| Notes |
- Timeline for Joseph Henry Sherman:
1827 Jul 13, Joseph born in Berlin, Ionia, Mi
1845 Joseph went to Ontario Canada where his mother's relatives lived.
1850 Feb 4, Joseph married Matilda Jane Fick in Houghton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada
1851 May 28, son, William Lewis, born Houghton
1854 May 6, son, Joseph Henry, born Houghton
1854 Sep, son Joseph Henry died Houghton
1857 Nov 28, son, James Milton, born Houghton
1859 Feb 12, daughter, Sarah Elizabeth,born Houghton
1861 Aug 10, daughter, Mary Jane,born Houghton
1863 Sep 13, Angeletta Louisa, born Houghton
1868 son, Lambert Lincoln, born Houghton
1871 Census canada, Houghton, Norfolk, Canada with family
1895 Dec 15, wife, Matilda Jane, died in Houghton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada
1901 Canada census, Joseph is a widow living as a lodger in Houghton, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada
1906 Jun 3, Joseph died in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, at age 79, from old age.
Is this right?
1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia about Joseph Sherman
Name: Joseph Sherman
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1831
Birthplace: N Brunswick
Province: Canada West (Ontario)
District: Wentworth County
District Number: 41
Sub-District: Saltfleet
Sub-District Number: 398
Household Members:
Name Age
Joseph Sherman 21
1861 Census of Canada about Joseph Sherman
Name: Joseph Sherman
Gender: Male
Age: 34
Birth Year: 1827
Birthplace: Canada West
Marital Status: Married
Home in 1861: Houghton, Norfolk, Canada West
Religion: Methodist
Household Members:
Name Age
Joseph Sherman 34 farmer
Matilda J Sherman 30 born Canada West
William L Sherman 10 born Canada West
James M Sherman 5 born Canada West
Sarah E Sherman 2 born Canada West
1871 Census of Canada about Joseph Sherman
Name: Joseph Sherman
Gender: Male
Age: 43
Birth Year: abt 1828
Birth Place: Ontario
Marital Status: Married
Religion: Baptist
Origin: German
Province: Ontario
District: Norfolk South
District Number: 11
Division: 02
Subdistrict: Houghton
Subdistrict Number: a
Neighbors: Jeremiah Fick age 23, Abagail Fick age 23, William age 7, Charles age 3, John age 6/12
all Presbyterian, born Ontario, German origin
Household Members:
Name Age
Joseph Sherman 43 farmer
Matilda Sherman 39 german origin
William Sherman 19
James Sherman 14
Sarah Sherman 12
Mary Sherman 9
Louisa Sherman 7
Lambert Sherman 3
1881 Census of Canada about Joseph Sherman
Name: Joseph Sherman
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Age: 53
Birth Year: 1828
Birthplace: Ontario
Religion: Ch. of the Mesiah
Nationality: New Brunswick
Occupation: Farmer
Province: Ontario
District Number: 157
District: Norfolk South
Sub-District Number: A
Subdistrict: Houghton
Division: 1
Household Members:
Name Age
Joseph Sherman 53
Matelda J. Sherman 49
Lueza Sherman 17
Lambert L. Sherman 13
Elizabeth Burgar 21
1891 Census of Canada about Joseph Sherman
Name: Joseph Sherman
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Age: 63
Birth Year: abt 1828
Birthplace: Ontario
Relation to Head of House: Head
Religion: messiah
French Canadian: No
Father's Birth Place: New Brunswick
Mother's Birth Place: Ontario
Province: Ontario
District Number: 97
District: Norfolk South
Subdistrict: Houghton
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
Joseph Sherman 63 Carpenter, father born New Brunswick, Mother born ontario
Matilda Sherman 60 born Ontario, father born USA, Mother born Ontario
Sarah E Sherman 32 born Ontario, father born Ontario, Mother born Ontario
