^:^^2<_
 
 MEMeRIES 
 
 OF 
 
 ViLLiAM N. Sherman 
 
 BY HJS NEPHEW 
 
 REV. HARRIS R. GREENE
 
 Press ot J.J. Little & Co. 
 Astor Place, New York.
 
 SHU? 
 
 Born Feb. 19, 1809. 
 Died March 2, 1882. 
 
 li Jaitl)ful £ifc.
 
 B 
 
 E thou Faithful unto Death, and I 
 will ofive thee a Crown of Life."
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IFFERENT nations have different stan- 
 dards of human excellence. In the view 
 of the ancients, and, at the present time, in 
 the view of uncivilized races, the man to be honored 
 is the man of physical strength and power. He who 
 has the broadest shoulders ; he who stands the tall- 
 est, and can with the greatest vigor draw the bow — 
 he is the man to be esteemed ; he is the hero. 
 
 Indeed, this criterion of excellence has prevailed 
 more or less among civilized nations. 
 
 We are told that " Saul was a choice young man 
 and a goodly ; and there was not among the chil- 
 dren of Israel 2. goodlier person than he ; from his 
 shoulders and upward he zvas higJier than any of the 
 peopled 
 
 It was no small recommendation to Saul in the 
 view of his countrymen with reference to the posi- 
 tion of power he was to occupy that he was Jicad 
 and shoulders taller than any other n-jan. 
 
 Among nations representing a higher type of civ- 
 ilization and refinement, the standard of excellence 
 becomes one of mental power, intellectnal genius. 
 Such, in the main, is the standard in all civilized and 
 enlightened countries to-day. The great man in 
 Europe to-day is the man who is great in the mili- 
 tary, the scientific, the literary, or the aesthetic world.
 
 Tlie great general, the great scientific discoverer, the 
 great poet or historian, the great painter, sculptor, 
 or actor, he is now, throughout Christendom, the man 
 of fame, the man who is honored and worshipped, 
 the man whose biography is sought and read — these 
 are the kinds of men who are immortalized ; these 
 the men whose ashes are permitted a place in West- 
 minster Abbey. 
 
 But the time is certainly coming when there will 
 prevail still another standard of excellence. The 
 time is coming, and is not far distant, when not 
 physical stature and physical prowess, when not in- 
 tellectual power and intellectual demonstration in 
 whatev^er form, but when spiritual power and spirit- 
 ual development and demonstration shall constitute 
 and characterize the man who shall be called great. 
 The truly great man is the man who is great in con- 
 formity with the principles of the New Testament, 
 the man who is developed and complete in the 
 realm of the spiritual as well as in the realm of the 
 mental ; and this kind of greatness will, by and by, 
 when the world becomes better, find full recognition, 
 even as now it finds partial recognition in Christian 
 lands. 
 
 The life which we are about to notice briefly was, 
 like many other lives of merit and value, quiet and 
 unobtrusive. It made no figure in the command 
 of armies ; it was not conspicuous in the fields 
 of science, of art, or of literature ; it was not oreat 
 as men count greatness ; but, notwithstanding all 
 this, it had in it elements of mental vigor, and espe-
 
 cially elements of moral and spiritual power and 
 beauty, which makes it, in these respects at least, a 
 life well worthy to contemplate. 
 
 The life whose memoirs are here sketched ex- 
 hibited, in some measure at least, in the lines above 
 indicated, noble and worthy qualities of heart and 
 soul. To bring these more freshly to the memory 
 of friends and acquaintances is the object of these 
 brief memoirs.
 
 BIRTH AND FAMILY. 
 
 ILLIAM NORTH UP SHERMAN was 
 born in North Kingston, R. I., February 
 19, 1809. His father was Nathaniel Sher- 
 man, also of North Kingston. He was a member 
 of that family of Shermans now represented so 
 conspicuously by Gen. W. T. Sherman, who in the 
 War of the Rebellion was second in rank only to 
 Gen. U. S. Grant ; by Senator Sherman of Ohio, one 
 of the ablest men we have now in Congress ; by 
 Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, probably the most 
 influential man to-day in the United States Senate ; 
 by William M. Evarts of New York, probably the 
 strongest advocate at the bar in the metropolis, 
 and at present a man of power in Congress ; and 
 by Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, President of the 
 New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. 
 
 Sherman Coat of Arms. — Complicated but very 
 handsome. 
 
 Arms. — Sherman (London and Devonshire, de- 
 scended from the Shermans of Yaxley, County Suf- 
 folk). When displa)'ed or painted, the whole 
 groundwork of the shield is gold color, with a lion 
 rampant in the centre. The lion is black (an un- 
 usual color for a lion), and is surrounded by three 
 green oak leaves. On its shoulder rests a ring.
 
 lO 
 
 CrcsL — A sea lion sejant (or sittinor) on a shield 
 of two colors divided by a perpendicular line ; one 
 side is gold color, the other siKcr color. This sea 
 lion has black spots upon it, and has fins of gold ; 
 the shoulder is a crescent moon. Motto : Conquer 
 death by virtue. 
 
 The name of Sherman is by no means a common 
 one in England, though it is an ancient, highl)- re- 
 spected, and honored one. Sir Henry Sherman 
 was one of the executors of the will of Lord Stan- 
 ley, Earl of Derby, County of Lancaster, dated May 
 23, 1521. William Sherman, Esq., purchased 
 Knightston in the time of Henr)- VIIL A monu- 
 ment to William Sherman is in Ottery, St. Mary, 
 erected in 1542. 
 
 The pedigree of the Sherman famil)' is obtained 
 from Davy's manuscript collection relating to the 
 County of Suffolk ( England), deposited in the British 
 Museum.* 
 
 Mr. Sherman's mother was Elizabeth Northup. the 
 sister of Rev. William Northup, for half a century one 
 of the most celebrated preachers in Southern Rhode 
 Island. He was the founder of the First Baptist 
 Church in North Kingston, and was its esteemed and 
 honored pastor for a period of fifty- nine years. Few 
 men, in any country, in any denomination, at any 
 period, ha\-e held a pastorate so long. He was a man 
 of large and commanding presence, as he was a man 
 
 * For these facts I am indebted to William Cothren, Esq.. of Woodbury, 
 Conn., who has written a history of the .Sherman family in England and 
 America.
 
 1 1 
 
 of capacious and powerful mind. He was truly a 
 moral and spiritual patriarch among the prophets of 
 Israel. The church under his grand gospel min- 
 istry grew in strength and numbers through all 
 these long years of his pastorate, enjoying in the 
 course of them, in addition to their ordinary ac- 
 cessions constantly occurring, six revivals of great 
 power. 
 
 Mr. Northup preached not science, not phi- 
 losophy, and not literature, but the simple Gospel of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and " the people heard him 
 gladly." He was a truly converted xwa.x\, and he spoke 
 " as the Holy Spirit gave him utterance." It is an 
 interesting fact in his history that his first religious 
 impressions were received from a slave in his father's 
 family. Religion is the same wonderful thing in the 
 hearts of all men, of whatever color, rank, or con- 
 dition. Mr. Northup received through and from a 
 poor black domestic that glorious spiritual energy 
 and life which transformed his entire nature, and 
 made him that great apostle of God he afterwards 
 became. 
 
 After this wonderfully long and successful pastor- 
 ate, he was gathered to his fathers at the ripe old age 
 of seventy-nine, full of Christian graces, and full of 
 honors, and meet for the Heavenly Kingdom. He 
 commenced his ministry at twenty, and founded the 
 church above referred to only two years later. 
 
 We have made this somewhat detailed reference 
 to this celebrated man, for two or three special 
 reasons : first, because he was the ever revered and
 
 1 2 
 
 eneratcd iiaiiiL'sakc; of Mr. Sherman ; sccoiul, be- 
 cause he exerted ever a ver)' decided iiitliuMice over 
 Mr. Sherman, not onlx' lUn-iiiL;" the boyhood and 
 )oiith of the hitter, but, as the writer believes, 
 throughout his hfe ; and third, because of one or two 
 facts to be noted hereafter, which will be better 
 understood and appreciated by this reference. 
 
 It will be seen, then, that Mr. Sherman was 
 descended from an ancestry which represented some 
 of the best blood in New England. 
 
