelands township carries his name because of the job he was appointed to do: survey agent for the half-million acres Connecticut set aside to compensate the Revolutionary War 'fire sufferers.' Sherman, a Norwalk, Connecticut lawyer and legislator, took payment for that work partly in land, acquiring a stake in the township that would come to bear his name. He died in 1815, decades before the land he had surveyed produced its most famous descendant: his son Charles Robert Sherman became an Ohio Supreme Court justice, and his grandson, born in Lancaster, Ohio in 1820, was William Tecumseh Sherman -- the Union general whose March to the Sea became one of the Civil War's most consequential campaigns. Sherman Township itself remains Huron County's least populous, a quiet, sparsely settled corner of the Firelands carrying the name of a man who surveyed it but never farmed it.

Thirty-six bushels of corn for a barrel of salt

The 1909 county history lists what the pioneers of Sherman Township had to do without. Their milling was done at Eldridge, Cold Creek and sometimes Greenfield; wheat and corn were the principal products but there was no market for them, and at one time thirty-six bushels of corn were paid for one barrel of salt. Not many of the necessaries, and fewer of the luxuries, were enjoyed; wolf scalps and Owl Creek bills made up a large part of the currency. The first school was kept about 1824 or 1825 for eight or ten scholars, and when the township was divided into two school districts a few years later, Sarah Mason, one of the early settlers of Norwalk, taught the first public school in the first building and was paid in silver half dollars, the first public money that ever came into the township for schools.

Seneca John's camp in Sherman

The few Indians seen in Sherman Township after the War of 1812 came mostly in hunting parties, the 1909 county history says, though at one time they kept a camp in the township. Among the camp's members was the noted chief Seneca John, who is also named in Norwich Township. An Indian trail ran northwest and southeast through Sherman and was visible for many years. The township's first white settlers, Daniel Sherman, Burwell Fitch and Samuel Seymour, came in 1812 from Norwalk, Connecticut, over the newly cut Portage road; Seymour was later killed by Indians, the 1879 history says, referring readers to its account under Ridgefield Township.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Bellevue City74% of residentsFrink Run & Berry Creek/Big Ditch runoff (own reservoirs); backup Lake Erie via Erie Co.
• Monroeville Village26% of residentsWest Branch Huron River, stored in Monroeville's reservoir

Bridges rated poor (3)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

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