Louise Sherman 27 born Ontario, father born Ontario, Mother born Ontario
Lambert L Sherman 23 born Ontario, father born Ontario, Mother born Ontario
Peter H Fick 88 father, born USA, his father born NS, Mother born USA
1901 Census of Canada
Name: Joseph Sherman
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Widowed
Age: 73
Birth Date: 13 Jul 1827
Birthplace: Ontario
Relation to Head of House: Lodger
Racial or Tribal Origin: German
Nationality: Canadian
Religion: Baptist
Occupation: R Far
Province: Ontario
District: Norfolk (South/Sud)
District Number: 94
Sub-District: Houghton
Sub-District Number: B-1
Family Number: 66
Page: 6
Household Members: Name Age
Joseph Sherman 73
Ontario, Canada Voter Lists, 1867-1900 about Joseph Sherman
Name: Joseph Sherman
Year: 1881
#387, Juror, yes lot wp14 conc 6 owner PO2
Locality: Charlotteville Township
Province: Ontario
Country: Canada
Ontario, Canada Voter Lists, 1867-1900 about Joseph Sherman
Name: Joseph Sherman
Year: 1885
#462 Juror no lot secor2 conc 2 owner PO7
Locality: Houghton Township
Province: Ontario
Country: Canada
Ontario, Canada Voter Lists, 1867-1900 about Joseph Sherman
Name: Joseph Sherman
Year: 1886
#473, Juror, no lot NE cor 2 conc 2 owner PO9
Locality: Houghton Township
Province: Ontario
Country: Canada
Ontario, Canada Voter Lists, 1867-1900 about Joseph Sherman
Name: Joseph Sherman
Year: 1890
#677, Juror, yes lot NE pt 3 conc 13 tenant mf PO18
Locality: Rear of Leeds and Landsdowne Township
Province: Ontario
Country: Canada
One source states that Joseph Henry was born at Houghton Center, BAltfleet Tnship, Walsingham Co.
He was a carpenter and mason. Matilda Fick was a school teacher at Houghton Center, Ontario. Early home of JHs, according to his neighbor, Minnie Patterson, was at Wainfleet near Hamilton, Ontario.
!NOTE: Berlin (now Marne) is near Coopersville, Michigan. Joseph was a farmer and also did carpenter and mason work. Tree grafting and bees were his hobbies. He also tamed bulls. As a boy, he lived in Berlin, Michigan. After 1845, he went to Houghton Township, Norfolk Co, Ontario, Canada to his mother's relatives. He was said to have great strength and was quite agile. He was 6 feet, 6 inches tall. He was a second cousin to Gen Wm. Tecumseh Sherman, General in chief of the US Army 1869-1883 and also to General W. T. Sherman's brother, John Sherman, Secretary of State (1897). Their father's fathers were brothers, 5th and 6th sons of Daniel Sherman I.
(The following was taken from notes of Vernon Sherman, great grandson of Joseph Henry Sherman: Vernon lived at "Apple Acres", M-42, Manton R2, Michigan 49663)
"Joseph Henry Sherman was the third child of Andrew and Hannah Sherman, born 13 July 1827 on a farm near Berlin, (now Marne), Michigan. He left Michigan as a boy of 17 or 18 about 1845, and went to Southern Ontario where he had relatives on his mother's side.
He married Matilda Jane Fick, 4 February 1850, probably at Houghton Center. Matilda was small, She weighed about 95 pounds. She could stand upright beneath her husband's outstretched arm. For three years after their marriage, Matilda continued to teach school at Houghton Center. Shortly after his marriage, Joseph bought a 10 acre piece of land two miles from Houghton Center and on the 3rd Concession Road. He built one of the first frame houses in that section of the Country. He became a carpenter and mason by trade, and many of the original frame buildings in that part of the country were the result, either wholly or in part, of his handicraft. During winter months when building was slack, Joseph did repair work and clock "tinkering".