 Education. — Nathaniel Sherman, the father of 
 William N. Sherman, was a well-to-do New Engrland 
 farmer. The country schools in his time — seventy' 
 years a^jo — were not what they are now. Three 
 months in the winter, and that usually under an in- 
 different teacher, was all the " schooling " the best 
 privileged youth of those da)'s ever received at 
 home. These limited educational privileges did not 
 satisfy the aspiring mind of young William. At an 
 early age, therefore, he was sent to the Kingston 
 Hill Academy, where the best of instruction was 
 given, in the higher as well as the common iLngiish 
 branches. Subsequently he was sent to another 
 private school. 
 
 In these schools he evidently made the most of 
 his now ample privileges, turning to good account 
 every help to education that canu! in his wa)-. 
 The writer has examined with great pleasure and in- 
 terest some of his school work of this time in the 
 form of a complete transcript of the arithmetic he 
 then used, together with a full and complete solution
 
 of all the problems given therein. The beauty of 
 the penmanship, the order and neatness of the work, 
 the absolute excellence of the whole, from beginning 
 to end, was very greatly to the credit of the pupil. 
 Little things indicate character as truly as great 
 things. The work of the child forecasts the work of 
 the man. Here at once was an earnest of that or- 
 der, system, care, neatness, and accuracy which 
 characterized the journalist in his grander work in 
 after years, and which, indeed, was so conspicuous 
 in all that he undertook in whatever department of 
 effort — physical, mental, or religious — in later life. 
 
 Educational institutions as such have no power, in 
 themselves, to make the youths who are privileged 
 to attend them good and noble men. Like many 
 other things, thoroughly good in themselves consid- 
 ered, they may become a saver of life unto life, or ot 
 death unto death. The academ)-, like the college, 
 either helps or harms, according as the student 
 makes it a field for appropriating the good — literary, 
 social, moral, and religious — that it yields ; or, on the 
 other hand, makes it a place where, b)- associating 
 with the low and the base, he absorbs only the 
 vilest and basest moral and spiritual influences, and 
 thus actually learning little or nothing of good, con- 
 tracts life-lono- habits of laziness, license, and vice. 
 So everything, in fact, in nature, in society, and in 
 life becomes a blessing or a banc according as men's 
 native bent and affinities lead them to appropriate 
 the good or to imbibe the evil. 
 
 Evidently Mr. Sherman found in the educational
 
 H 
 
 and litcrar)' prixilcijcs ot the Kiiv^sLon Acadmiy aiul 
 the other private school followinij' the same, the 
 means of developiiiL;' and iinloKhiiL; his mental, moral 
 and religious powers. Evidently his hi^ii-toned 
 nature became here a grand absorbent of all that 
 was useful, noble, and good, while it was utterl\- irre- 
 sponsive to temptations and influences unhallowed 
 and base. 
 
 A Teacher. — After leaving the Academy. Mr. 
 Sherman for some years taught in the district schools 
 in different parts of Washington County. We may 
 be sure, from what we know ot him in later life, 
 that he had a model school for tliose days. As is* 
 the man, so is the school. Indeed, the man /s the 
 school. A man fond of order and system will have 
 an orderly and systematic school. Such was he. 
 So a man of refinement, of sensitive conscience, of a 
 keen sense of justice, will impress all these beautiful 
 sentiments more or less upon his pupils. Such a 
 man was he. In his school, therefore, there must 
 have been daily evidence of the influence upon his 
 pupils of these noble jjrinciples. Above all, a man 
 of Christian character will unconsciously induce in 
 all around him, and especially the young, feelings 
 and sentiments of reverence and devotion. Such a 
 man was he, and his school, therefore, must have ielt 
 his power in this direction. Add to all this careful, 
 correct, and thorough and methodical instruction, 
 and you have the elements of all excellence in a 
 school. 
 
 Learns Bl'siness Life. — But the vocation of the
 
 15 
 
 teacher, especially in a sphere so circumscribed, 
 promised little, either of money or of emolument, 
 sixty years ago. Mr. Sherman, therefore, decided 
 upon some other calling in life. Like the great ma- 
 jority of men, he did not yet know for what busi- 
 ness or profession he was best fitted. This he must 
 learn by slow experience, under the revealing power 
 of the chaneine circumstances of life. For a time, 
 with reference to a future business life, he became a 
 clerk in a store in Newport, R. I. Afterwards he 
 removed to Southbridge, Mass., and re-engaged in 
 the same kind of business. Here it was that his 
 mind began to assert itself, and to whisi)er to him 
 that he could do better work than to pore over ac- 
 count books and handle the yardstick. He began 
 to contribute occasional articles to the columns of 
 newspapers published in that vicinity. Becoming 
 encouraged by the reception which these maiden 
 productions received, he began to plan for a larger 
 and better field in this line of effort. 
 
 The "Ladies' Mirror." — In connection with Mr. 
 •George \V. H. Fiske, he commenced the publication 
 of the Ladies Mirror, a literary paper issued every 
 other Saturday. The circulation soon attained to the 
 figure of about one thousand copies — a most flat- 
 tering success, considering the comparative sparse- 
 jiess of the population in that part of the country. 
 This enterprise he followed up most successfirlly lor 
 .about four years, when he thought he could see 
 something still better ahead. 
 
 Removal tu Woonsockei". — The city of W'oon-
 
 i6 
 
 sockt't was c\'cn then a most tloiirishing- town. Mr. 
 Sherman believed that this thrivini^ manufactur- 
 ing" village promised success in the line ot jour- 
 nalism in the near future. . Accordingly in the 
 year 1833 he l)Ought, at an assignee's sale, the print- 
 ing press on which the Ladies Mirror had been 
 previously printed. Loading the same with its 
 conijilement of type and forms on a large team 
 wagon, he started in person lor W'oonsocket. Ar- 
 rived there, he immediately secured a room for an 
 office, and on the 5th of October, 1833, published 
 the first number of his new paper. 
 
 Thk " WuoNsocKET P.\ iKioT." — It required some 
 business courage to start a weekly paper in the little 
 town of W'oonsocket, as it was more than fifty years 
 dofo. But Mr. Sherman had that virtue which 
 always and ever\\vhere is essential to success, viz. : 
 faith i)i liivisclf. He felt that he could make this 
 new enterprise a success. He had already proved to 
 himself, in his brief experience at journalism in South - 
 bridge, that he could serve up, once a week at least, 
 to the people of Woonsocket and \icinity, the news 
 of the day, and also that kind of intellectual rejjast 
 which they would appreciate and enjoy. In this 
 he was not deceived. His paper soon became very 
 popular ; the subscription list became at once promis- 
 ing, and constantly increased. The Woonsocket Pa- 
 triot soon became an organ of influence and of power, 
 and that not only in the village itself, but far out into 
 the adjoining counties, country, and State. For 
 more than fift\- \ears, and down to the present time.
 
 17 
 
 this paper has been one of the leading journals of 
 the State of Rhode Island, and has exerted an in- 
 fluence upon morals, politics, and religion of untold 
 value. Starting as a six-column, four-page paper, 
 it soon grew into an eight-page paper, and circulated 
 more or less throughout the State, and to some ex- 
 tent in adjoining States. 
 
 Mr. Noah I. Arnold, an old resident of Rhode 
 Island, in an article in the Patriot, copied from a 
 Providence paper on " Woonsocket Reminiscences," 
 says : " Returning my thoughts again to those days 
 of forty years ago, I am not forgetful of the fact that 
 the Woonsocket Patriot was then published, and at 
 that time enjoyed the proud distinction that it does 
 now, and, I trust, will for many years to come, of being 
 one of the ablest of New England newspaper sT 
 
 Principle vs. Profit. — It is almost needless to 
 say that this paper, while under the control of Mr. 
 Sherman, was conducted upon the highest principles 
 of justice, morality, and Christianity. As editor and 
 proprietor, Mr. Sherman never permitted apparent 
 immediate pecuniary interest to interfere with the 
 claims of progress, reform, and religion. 
 
 " From one learn all." In its early days the 
 course of the editor, in advocating the cause of 
 temperance, became to quite a number of his sub- 
 scribers a ground of offence. Accordingly, several at 
 once sent in their names, and demanded that^their 
 paper be stopped forthwith. Quite probably these 
 supporters of the rum traffic supposed, as small men 
 are very apt to believe, that their influence thus ex-
 
 iS 
 
 ertccl would be potent in crippling-, if it tlid not re- 
 sult in utterly destroying, this daring- sheet. 
 
