The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-01-13
MmDLEBURY's OLDEST GRAD.
Samuel $. Sherman, '3s, Has Re-
markabIe Record as EducatOr-Was
Born In Rupert.

ever graduated by New England
Sherman, '3S, the present senior alum
nus of Middlebury College, Middle
bury, VT says the Boston Globe. He
is resident of Chicago and has been
Baptist minister, college, seminary
and institute president, carrier of
Northern ideals to the antebellum
South, successful business man and
lastly a gentleman who has made his
leisure effective for good.
Born in Rupert, one of the beauti.
full hill towns of southwestern Ver-
mont, in 1915, he entered Middlebury
at an early age and received its de-
gree with the largest class up to that
time.
Armed with his sheepskin he start
ed South. 1t took him nearly six
weeks and gave him no end of adven-
ture to reach Alabama.
Railroads were almost unknown
bama itself in those early days was
almost wilderness, very recently
relieved of it's Seminole, Choctaw and
Cherokee Indians, who had been
transported to the other side of the
Mississippi river
Yet there was already university
of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and there
Rev. DR.. Basil Marley, the leading
Baptist clergyman of the State, bada
the young Vermont graduate well
come, He gave him position as tn
tor in the institution and Mr.. Sherman
found himself associated with one OF
the great educators of the country.
Prof F. A. F, Barnard, later presl..
dent of the Mississippi University
and. after the war, president of Col
umbia University, New York, and the
founder of Barnard College, the wom-
ans annex of Columbia.
Three years later the Alabama
State Baptist convention determined
to found a college of it's own at Mar
ion and asked Mr.. Sherman to as
sumo charge of it, This venture. first
known as the Howard Literary and
Theological institute, became in time
simply Howard college and rapidly
became one of the important educa-
tional centers of the South. Mr.
Sherman started his work at How
ard with nine boys, but the number
of students was soon greater and in
ten years the project was thoroughly
established
At that time Mr.. Sherman decid I'd
to purchase the school property
known as Brentwood, near La Grange
and left Howard to conduct his own
institution.
His going away from Marion was
signalized by a public meeting call
ed to pay tribute to his success there,
and the college itself has prospered
on the principles he inaugurated. IT
was later removed to Birmingham and
for ten years had as president, DR.. J
M. L. Curry, who became well known
as agent of the Peabody and Slater
funds for education in the South. The
college now has 200 students.
Brentwood occupied President
Sherman's energies only three years,
after which he returned to Marion to
purchase and take charge of Judson
institute. popular female seminary,
which under his management became
the most important of it's kind in the
State. He built it up on the most lib
eral lines both as to studies and the
accomplishments taught, and as re
ward found that his school secured a
noteworthy popular support, with an
accompanying remarkable financial
success.
Time had gone on until it was 1852
and the passions that resulted in the
Civil War were coming to the fore
Political feeling in the South was rap.
idly approaching the exploding point,
and even a naturalized NortherneI
was not treated quite the same as
genuine Southerner President Sher-
man OWNED the situation with
out any overt expression of l.
coming to his attention, and de-
cided the South at that time was no
place for him and his growing fam
lily. So he quietly and sagaciousiy
disposed of all his property interests
while yet there was time and with
many regrets set out for the North.
He went to Milwaukee. For three
years he was in charge of the Milwau-
kee female college, which had been
foundd by Miss Catherine Beeeher,
At tn end of that time he gave up
teaching and entered upon a BUSH
ness career.
Soon after the war Mr.. Sherman
returned to Alabama for short
time and was given an enthusiastic
public reception, being hailed as
"Marion's most eminent citizen"
He devoted the rest of his life 60
business, chiefly in Chicago, and is
passing his last days in that city sur
rounded by his relatives in pleas
ant home.
Part of the carcass of a large doe