He set out a 200 tree apple and peach orchard on his 10 acres. He was very successful in grafting of fruit trees. He had an apiary in the orchard to insure fertilization of his trees. His daughter, Sarah Elizabeth recalled that certain trees were regarded as the special property of each of the children. There was Lizzie's tree, Lew's tree, etc. Sarah Elizabeth related that in addition to the orchard, her father had four trees of sweet black cherries and three of the large red English cherry. Southward from the house was a garden plot with three rows of currant bushes, one red, one black and one of the white currants. Between the rows, sod had reformed and under it a swarm of bumble bees had built their nest at one particular spot.
Sarah Elizabeth and her brother James Milton delighted in tormenting this nest of bees. They would prepare for the escapade by pumping several buckets of water. Then one of the youngsters would rap sharply on the ground with a stick to arouse the bees and as they swarmed out, the other would douse them with water to wet their wings and prevent them from flying. Needless to say, this was a highly exciting sport, yet very painful when the bees scored.
Sarah Elizabeth's closest childhood friend was the neighbor girl, Eutachia Lutz. The little girls grew up agile as squirrels. Sarah told of bare foot races along the top of rail fences. Since every other top rail was free to roll, it was necessary to run such sections on the second rail down. That must have been quite a trick. Not all their time was spent in running rail fences. The women of those days had the house and garden to manage, blankets to weave, straw hats to make, etc.
Rye straw was used for hats because of its great strength. After cutting off the grain heads, the straws were soaked in water and bleached dry in the hot sun. They were then soakeed again to make them plyable and were braided into a long continuous cord. The straw cord was then coiled round and round and each coil sewed to the preceding one until the hat brim was reached and the job finished. It took a full day to make a man's hat for use in the fields, and Sarah Elizabeth said they sold for ten cents. To make milady's hat more time was required, since it was necessary to first slit the rye straw into three parts by pulling them over staggered pin points whech projected up through a little trough-like board made for that purpose. These finer straws were then woven into a continuous cord, carefully coiled and sewed to the shape desired. On the Ontario farm of 1865, making your own straw hat was not a hobby, it was necessary if you wanted a hat.
Sarah Elizabeth recalled that when she was 15 (about 1875), a cousin of about her age named William Sherman came from Coopersville, Michigan to help her father on their farm. This lad was a son of her father's brother William.
About 1872 a severe drought made it necessary for Joseph and all of his neighbors to haul water from Clear Creek, a half mile from his farm. The water was put into barrels at the Creek and dragged on a stone=boat to the house throughout the latter part of that summer.
Many stories are told regarding Joseph's great strength and agility. It is related that he could stand in a 1/2 bushel measure and from this position jump through a forward sommersalt and land with his feet back in the measure. He is also said to have fought and "broke" bulls for others. The procedure of "breaking" a bull is to hang onto the bull by his tail with one hand and to punish him mercilessly with a club, hay fork, hand saw or other convenient weapon until his spirit is broken and he evidences his fear of man by bellowing. This treatment though brutal was considered necessary to insure the future safety of people near the animal.
On one occasion, Joseph decided to "break" a neighbor's bull on a holiday morning in the late summer. People from nearby farms were on hand to see the show. Joseph Henry climbed over a fence into a small field with the bull, and began circling him so as to catch him by the tail. Neighbors yelled advice and caution as the man and the animal maneubered. Suddenly, during an attempt to seize the animal's tail, Joseph lost his footing, fell, and was promptly gored by the bull. Several ribs were broken and only the quick aid of his eldest son, William, and neighbors armed with pitchforks saved his life. His good wife accused him of "not having calf brains". In his own home, Joseph Henry is reputed to have been stern to the point of harshness in matters of family discipline.
Close friends and neighbors of the family at Houghton Center were the Pattisons. They had children, Minnie, Howard, Roland and Grace. According to Minnie Pattison, Joseph Henry's "old Home" was in Wainfleet Township, of Oxford County.