 It is a matter of infniite satisfaction to ever\' true 
 and good man in this world that amid all the 
 wickedness, corruption, and ini(|uity of men there is 
 always a large and powerful leavening of noble, 
 moral, and even reliijious sentiment left. Mr. Sher- 
 man, not knowing how great the defection might be 
 in the future, should he still continue his course of 
 hostility towards the rum power, nevertheless still 
 pursued his way fearlessly, and regardless of con- 
 sequences. The unexpected result was that more 
 than two hundred new subscribers were soon added 
 to his list. 
 
 All men have a conscience ; all men love the 
 right, the true and the good, and hate the iniquitous, 
 the false and the bad ; and as a rule, all men, when 
 vice is v\o\. profitable to themselves, throw the weight 
 of their influence on the side of virtue and goodness. 
 By its course of unflinching and steadfast advocacy of 
 everything good and noble in reform, the Patriot 
 strengthened constantly its hold upon the hearts of 
 the community. It thus soon became known and 
 recognized as a paper of high and noble aims and 
 purposes. 
 
 Mr. Sherman continued to publish this paper for 
 some nine or ten years, witli ever-widening influence 
 and ever-increasing circulation. 
 
 Job Printing. — As this was the only printing 
 office in an enterprising and growing community, 
 it soon became largely patronized for job work.
 
 19 
 
 The proprietor had never served an apprentice- 
 ship at the business of job printing. But where there 
 is a will there is always a way. He immediately set to 
 work setting type, locking up forms, and working off 
 his sheets by the power of a strong hand and a mus- 
 cular arm. In a short time he made himself familiar 
 with all the departments of work needful in this line, 
 and was thus enabled to superintend and control 
 the whole business, from the preparation of the 
 manuscript to the carefully-printed page. 
 
 It was in this office that his nephew, the late 
 Col. A. Crawford Greene, of Providence ; John S. 
 Sibley, of Pawtucket, and S. S. Foss, of Woonsocket, 
 all of whom afterwards made their mark in the busi- 
 ness world, were initiated into the "mystic" art. 
 The first of the above, Col. A. C. Greene, was for 
 more than thirty years a leading newspaper publisher, 
 and probably the largest job printer in the State. Mr. 
 Sibley was for manyyears, in company with another, 
 the publisher of The Gazette and Chronicle in Paw- 
 tucket, and Mr. Foss succeeded Mr. Sherman in the 
 proprietorship of The Patriot, which he continued 
 to publish wiih marked ability for about fort)' years. 
 Marriage. — As before stated, Mr. Slierman lo- 
 cated in Woonsocket in the year 1833. In 1834 he 
 married Miss Mary M. Bliss, of Brimfield, Mass.. in 
 whom he found an educated, cultivated, and accom- 
 plished lady, in every way worth)- to become his 
 lifelong partner. 
 
 Miss Bliss was the daughter of Ichabod and Re- 
 becca Holbrook Bliss. The Bliss family represented
 
 20 
 
 an ancestry of honor and repute. The ancestral 
 coat of arms consisted of a crest, representing an arm 
 uphfted, with the liand grasping a bundle of arrows. 
 (This device was commemorative of an act of prow- 
 ess in the early history of the family). 
 
 Upon the shield beneath was a bend vaire (he 
 bearetli sable) between two fleur-de-lis. The motto 
 of this lieraldic or escutcheon emblem was " Semper 
 Sursuni " — "Ever Upward." 
 
 Miss Bliss's mother's name was Rebecca Choate 
 Holbrook, the name CJioate representing thus one 
 branch of her family on her mother's side. Mrs. Sher- 
 man has to this da)' in her possession a large pewter 
 platter (the silver of colonial days) upon which is 
 engraven the " Coat of Arms " of the Choate family 
 (an exact counterpart of this heraldic device can be 
 seen under the head of " Crest " in Webster's Dic- 
 tionary) used more than a century ago, perhaps 
 two centuries, for this platter belonged to her grand- 
 mother, and her motlier would have been one hun- 
 dred and eleven years old if she had lived until the 
 present time. She was a sister of Judge Holbrook 
 of Connecticut, and a cousin of Rufus Choate, the 
 eminent lawyer of Boston. Her grandmother, Re- 
 becca Choate, of Roxbury, Mass., was married De- 
 cember 13, 1758, to John Holbrook of Pomfret, 
 Conn., afterward Deacon Holbrook of the Congre- 
 gational Church there. This platter bears the in- 
 itials of her maiden name, " R " being engraved 
 at the left of the crest, and "C" at the right. 
 The motto is " Fortune De Guerre." It must have
 
 21 
 
 become her property at the time she was a bride, or 
 it belonf^ed to some ancestor of the same name, 
 and has been handed down as a family heirloom. 
 What romantic associations do we fancy belonging 
 to an article so ancient, whose historical life may ex- 
 tend to aofes more remote than we even dream, but 
 whose unknown antiquity is only an added charm to 
 its value ! 
 
 The Holbrook name appears frequently in history 
 in connection with various public services. That 
 they were an ancient family we find from a pe- 
 rusal of various records. I quote from one writer : 
 " A beautiful trianofular farm borderinor on the Mash- 
 amoquet was purchased by John Holbrook, Sr., 
 whose son, Ebenezer (Deacon John Holbrook's 
 father), took possession of it in 17 19. Holbrook's 
 four hundred acres cost him as many pounds. One 
 other farm purchased at that time cost more per acre, 
 the others less, showing that the land and location 
 were considered desirable. The old homestead 
 (tradition says it was the first two-story house in 
 town) is still standing, but modernized in appearance 
 somewhat. The elm under which the first military 
 company in Pomfret halted and had a lunch given 
 them by the Holbrook family is now a venerable 
 tree. The company was on the its way to Boston, 
 'the seat of war ' during the Revolution.' 
 
 The sequel, embracing a period of more than half a 
 century, showed that Mr. Sherman had not made an 
 unwise choice. Mrs. Sherman became at once a true 
 helpmate in all his affairs, and, what was most impor-
 
 22 
 
 tant ot all, she at once- fell into sympathy with hini ; 
 not in a mechanical or indifferent way, but con- 
 scientiously and enthusiastically, and this in all 
 his relii^ious and charitable aims and pur()Oses, 
 throun^hout the remainder of his life. 
 
 Failinc; Health. — The village of Woonsocket is a 
 manufacturing town. The power employed was for- 
 merly almost entirely water-power. This involved 
 the floodincf of hundreds of acres of land. So larire 
 an expanse of fresh water produced an atmosphere not 
 favorable to many constitutions. After about nine 
 years of close application to business, Mr. Sherman 
 found his health gradually but decidedly failing. 
 This he attributed, in no small degree, to the damp- 
 ness of the air, caused by the immense amount of 
 evaporation from the extended fresh water overflows 
 mentioned above. Whether it was tliis, or whether it 
 was his close and unremitting application to his con- 
 stantly-growing" business, or whether it was both, it 
 may not be easy to decide. He felt, at any rate, that 
 his health, if not his life, depended upon his making a 
 chanfre. He was moreover stroncrh' advised bv his 
 physicrans to leave his business, to leave the village, 
 and seek recreation and a complete change of life 
 in all directions. 
 
 Accordingly he felt it imperative to give up his lu- 
 crative business, and find, if possible, some quiet re- 
 treat by the sea-side, where a change of air and a 
 change of life might re;store him again to health. 
 
 Removal to Wickford. — He had friends and ac- 
 quaintances in tlu- little quiet town of Wickford, in
 
 23 
 
 the southern part of the State; thither, in 1843, he 
 removed. By throwing off all care, by devoting 
 himself to out-door recreations, his health began to 
 return to him. As soon as it was measurably re-es- 
 tablished, he accepted several offers of trust and re- 
 sponsibility, which were tendered him — duties which 
 occupied his time, diverted his mind, and thus aided 
 largely in building up again his worn and weakened 
 physical constitution. 
 
 He held at different times, thus, the offices of 
 notary public, counsellor at law, and sheriff, amus- 
 ing himself in the intervals of active service in gar- 
 dening and fishing, of both which he was very fond. 
 
