I've often thought that one of the keys to SW Sherman might be finding out how and where photographers of the day received their equipment and training, but I literally don't know where I would start to do that. I suspect he went to high school in the Memphis area, because Aunt Eva said that he was an avid reader of the classics, at least as long as his eyes held out.

She told of SW sitting close to the wood stove for warmth, with a lamp for light, and reading far into the night, even after a day's work on the farm. I wonder though, whether he might also have occasionally hired on at the shipyards in Seattle, especially since SW is absent as "head of family" from Coos Bay for the 1910 census—and since Val was employed at a shipyard as a teenager when he decided to enlist in the Navy.

Lots of stories to look for.

1850 Census shows Henry D. Sherman and Mary (Ellen Hawkins), married in 1846, living together in Shelby Co., TN with child named Mary (or Mark Hawkins, age 6 in household, but not identified as relation of either. Not likely to be younger sibling of wife because of age of possible father of M.E.H.—could be her own child either from previous marriage, or out-of-wedlock—she would have been sixteen at birth of child, and I suspect that if it were Henry's, he would have given it Sherman name, since birth dates and actual marriages were not too rigidly consecutive in those days. Another neat clue and mystery to solve.

Small Successes

For some reason, I had trouble pasting my post into this space, so I have used a do-around and inserted today's entry as a comment.  Please excuse my ineptness, and check the comment to find what I really wanted to put in this space.

Just when I think that I've moved up one notch in my search, I slide back two!  Even though I am pretty well convinced that Henry D. Sherman and Mary Ellen Watkins are my g-grandparents, some of the information that I have found (but not yet verified) may be upsetting to other descendents of this line.  Since I will not be satisfied with less than the truth, I feel that I am committed to sharing that information--even though I jumped the gun with my first family tree posted on Ancestry.com.  I listed a lineage that went all the way back to England, but I mistakenly included Adam Sherman as my g-g.  I have since made that tree private so that I can use this blog to explore my findings.

So here I am, having found Henry and Mary in the 1860 census (and also having found four entries on the 1860 Slave Schedule).  This was not a surprise to me, given the times and the location of their lives.  Sherman was almost as common a name in the South as "Smith" was in the North.  Since our line is well-represented among farmers in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, it would have been more startling if our ancestor had joined the Union cause.  

There are a number of Shermans buried in battlefield cemeteries, including one in Chatanooga identified only as Sherman, with no given name or birthdate, so I am going to follow that clue.

But if the event that so embittered Samuel W. was not being orphaned by the Civil War, but some more personal occurence, that may be cause for dismay…

Why mention it now?  Simply because I am still searching for the event that caused grandfather Samuel William to be so reluctant to talk about his family's past.  

It's Easter, and I found the golden egg!  It's Christmas, and my stocking runneth over!  It's March 5, and I have found my great-grandfather!  Well, maybe not totally, but I have nailed his identity.  Awww, all right, I didn't— but a friendly genealogist at the downtown Mahon Library did.  After twenty years of my desultory poking around, she took only thirty minutes to bring a book off the shelves, entitled Marriages in Shelby County, Tennessee, 1820-1888, compiled by Edythe Ruckeer Whitley.  And there it was: item 532 on page 11—the marriage record of Henry D. Sherman and Mary E. Hawkins on March 2, 1846.  Incredible!

Then she produced an index to the 1860 US Census (which I had looked for a number of times) and there it was: in Madison, TN,an entry for Henry, now age 33, Mary 32, Ellen (Ella) 10, Edwin 8 and Thomas 6. Little Samuel would be born in 1861, and Lulu in 1863, and sometime after 1863, the parents died, and by 1870, according to that Census, the surviving children were living with their uncle, Adam Sherman, at Stewart's Store in Mississippi.  Then Samuel and Lulu moved in with big sister Ella and her husband William L. Manly, where they are found in 1880.  It all fits! Maybe the time spent with Uncle Adam was difficult, and that's why we always thought that Sam had been raised by big sister Ella.

Just goes to show that sometimes the answers are right under our noses, but we have to have a trained smeller to find them out.  I need to verify these sources, but this indeed looks very, very promising.

Family lore had someone named Henry Sherman going off to fight the Civil War.  Guess it was G-Grandpa.  Now, if we can find out what happened to G-Grandmother Mary, we will be well on our way to establishing the bare bones of our heritage and get down to the fun stuff of finding out the "rest of the story."

My long silence does not indicate inactivity—rather it is the result of non-productive activity.  Would you believe I have searched the occupants of fifty or more cemeteries in DeSoto County, Mississippi that are listed online?  Then I contacted the County Historical Society to ask for assistance in locating Stewart's Store, the precinct (or parish) in which the 1880 listing for Adam Sherman also includes 18 year-old Samuel, his brother, as well as Adam's son Samuel, age 4.  The census also lists his sister Ella, so I am trying to find out more about her, and the man from that vicinity that she married, William L. Manly.

But the response from the history group was that they did not have information about that location, but would continue to investigate.  One bright note is that when I typed in Stewart's Store on one genealogy site, a map popped up with an arrow indicating a spot just north of IH 69 and just west of US Hwy 51 N.  I quickly emailed my contact, but have not heard back whether that helped find that area. 

Since Adam (or Adsn [legible penmanship did not seem to be one of the requirements for 19th century census-takers]) was listed in both 1870 and 1880 US Censuses, it seemed possible that the location of their farm (his listed occupation) might be a clue.  Perhaps it could have been where Samuel W. was born, since it is just south of Memphis.

Anyway, that is the assumption that I am following at this time.