Joseph Henry entered the County Home at Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, on 4 December 1905 and died there on 3 June 1905, age 79. He was buried in Farm No. 7.
Because Joseph had died at Simcoe, I visited the County Home looking for facts. They were there. A handful of words scattered to the columns of an old record book, the original entries, the significant corrections. A surprising, pathetic, single line. The main building was unchanged, a two-story red brick, high off the ground and far back from the road. Its narrow dirt drive circled it then shot straight from the front door to the highway like the shortest possible escape. A hundred feet to either side of the long drive, and straight as guides in a copy book, ran two rows of Pine. It was August. The mowed strips were dusty and turning brown. The place looked deserted. No one was in sight as I drove slowly up, circled the building, and stopped below a long porch at the East end. But here were slow moving rockers and old eyes. Some looked toward the road. Some stared away at the fields of the Burial Farm. There seemed no interest in the visitor. Their worn mills of memory groun at the chafe of yesterday.
The old building was depressing, a thing set apart and muffled in time. Small sounds were distant. I climbed the steps to the main entrance. The screen door was large. There was no sing, no arrow, no bell. I went into a narrow, dark hall. It smelled of cabbage, urine, insinfectant. Here was a world behind doors. An inmate brought the nurse, white-starched and busy, busy. An efficient little red-head, helpful, but cocking one eye at the idea of anyone wasting a day on the one-line record of the long dead.
The books were various, old and misused. They'd been kept in several "hands". Someone had begun an index. I was lefyt with them and a story began. December 4, 1905. An old man sat on the edge of a hard chair, nervous, shakey. He was 78. Sixty of those years had known the cold and snow of Ontario's winters. Seemed they were a lot colder lately! Now he was "on the County". They'd brought him here "where he'd be taken care of". The sleigh ride had chilled him. The hot bricks were cold to the feet long before he and the County man had got here. Slowly the warmth of the room began to steal thru his pant legs. He still had his coat on. His big awkward hands fumbled with a heavy cap. His watery eyes sought the sky thru the high narrow windows. Still snowing. He shifted to better see the cluttered office, the "boughten" furniture, the wainscotting of mill lumber all smooth and shellaced like he'd always wanted for his place.
Three weeks to Christmas. Three weeks to excited kids. Their great day would be dead to him. Old wounds ached and loneliness weighed more at Christman. That was all. Christmas for him was buried under the snows of many years, gone with the days when he could do, when he and Matilda had their own place, when his kids were around him, and he had strength in his hands. He minded the time Milt and Dorie were married on a Christmas eve! And the belling. He thought of Matilda Jane and of their seven, and of their first house as he built it, and the planting of the orchard, and the bees. All gone! The kids grown and married and gone, all but Lambert, and the baby that died before the year was up.
He'd always managed, 'till now, and he'd always hoped to "go" with dignit - not here - not like this. He hated being at the mercy of a petty official, hated the lookk that said, 'you're an unwanted nothing". He had no illusions; the once "strongest man in the county, 6 foot 6 inches, was a shakey wreck, helpless, burdensome, and now, gotten-rid-of. He saw himself as they did, and old hulk being herded to the stall he'd die in, and he hated it in his helplessness. He was master of nothing but the trivial details they might want for the record they must keep in the big book just opened across the table from him. A book of a place he wanted no part of, a hated place, a hated book, and he was alone. He had nothing but loneness now and he decided to keep it that way. There was a satisfaction in choice, even as barren as that one was.
"Your name is?" "Leonard" (Leonard, indeed!). "Your age?" "60" (78) "Married?" "Single", "Religion?" "Baptist" And so his one line record began, "Leonard Sherman Age 60 Baptist Single Admitted Dec. 4, 1905. Six months later it was completed with "Died June 3, 1906 Buried Farm No. 07. Then later a correction in sharp hard strokes striking out "Leonard" and "60" to write "Joseph" and "75" And still not correct; because who ever came for what ever reason, after his death and burial by the County (Charles Mercier?), did not know he'd died exactly 39 days before his 79th birthday.