 Fond of Fishing. — The writer has a, vivid recol- 
 lection of his extreme fondness for the piscatory art. 
 However dignified in deportment on all proper 
 occasions, the moment a fishing excursion was afoot 
 he was as full of fun and frolic as a boy. And in 
 this pastime he showed great skill and expertness. 
 Full of life and enthusiasm himself, he seemed to 
 have a kind of ''luitching'' power over all the com- 
 pany who chanced to be with him. 
 
 It was ever a great pleasure to accompan)- liiin on 
 these fishing excursions. There was usually at the 
 start an undertone of apparent discouragement as 
 to the result, — the weather was unfavoral)le, the 
 wind was the wrong wa\', it was too cold or too 
 hot, the bait was not of the right kind, the fishing 
 ground had not been well chosen, the boat was too 
 small or too large, the hooks too large or bad in 
 form, and nothing would be accomplished. But
 
 2 + 
 
 all this wc knew to be onl\" a kind of internal self- 
 preparation against a possible failure, and at the 
 first indications of success, as soon as a sinq'le fish 
 was brought into the l)oat. instantly he became 
 electrified himself, antl infused the same spirit of ex- 
 hilaration into all the company. 
 
 Tii.T-i r-iNG. — There was one kind of fishing which 
 he enjoyed remarkably. It was called from the nature 
 of the process tilt-up-i)ig. It was a winter sport- 
 Some good fish-pond was selected, holes were cut 
 through the ice, and baited hooks, attached by lines 
 to short poles, were dropped down. The pole was 
 so arranged, partly over the hole and partly lying 
 outside on the ice, that when the fish bit, the long 
 end would till-up and thus the angler would be made 
 aware of the fact. 
 
 Conceive thus thirty or forty holes cut in a pond 
 where fish are plenty, and where, it being winter, the 
 fish are himgry ; conceive your sportsman on skates 
 and ready to glide at an)' moment to any portion of 
 the pond covering several acres; conceive of bright, 
 warm fires burning on the pond in a half-dozen differ- 
 ent places ; conceive now of hungry fish biting at 
 these lines, and the poles bobbing uj) all over the 
 pond, ready for \ou to make your haul, at a half- 
 dozen different places at once, and, if you are at all 
 fond of sport, you can understand how tilt-up-ing was 
 a rare amusement. 
 
 Such it really was, as tlie writer can testify from 
 personal experience, he having accompanied Mr. 
 Sherman once or twice on these excursions. For
 
 25 
 
 weeks and months, deprived of his favorite pastime 
 in the usual method, he found rare and grand sport 
 in this form of winter anghng. 
 
 Dividing his time thus between business and 
 amusement, neither of which taxed his strength, 
 Mr. Sherman finally regained his health completely. 
 He now felt like turning again to his favorite voca- 
 tion of journalism. His old paper, The Woonsockct 
 Patriot, however, he had sold to one of his former 
 apprentices, Mr. S. S. Foss. This, therefore, even 
 if so disposed, he could not now recover. 
 
 Removal to East GkeExWvich — " The Pendu- 
 lum." — A paper called The Kent County Atlas\\-2iA 
 been established at Phcnix, R. I., during the years 
 1850-1851 by Mr. I. H. Lincoln. It met with in- 
 sufficient encouragement to warrant its continued 
 publication in that town. Accordingly in 1852 it 
 was removed to East Greenwich, R. I. There it 
 was published for a year and a half with scarcely bet- 
 ter success. The paper was now placed in the 
 hands of some interested citizens, who were greatly 
 desirous of its success, and who became bound finan- 
 cially for its further publication. 
 
 These gentlemen, knowinL*- the rare fitness and 
 ability of Mr. Sherman to manage such an enter- 
 prise, urgently solicited him to purchase the office, 
 press, materials, etc., and start a newspaper of his 
 own, making the best use he could of the subscrip- 
 tion list of 71ie Atlas. After a delay of some months 
 Mr. Sherman finally decided to engage in this enter- 
 prise, and in May, 1854. he issued the first number
 
 26 
 
 of liis new paper, The Rhode Island J\)idului)i. Its 
 imprint bore tlie names of Wickford and Greenwich 
 as places of publication, while it was actually /r/V/A-rt', 
 first in Woonsocket, and afterwards in Providence, in 
 the office of A, Crawford Greene, to whom allusion 
 has been made above. 
 
 There was siofnificance in the name of this paper, 
 Mr. Sherman beincr accustomed to say, that his new 
 paper was to " jti^/;/^" between the two places of 
 publication above named, and also " to swing for all." 
 The muscle-poiK.'e7' press which the proprietor had 
 purchased, and on which the old Atlas had been 
 published, was all well enough in Atlas s day, since 
 he had an arm and shoulder which, as we are told 
 in classic annals, lifted and supported the world it 
 self. But now it was no loniji'er braion but brain 
 that must lift the world, and so Mr. Sherman, calling 
 into service the power of steam to take the place of 
 brute force in operating the complex machinery of 
 printing, chose to make his paper an Atlas in mo7'al 
 and mental vigor, and thus to move and lift the 
 world. 
 
 Mr. Sherman's name, appearing now as editor and 
 proprietor, became at once the earnest of success. 
 The number of subscribers immediately began to 
 increase. It soon took a decided and influential 
 stand among the journals of the State. Combin- 
 ing literature and story with local news, intelli- 
 gent, fresh, and racy, it became, almost from the 
 first issue, a favorite in the office, the shop, and es- 
 pecially in the family, where its influence was always
 
 27 
 
 wholesome, high-toned, and elevating. Exceptional 
 tact and taste was ever shown in its literary depart- 
 ment, especially in the selection of its stories, one al- 
 ways appearing in every issue. 
 
 This paper he continued to publish for upwards of 
 twenty-three years, or until October, 1877. 
 
 Retires from Business. — At this time, having 
 come well-nigh up to the appointed term of human 
 life, the three-score years and ten ; having accumu- 
 lated a sufficiently ample competence for a man of his 
 moderate desires and economical habits ; and feeling 
 that now he had reached the quiet Sabbath of what had 
 been an industrious and active life, he decided to cut 
 loose from all business connections and devote what 
 remained of life to literary and social diversions 
 and delights, and to the accomplishment of what he 
 could do for the cause of education, of morals, of re- 
 ligion, and the Church of Christ. 
 
 He accordingly sold out his paper, transferring it 
 into the hands of a gentleman who has continued 
 its publication down to the present time. 
 
 The publication of The Pendulum had, for more 
 than a score of years, been b\- no means an irksome 
 enterprise to Mr. Sherman. It had furnished him 
 congenial employment, one more than an\- other in 
 harmony with his natural inclinations. It had aflord- 
 ed him a channel for the free expression of his own 
 personal convictions, on all questions of morals and 
 reform ; and thus had become to him a source of 
 pleasure and satisfaclicjn rather than a business care 
 and burden.
 
 28 
 
 FeelincT that he could trust to no one the final 
 arrangement and disposition of the various articles, 
 and matter generally, to be published, and the 
 " making up " of the completed forms, he himself 
 was accustomed to go to the city of Providence 
 every week, and give his personal attention to this 
 business. He thus made himself acquainted with all 
 the employees of the establishment, and by his pleas- 
 ant social bearing and his never-failing good cheer, 
 he soon became a general favorite with all. His 
 periodical advent was thus always anticipated and 
 welcomed, and soon, from the highest in position to 
 the lowest — not in an unbecoming and graceless 
 familiarity, but in real good-fellowship and kindly 
 feeling — he was known and addressed as "Uncle 
 William." Of course this method of address was 
 first caught from the lips of the proprietor of the es- 
 tablishment, his nephew, who would naturally address 
 him in this way. 
 
 Rose Cottage. — Up to this time Mr. Sherman 
 had lived and entertained his friends in " his own 
 hired house," not intending to purchase and thus 
 fetter himself, until health, fully restored, should en- 
 able him to fix upon a permanent locality for resi- 
 dence. Feeling that he had now reached that point, 
 in 1858 he purchased the beautiful cottage in Elm 
 Street, opposite the Greenwich Academy, one of the 
 finest residences and localities in the village. 
 
 We have often visited him at this place, and have 
 always enjoyed exceedingly tlie external as well as 
 the internal cheer and beauty of his home. The
 
 29 
 
 house occupies a very elevated position, and com- 
 mands a most delightful view of the adjacent bay, 
 with its circling coves and its larger outer ex- 
 panse, its wooded banks and fresh green islands. 
 
 Marriage of his Daughter. — Mr. Sherman had 
 only one child, a daughter, Mary M. Sherman. She 
 was educated mainly at East Greenwich Academy, 
 where she passed through the prescribed curriculum, 
 and graduated at the close of the course with valedic- 
 tory honors. Subsequently, for the purpose of per- 
 fecting herself in special departments, she spent 
 about a year at the Oread Collegiate Institute, 
 Worcester, Mass., at that time one of the most pop- 
 ular and influential ladies' seminaries in New En- 
 Sfland. 
 
 In the year 1872 she was married to John A. 
 Mead, M. D., a successful physician, and a solid 
 citizen of Rutland, Vermont. This marriage took 
 from " Rose Cottage" one of the chief attractions of 
 their home, and after selling out business in Green- 
 wich, Mr. and Mrs. Sherman spent much of their 
 time at the residence of their daughter. 
 
 Mr. Sherman's Death. — It was here, while on a 
 visit, that Mr. Sherman died, March 2, 1882, aged 
 seventy-three years. Eor some months he had been 
 far from well. Eor a number of weeks his malady, 
 which was a complication of disorders, constantly in- 
 creased. He found himself unable to go back to his 
 home, and after a severe and most painful illness died 
 thus, not in his own home, yet in the midst of his 
 small, but loving and devoted famil)-.
 
 ;o 
 
 His sickness, protracted ami painful, was endured 
 throLicrhout with Christian fortitude. He was, in 
 truth, a patient sufferer, as he drew near the (-nd 
 of life, of which he was entirely conscious. He 
 arose, not indeed, to any grand and ecstatic contem- 
 plations and visions of tlic future glories of the world 
 which he was about to enter, but, what was perhaps 
 better, he settled down into a calm, firm trust in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, as his only and all-sufficient Sav- 
 iour, and in this holy, restful trust he never faltered 
 or wa\ered to the moment oi his departure. 
 
 He was remarkabl)- thoughtful of everything per- 
 taining to his funeral, and expressed freely his wishes 
 and preferences in regard to all the arrangements for 
 the same. Among other things, he made a special 
 request that there should be no contributions of 
 flowers, saying that the kind and affectionate feelings 
 of his friends, shown in so pronounced a way during 
 his protracted illness, were better far than the rich- 
 est and rarest flowers that could be heaped about 
 his senseless body in whatever wealth or profusion. 
 
 Funp:ral Services. — Accomj:)anied by his imme- 
 diate family, his remains were taken to his home in 
 East Greenwich, where kind friends had made ready 
 the house for their reception, and were waiting to 
 receive them. They reached there Saturday after- 
 noon, and on Monday following the funeral services 
 were held at his late resilience. The house was 
 filled with relatives and niourning friends. A large 
 number of citizens, embracing many of the promi- 
 nent professional and business men of the village
 
 and vicinity, were present, desirous of paying the 
 last tribute of respect to one whom they had so long 
 and so pleasantly known. In conformity with the 
 request of Mr. Sherman, there were no elaborate 
 floral decorations, except a handsome wreath of 
 calla leaves and wheat, a sickle of wheat and myrtle, 
 and a few other flowers that had been affection- 
 ately laid at the head of the casket. The Rev. Mr. 
 Goodwin, Rector of St. Luke's Church, read por- 
 tions of the Episcopal burial service. The h)mn, 
 " Asleep in Jesus," was then sweetly rendered by a 
 quartet of voices, the music being by Prof. O. 
 L. Carter, who presided at the organ. Prayer was 
 now offered b\' Rev. W. J. Yates. Appropriate re- 
 marks were made by the Rev. F. J. Blakeslee, Prin- 
 cipal of the Academy, whose attendance on this 
 occasion had previously been requested b)- Mr. 
 Sherman. 
 
 Professor Blakeslee spoke briefly. " Death," he 
 said, " was that dread and mysterious experience to 
 which no reach of Christian fortitude could ever 
 reconcile us. A hope in Christ and the consola- 
 tions of di\ine grace did in some measure solace us in 
 the midst of bereavement. They gave promise of a 
 bright and better life hereafter. Death, although a 
 necessity to secure what was obtained by it. was 
 yet by no means an unmixc;d evil. Its shadow was 
 cold and chilling, but was cast across a golden portal 
 which opened to the realms of endless jo)'." 
 
 Reference was made to the moral and religious 
 life of the departed ; to the influence which, through
 
 the press and in niiiiicrous otlicr ways, he had ex- 
 ertctl ; to liis havin;,; erected and supported a chapel 
 for divine worship, and to his ever salutary example 
 for good among- his fellows. He spoke also of the 
 sweet, peaceful, and trustful composure with which 
 he approached the end, and linall\- la\' down to his 
 last sleej). 
 
 A few remarks were made by Mrs. Lydia Ma- 
 comber, of the Society of Friends, after which was 
 sung the sadly joyous h\'mn, "I Come to Thee." 
 Mr. Yates, assistetl by Professor Blakeslee, read the 
 closing service, and then pronounced the benediction. 
 
 His appearance after death was most life-like. 
 Looking upon his calm and peaceful face, one could 
 easily feel that "he is not dead, but sleepeth." So 
 placid and natural did he seem that one who had 
 heard him often in relifrious meeting's said : " It 
 seems as if he could speak." 
 
 The remains, accompanied b\- immediate friends, 
 were borne to Elm Grove Cemetery, near Wick- 
 fortl. and, in conformit\- witli the wishes of Mr. Sher- 
 man, expressed before death, were deposited in the 
 receiving tomb, to remain there for a few weeks 
 before burial. At the tomb Mr. I. Capron, Chaplain 
 of Harmon)- Lodge, of wliich lie was a meml)er, read 
 the beautiful burial service of that organization. 
 
 Burial. — Subsequently (in the following May), 
 in the presence of friends, his body was taken from 
 the receiving tomb and placed in a receptacle of 
 masonry which had been prepared with great care 
 and excellence by his friend E. \V. L., of Green-
 
 wich. The Rev. J. F. Jones, Pastor of the Allcnton 
 Baptist Church, offered prayer at this, his last rest- 
 ing place. There his sacred ashes shall doubtless 
 sleep until comes the resurrection dawn, when, as he 
 firmly believed, he will be "clothed upon" with a body 
 not of corruption, but of incorruption ; with a body 
 sown indeed in dishonor, but to be raised in glory ; 
 a body sown in weakness, but to be raised in power ; 
 a body sown a natural body, but to be raised an im- 
 mortal and spiritual body. It shall be an eternal 
 temple for the indwelling soul, of grand and beauti- 
 ful mould, of divine workmanship, of eternal duration, 
 and fitted for an everlasting life in the world of 
 light ; " a temple not made with hands, eternal in 
 the heavens." 
 
 Brother, thou art gone to rest. 
 
 We will not weep for thee, 
 For thou art now where oft on earth 
 
 Thy spirit longed to be. 
 
 Brother, thou art gone to rest, 
 
 Thy toils and cares are o'er, 
 And sorrow, pain, and suflering now 
 
 Shall ne'er distress thee more. 
 
 Brother, thou art gone to rest, 
 And this shall be our prayer, 
 That when we reach our journey's end 
 Thy glory we may share. 
 3
 
 Mr. SIIKKMAN's ClIAKAeTKR. 
 
 K r us turn away now from the tearful sur- 
 rounding's and associations of this freshly 
 occupied g^rave, and contemplate for a few 
 moments the character of him whose history we 
 have briefly sketched. 
 
 Literary Turn of Mind. — In the first place, Mr. 
 Sherman was a man of decided literary taste and 
 bent of mind. This became evident in his boyhood 
 and youth. He was not satisfied, as we have seen, 
 with the acquisition of the common English branches, 
 as tautrht in his da\' in the district school. He 
 sought the academy, and subsequently another pri- 
 vate school, in order to supplement what he had al- 
 ready learned by the acquisition of the higher and 
 nobler truths of literary and scientific knowledg-e. 
 