When Joseph died alone in the poor-house, 5 of his 7 children were alive. Of these 5 there were 3 living in Ontario: Sarah, wife of Washington Burger; Mary, wife of Charles Mercier; and Lambert, bachelor. According to Calvin Wilson, who lived there and knew all these people, Joseph had last lived with Mary and Charles Mercier before commitment to the County Home. William Lewis and family lived near Tawas City, Michigan: James Milton and family lived at Oscoda, Michigan. Joseph and I, a great grandson, had never met. I was conceived one month after his death and so commenced a new life-cycle derived from Joseph Henry by the mystery of the gene. And at 63 I'm typing this about him on this page.
The County Home at Simcoe is a two story, twenty-room, plain box-like structure set in the remote center of a flat forty acre piece. The road in is narrow and straight as a bullet aimed at the front door. Architectural beauty it has not. Landscaping it has not. It is at best an awful example of the necessary someplace, as out-of-sight, as out-of-mind, and as remote as can possibly be arranged by any fine Christian community. It hasn't changed since Joseph first saw it. Only the scrub pine along the straight road in has been added, like camouflage too sparingly applied to be effective.
I was glad that I'd come to search and learn and to imagine. I got a new feeling for Joseph that was warm and strangely real. He had become more than the frozen faced old man on a tin-type photograph, more than a big olld man in a heavy coat, wearing an old fashioned cap-hat with a peak over whispy white hair and straggly beard, and staring directly at you with his watery blue eyes and straight Sherman nose, and clutching a heavy cane with both hands for support. Yes, I see alot more; and feel it too. As I walked out into the bright sunshine it felt good. I turned my car around at the highway for a long look back at the building at the end of the long dirt road and the flat fields of 'Farm No. 07' ".
http://www.sherman-roots.com/sherman/pioneers/sp'ott.doc
3. Joseph Henry7 Sherman born Jul 13 1827 in Berlin MI Ottawa Co (mc/mp). Berlin MI named changed in the 1940s to Marne MI (mc/mp; mc/sp).
1831. Aug 24th, Matilda Jane Fick born in Houghton Twp Norfolk Co Ontario Canada (mc/mp; mc/sp).
1845. Joseph left MI went to Houghton Twp Norfolk Co Ontario Canada, where his mothers relatives lived.
1850. Feb 4th, Joseph married Matilda Jane Fick at probably at Houghton Center Houghton Twp Norfolk Co Ontario Canada (mc/mp); or in 1879 Joseph married Matilda Jane Fick at Glenmeyer Ontario (mc/sp).
. Shortly after marriage he purchased 10 acres near Houghton Center; he set out 200 trees, apple and peach, also 8 cherry trees
Joseph was a farmer, also did carpenter and mason work; tree grafting and bees were his hobby; he did clock "tinkering"; he also tamed bulls; he was 6ft 6in tall, had great strength and was very agile (mc/mp).
1895. Dec 15th, Matilda Sherman died at Houghton Twp Norfolk Co Ontario Canada; buried in the
Baptist Cemetery at Houghton Ontario Canada (mc/mp).
1904. Dec 4th, Joseph entered the County Home (farm #7) (mc/mp)
1906. Jun 3rd, Joseph Sherman died at the County Home (farm #7) Simcoe Ontario Canada; also
buried there (mc/mp). 7 Children:
Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1936
Name: Joseph Sherman
Death Date: 3 Jun 1906 c
Death Location: Norfolk, Ontario, Canada
Age: 75 widower
Gender: Male
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1831
Birth Location: American
Residence: County Home
Occupation: Resident - County Home
Single, Widower
Cause of Death: Nephritis 10 days
Religion: Babtist
Name of Person making return: JCC Grasett
Archives of Ontario Microfilm: MS935_126
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1827 - 1906 (78 years)