 For a time engaged in business, as a clerk, his 
 natural proclivities again asserted themselves, and 
 we find him at the age of twenty-three the editor of 
 The Ladies Mirror, at Southbridc^e. We also 
 find him here, on occasion, tr\ing his hand at poetry, 
 and thus furnishing the programme for F"ourth of 
 July celebrations of the town with odes and h)mns. 
 Later, several other poetic effusions fell from his pen. 
 
 Subsequently he devoted more than thirty years 
 of his life, and that the very strength of his manhood,
 
 35 
 
 to journalistic enterprise, his time beingr divided 
 between the JVoonsockct Pa/riot, about nine years, 
 and The Pendulum, some twenty-three )'ears. For 
 a short time, also, he had charge of a campaign 
 paper, Republican in politics, called the Daily Na- 
 tional Union, and published in Providence. 
 
 As AN Editor and Journalist. — Mr. Sherman was 
 always decided and pronounced in his views and 
 utterances. He thoroughly believed what he said, 
 and fearlessly said what he believed. No man could 
 possibly mistake his position. He was ever a strong 
 and unswerving adherent and advocate of whatever 
 is worthy and noble in morals ; whatever is healthful 
 and desirable in reform ; whatever is high-toned and 
 true in politics and in religion. He might lose sub- 
 scribers, as he did at Woonsocket, by denouncing 
 the rum traffic and upholding the cause of temper- 
 ance, but it mattered not to him when the weal of 
 humanity was at stake. As a young publisher, he 
 needed every subscriber, but he felt that his greatest 
 and most imperative need was a clean conscience, 
 and a mind that would act without fear or favor for 
 the right, the true, and the good. 
 
 Hence we find him throughout his long career 
 in journalism ever and fearlessly, regardless of 
 pecuniary gains or losses, promulgating what he 
 honestly believed to be just, right, and true. His 
 pen was ever and in the highest sense loyal to 
 every reform, and to every movement which con- 
 templated th(; uj)lifting and ennobling of men, 
 whether in the realms of mind, morals, or religion.
 
 36 
 
 A contemporary, speaking- of The J\'ndit/ii)}i, and 
 Mr. Sherman's connection with the same, uses the 
 folio wi nor laniTuajre : 
 
 " It is not many years since that the only newspaper 
 taken by many families in our town was 77/^- Rhode 
 Islayid Pendi(/i(?fi, 'swinging for all,' giving the 
 local news each week, as well as the pith of the gen- 
 eral news of the day. It was greeted on Friday 
 evening as a dear old household friend. This was 
 during its thriving days, under the care and editorship 
 of its founder, the late William N. Sherman, who 
 took great pride in the " swings" of T/ic Pendulum^ 
 and labored to make it an honor to the profession. 
 Under his guidance it contained the news, and not 
 such portions as might tickle the fancy of some pet 
 subscriber. When William N. Sherman published an 
 article of news, no one could say to him as w^as said 
 to one in ancient times, 'Why hath Satan filled thine 
 heart to lie, and to keep back part ? ' " 
 
 Mr. Sherman was never a ineclianical writer. His 
 compositions were always full of feeling and sentiment, 
 and usually seasoned with enough of sensible humor 
 and pleasantry to elicit and hold the attention of the 
 reader, and to please as well as to instruct. He was 
 himself exceedingly fond of l)Oth music and poetry, 
 and these marked tastes of his usually left their im- 
 press, to a greater or less extent, in the way of vi- 
 vacity and sentiment, on his productions. 
 
 One thing is especially worthy of note in connec- 
 tion with his newspaper life — nothing was ever 
 permitted to appear in the columns of his paper,
 
 37 
 
 whether in tlie line of advertisement or of reading 
 matter, that was not perfectly unexceptionable on the 
 score of propriety and purity. There was never an 
 issue from his press that could not be read entire, 
 advertisements and all, b\- all the members of the 
 most high-toned, pure and virtuous family, without 
 the least hesitancy or unpleasant feeling. In this 
 regard, he furnished an example in journalism which 
 some of even our religious papers would do well to 
 follow. 
 
 Literary Associations. — We have said that Mr. 
 Sherman was of a decided literary turn of mind. 
 This, as we have seen, naturally led him into jour 
 nalism. But this was not the only evidence of this 
 strong bent in his intellectual composition. F"ond 
 of books, he had gathered together a large library. 
 He was especially fond of history, biography, and 
 above all of Biblical literature. With the latter, and 
 with the Bible itself, he made himself most familiarl)- 
 acquainted. 
 
 He was one of the original movers in the action 
 which secured to the town of Greenwich a public 
 library, and one of the contributors to the original 
 establishment. 
 
 He was an honorary member of the Rhode Island 
 Press Association. This association was not formed 
 until after he had retired from active journalism, and 
 hence he was precluded from being a regular mem- 
 ber. At the annual meeting succeeding his decease 
 a committee was appointed to draft a suitable memo- 
 rial in recognition of the same, which was forwarded
 
 38 
 
 to his famil)' and placed upon the records of the so- 
 ciety. 
 
 During his residence at Wickford the " Wickford 
 Literary Association " was formed in 1 853. Mr. Sher- 
 man was elected the first president, and held the of- 
 fice until he commenced business in East Greenwich, 
 when he resigned. This society was composed of 
 ladies and gentlemen from the different churches 
 and societies, together with the clergymen of the 
 villao-e. It res^istered more than one hundred 
 names. 
 
 He had been previously the president of a gentle- 
 men and ladies' Literary Association in Woonsocket. 
 He was elected an honorary member of the Phlog- 
 nothian Society, a flourishing literary organization, 
 in the East Greenwich Academy. He was also 
 made an honorary member of the Rhode Island 
 Press Association, in connection with Governor An- 
 thony and other leading journalists of the State. 
 
 A Good Business Man. — Mr. Sherman had, in 
 many ways, very superior business qualifications. 
 He was very careful about expenditures ; kept all 
 his affairs snug and well in hand ; was active, ener- 
 getic, prompt and orderl)-. He was slow to make a 
 new move, but when he had decided to make it, he 
 threw himself into the enterprise with all his might. 
 determined, at all hazards, to make it a success. He 
 made few promises, but kept to the letter and to the 
 time those that he did make. Men always knew 
 where to find him. 
 
 A Providence gentleman, on reading several
 
 39 
 
 newspaper notices after his death, remarked : 
 " What! not one word about his business quahfica- 
 tions ? Why, I think his executive abihty as a busi- 
 ness man very great. He was ever prompt, ener- 
 getic and methodical." 
 
 Public-spirited. — Mr. Sherman took a hvely in- 
 terest in whatever pertained to the pubHc good. 
 Any movement contemplating the intellectual, moral 
 or spiritual elevation of the community was sure to 
 encrao-e his immediate attention and sympathy. He 
 not only advocated all movements looking to prog- 
 ress and reform with his most willing pen, but he 
 also took hold of the actual zuork himself. Thus he 
 was one of the constituent members in the formation 
 of the Free Public Library of East Greenwich, and 
 himself donated one hundred bound volumes to the 
 same. 
 
 In politics he was always on the side of law and 
 order, temperance and freedom, justice and human- 
 ity, education, morals, and progress. 
 
 When the civil or Dorr war broke out in Rhode 
 
 Island in 1842, contemplating the forcible overthrow 
 
 of the legally constituted government, and of social 
 
 and civil institutions as old and as venerable as the 
 
 oro-anization of the State, Mr. Sherman was quick to 
 
 >2> ... 
 
 decide what was right, and what was his duty m the 
 
 matter. Being himself incapacitated by ill-health to 
 take his place in the law-and-order army, he volun- 
 tarily (no one was drafted) hired a man to take his 
 place, paying him the regular day's wages he had 
 before been receiving, and at the close of the rebel-
 
 40 
 
 lion turnini^ over to him the bounty granted by the 
 State to all volunteers. He was never the man to 
 preach to others and to do nothing himself. 
 
 " If to do were as easy as to know what were good 
 to be done, chapels had been churches and poor 
 men's cottages princes' palaces. // is a good divine 
 that follows his oiun instructionsy — Shakespeare. 
 
 Soon after the close of the State rebellion just 
 mentioned, the ladies of Wickford, wishing to ten- 
 der to the Independent Company of Wickford Vol- 
 unteers some testimonial of their respect and appre- 
 ciation, purchased an elegant flag, and invited Mr. 
 Sherman to make the presentation at the following 
 Fourth of July celebration, in their behalf. This he 
 consented to do, and in a few choice and pertinent 
 remarks made the presentation. Capt. Thomas of 
 the Pioneers, in fitting terms, pleasantly responded. 
 
 He was ever decided and outspoken upon the 
 great questions of the day. During the war of the 
 slave-holders' rebellion, his age precluded him from 
 becoming a member of the army, but his sympathies 
 were strong, and his language unequivocal, bold, and 
 outspoken in favor of the Union cause. No man 
 could possibly misunderstand his position. 
 
 When President Grant visited General Burnside at 
 Bristol, on the occasion of his visit to Rhode Island, 
 Mr. Sherman received a special invitation to join 
 the party and dine with them. This is mentioned 
 simply to show that he was recognized as a man 
 who had taken a deep interest in the affairs of the 
 nation ; for he was invited, not simply as a compli-
 
 41 
 
 ment to the Rhode Island Pejtdiihini, but in recog- 
 nition of his pubHc spirit, and extensive influence in 
 the world of poHtics and reform. 
 
 When President Hayes visited Rhode Island, in 
 1880, Mr. Sherman was invited to join the Presi- 
 dential party, who were to have a grand dinner and 
 speeches on the shore of Providence River. On 
 introducing him. General Burnside, who was present, 
 remarked, " This is one of our most substantial cit- 
 izens." On such an occasion, and from the lips of 
 such a man, this w^as no unmeaning tribute. 
 
 On all important public occasions, when anything 
 important was to be done in his own town, Mr. Sher- 
 man was aKva)'s thought of and assigned to some 
 important place or duty. Thus in Fourth of July cele- 
 brations, on several occasions, he was represented 
 on the programme in some honorable capacity. 
 On the Fourth of July, 1876, the Centennial of 
 the Nation's Independence was celebrated at East 
 Greenwich with unusual demonstration. Mr. Sher- 
 man was chosen as the presiding officer of the day, 
 and likewise contributed an original hymn for the 
 occasion. 
 
 He was never ambitious of political distinction. 
 A year or two before his death, the Republican Com- 
 mittee of the town urged him to accept the nomina- 
 tion for Chairman of the Town Council. He de- 
 clined, and proposed the name of the man who was 
 subsequently elected. 
 
 He served at different times as Public Notary, 
 Justice of the Peace of the town of North Kingston,
 
 42 
 
 Leg^al Counsellor and Sheriff. ( )n lcL;al questions 
 he was often consulted, and liis advice and counsel 
 were always given gratuitously. He was also made 
 Trial Justice, or Judge, in the town of East Green- 
 wich, on his removal to that place, as we find by 
 the following record, found among his papers : 
 
 " At a town council, holden in and for the town 
 of East Greenwich, on Saturday, the 2d day of 
 July, A.I). 1 88 1, voted and declared that William 
 N. Sherman be and he is hereby elected Trial Jus- 
 tice in and for said town. 
 
 " EnwAKD Stanhope, 
 
 " Council Clerk" 
 
 An Odd Fki.luw. — Mr. Sherman had an especial 
 admiration for the principles of Odd Fellowship, 
 holdinor thcin in tlie hiofhest recrard. He therefore 
 united with Harmony Lodge, No. 5, I. O. O. F., of 
 East Greenwich. Of this organization he was chap- 
 lain for many years. 
 
 In December, 1881. while in Greenwich, feeling 
 that he was drawing near to the end of life, he sent 
 for a member of the lodge, to whom he gave direc- 
 tions with reference to the arrangrement of his grave. 
 He also named to him whom he would prefer as his 
 bearers, viz. : Hon. R. P. Alexander, No. 6 Office 
 Scarlet Number ; S. A. Slocum, Past Grand ; L. 
 Aylesworth, Past Grand ; E. M. Lowell, Past Grand. 
 J. Capron, chaplain at the time of his funeral, read 
 the beautiful burial service of this order at the tomb. 
 
 The following memorial resolutions were passed 
 by a sister lodge in Rutland, W'rmont, where he died :
 
 43 
 " Memorial Resolutions. 
 
 " At a regular meeting of Killington Lodge, No. 
 29, of Odd Fellows, the following resolutions were 
 adopted : 
 
 " Whereas, The death in our midst of Brother 
 William N. Sherman, a member of Harmony Lodge, 
 No. 5, in the jurisdiction of Rhode Island, makes it 
 appropriate for us in our fraternal relations to ex- 
 tend our condolence to those who were so long as- 
 sociated with him and knew him in the bonds of 
 friendship, love and truth, and to manifest our esteem 
 for his useful and benevolent life ; therefore be it 
 
 " Resolved, That in the death of Brother William 
 N. Sherman the fraternity of Independent Order of 
 Odd F'ellows has lost a member whose religious and 
 benevolent impulses led to the elevation and im- 
 provement of his fellow-men. A lover of his race, 
 he provided instruction for the people ; a Christian, 
 he remembered the needs of the poor and those 
 seeking for a higher and better life ; a philanthropist 
 and benefactor, he sought to relieve the downtrod- 
 den and distressed in tlie sj^irit of Odd Fellowship. 
 
 ''Resolved, That Killington Lodge, No. 29, tender 
 their sympathy and condolence with Harmony Lodge 
 of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, on the decease of 
 a brother who honored them 1)\- his membership, 
 and they have reason to take great pride in his use- 
 ful life and benevolent deeds, so expressive ot the 
 principles which are the groundwork of their order. 
 
 " Resolved, That the members of this lodge, appre-
 
 44 
 
 ciatinsj;' the kiiulK' lite aiul usctiil public services of 
 their brother, and feeling a deep sense of the sor- 
 rowful affliction that has come to their household, 
 extend to the devoted wife and to the family of John 
 A. Mead, M. D., our fraternal sympath)' in their 
 ereat bereavement. 
 
 " Rcsohcd, That these resolutions be entered upon 
 the records of this lodge, and a copy thereof be sent 
 to the Harmony Lodge, and to the family of the de- 
 ceased. 
 
 " Ri'so/i'i'd, '1 iiat these resolutions be published in 
 the village newspapers, and in the Guide, of Albany^ 
 N. Y." 
 
 After Mr. Sherman's decease, Mrs. Sherman pre- 
 sented the lodge with his picture. The following, 
 will further explain : 
 
 F.AST Grkknwich. R. I., Dec. 14, 1883. 
 Mrs. II'. A. Shcrnia)t. 
 
 Dear Madam : Compl)ing with your request of 
 the loth inst., I last evening called at Miss Law- 
 ton's and received the picture of your respected 
 husband and our late Brother Sherman. At a 
 proper moment, during the lodge session, I advanced 
 to the position usually occupied on such occasions, 
 and after some appropriate remarks presented the 
 lodge in your behalf with the portrait, etc. The 
 same was unanimously received, and a vote of thanks 
 tendered the donor, of which last I hereby inform 
 you at the request of the secretary, who duly made 
 record accordingly. A committee was appointed to 
 hang the picture in some suitable position in the 
 lodge rooms. Informing Mr. Kenyon of the occur- 
 rence, he has requested me to write a few lines for
 
 45 
 
 publication in The Poiduluiu, Avliich I liave just 
 complied with. 
 
 I have the honor to remain, 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 M. M. Reynolds. 
 
 A Temperanxe Man. — As was indicated on a pre" 
 vious page, Mr. Sherman was ever a strong and de- 
 termined advocate of temperance. Publicly and 
 privately he threw all the weight of his pen and of 
 his influence on the side of strict temperance. But 
 he had contracted a habit in his younger days which, 
 though not generally regarded as in any degree in- 
 compatible with strict temperance principles, became 
 to Jiim, the more he dwelt upon it, a matter of an- 
 noyance and of self-irritation, as an injury to himself. 
 Was the use of tobacco, strictly and in the highest 
 sense, right, for a thorough temperance man and 
 a Christian ? Were smoking and chewing habits 
 proper and fitting in one who was of necessity a con- 
 stant example to the young ? Was it not true that 
 these habits not unfrequently led to the positive 
 vices of drinking and dissipation ? At any rate, did 
 any good ever come out of them ? Were they not, 
 to say the least, more evil than good ? 
 
 Questions like these arose in the mind of Mr. 
 Sherman, after he had indulged in the use of to- 
 bacco for many years. But (questions like these, 
 once seriously entertained and considered, were with 
 him raised to be settled 7'ight. He declared that this 
 practice must cease. But a habit of )'ears is not so 
 easily dislodged. His first attempt failed. He tried
 
 46 
 
 ai^ain ami a^ain ; the okl ami well intrenched indul- 
 gence conquered. He hnall\- said to himself that 
 here was a thing that ought to be done, and that 
 now it should be done. He would be henceforth 
 his own master. He now conquered, and for thirty 
 years before his tleath he was untrammelled and 
 free. " He that governeth his own spirit is greater 
 than he that taketh a city," and he that "keeps his 
 bod\- under" is as great as he "that governeth his 
 spirit." 
 
 Fond ok Ciiii.i»ki:n. — Scarcely any one thing re- 
 veals more of one's character than the disposition one 
 manifests towards children and youth. Mr. Sherman 
 was very fond of children. This explains in no small 
 degree his great interest and enthusiasm during all 
 his life in the Sabbath-school. This love for little 
 people he showed very decidedly on all occasions. 
 When, in the autumn of 1876, he visited Mount 
 Vernon, Va., he gathered from the ground a quan- 
 tity of acorns. These he dispensed among the 
 children of his mission Sabbath-school, giving every 
 member of it at least one, and some many more ; at 
 the same time he most thoughtlully took advantage 
 of so fittinofan occasion to talk to the children about 
 the good and great Washington, who la\- entombed 
 in the place whence these nuts were brought. It is 
 not necessary to say that lessons thus taught and 
 thus enforced could not soon die out of the hearts of 
 the little listeners. 
 
 Love begets love. Children have keen instincts. 
 They are cjuick to see who love them, and as quick
 
 47 
 
 to return the tender feeling. Children soon learned 
 to love him. Says one who knew him intimately and 
 well: "Little children were greatly attached to Mr. 
 Sherman. During his sickness, several came to in- 
 quire about him, bringing him bouquets of flowers. 
 This always touched and greatly delighted him." 
 
 On one occasion a company of children were tell- 
 ing one another what they were going to be when 
 grown up. One, the son of Rev. Mr. Rouse, a for- 
 mer Rector of the Episcopal Church in Wickford, 
 said : " Well, when I am a man I am going to be 
 Mr. Sherman." 
 
 He was exceedingly attached to his little grand- 
 daughter, " Daisy." When he " fell asleep "and she 
 was told that he would never waken again in this 
 world, she ran for a book and laid it in his hands, 
 that he might, as she said, pass his time pleasantly 
 in reading while on his journey. 
 
 She was then only a little over three years old, 
 but she often now recalls their warm mutual afiec- 
 tion. It was to him a moment of supreme delight 
 when first her baby lips called him '" Bampa." 
 
 Fond of Music. — It is easy to understand how a 
 person who is fond of cliildren should also be fond 
 of music, and of art, and indeed of nature, and of all 
 things beautiful. All alike address the sensibilities, 
 the tenderer, richer, sweeter faculties of the soul. 
 Children, music, painting, statuarw flowers — tlu^y 
 all alike belong to the same blessed category of ob- 
 jects which elicit the best emotions of the human 
 soul ! He who said, " Suffer little children to come
 
 48 
 
 unto inc and lorbitl thcni not," was also lond o( so?i^, 
 and was accustomed in company with his disciples 
 to jr/;/^'- the sweet psalms of David. 'When they 
 had sung a hymn they went out." 
 
 It was he also, who, in his sweet admiration of 
 Nature and Nature's works, on one occasion cried 
 out, " Behold the lilies of the field, they toil not, 
 neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that 
 Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
 these." 
 
 There is a natural congruity between a fondness 
 for music and a soft and kindly heart and disposi- 
 tion. " The man that hath not music in himself, nor 
 is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for 
 treason, stratagem, and spoils. Let no such man 
 be trusted." 
 
 Mr. Sherman was not only excessively fond of 
 music, but he was accustomed himself not unfre- 
 quently to engage in the delightful exercise of sing- 
 ing, whether as pastime or as devotion. He was a 
 good singer, and when he sang he seemed to be en- 
 gaged to the very centre and core of his being. 
 Singing, as an element of public worship, in the 
 honor of God, was to him ever a peculiar and su- 
 preme delight. Singing the sweet songs of Israel, 
 in the conference room, was also always a great 
 solace and a joy. 
 
 One Sunday morning, during his sickness in 
 Rutland, he remarked that he should like to hear 
 the chapelites sing, referring to his mission church 
 at home. He was told that the doors should be
 
 49 
 
 opened to the parlor, that the i)iano should be 
 opened, and that they would sino^. This beini^ done, 
 he said to the nurse : "This is heavenly. It lifts me 
 up." The next morning- he remarked to Mrs. 
 Sherman that he should be very glad if she and 
 Mr. Reed (the nurse, who was a very fine singer,) 
 would go to the parlor and sing again. Again he 
 was thrilled with the delightful melody of sacred 
 song". His spirit was borne aloft as on wings of 
 holy triumph, and he expressed the thought that 
 if another opportunity was ever offered him, he 
 could dilate, from joyous experience, and as never 
 before, on the grandeur and glory of the Christian s 
 faith and the Christian's hope — the blessed inheri- 
 tance of the saints of God. 
 
 Mr. Sherman was fond of instrumental as well as 
 of vocal music. He keenly enjoyed the piano, and 
 not unfrequently called for some piece of music at 
 the skilful touch of his music-loving wife. 
 
 He was himself no indifferent player on the violin 
 and the flute; and when the labor of the day was 
 over, and he was at liberty to sit down at home in 
 the quiet of the evening- hour, he would accomi)any 
 Mrs. Sherman on the piano with one of the above- 
 mentioned instruments, entering into the perform- 
 ance with great zeal and enthusiasm. 
 
 Fond of Home. — Judge Sherman, of Pru\idence, 
 once remarked to a gentleman who was iiKjuiring for 
 Mr. Sherman : " If you wish to see William Sher- 
 man, you must look for him at his home. You will 
 never find him lounging in stores, and at street cor- 
 
 4
 
 ;o 
 
 ncrs, in([uirin^" the news, and hokling" forth on [loliti- 
 cal questions." 
 
 A gentleman, on readinj^- tlie newspaper notices of 
 hini after his death, remarked : " And nothing about 
 his ha{)py family relations, which were so delightful!" 
 
 Having once learned that Mr. Sherman was a 
 lover of art, music, and children, one can easily un- 
 derstand that he would be also a lover of honic. Such 
 he was, and as such he made it a point to make home 
 pleasant and attractive. Everything in and about 
 his home was neat, cleanly, and in good order. The 
 grounds were ever nicely kept, the trees and shrub- 
 bery always well trimmed and cared for, and every- 
 where there was an air of order, nicety, and comfort. 
 Within were papers and periodicals of all descrip- 
 tions, and a large and well-filled library. Here, also, 
 and s\'mpathizing with him in all his labors — indeed, 
 rather, may we say, an efficient co -laborer with him 
 in all his benevolent, charitable, and religious enter- 
 prises — was the one spirit in whom of all earthly be- 
 ings his soul most delighted. Here was his only child, 
 who, educated and cultured, had in early life given 
 herself to his own faith, his own church, and his own 
 Lord and Saviour. Here, at evening and ready for 
 his use, were his fiute, and his violin, and his piano, 
 with skilful fino-ers for its touch. Having made for 
 himself such a home, it is not hard to understand 
 that he should richly enjo)' it. 
 
 This fondness for and appreciation ot iiome ex- 
 plains the following remark of his companionable 
 wife, who, speaking of his confinement to the house
 
 51 
 
 by sickness, said : " The quiet companionship en- 
 joyed during the weeks and months after he was con- 
 fined to his room in Rutland will ever be cherished 
 as sacred memories." 
 
 Mrs. Sherman had the entire care of hini until 
 about a month before his death. When he became too 
 feeble to help himself, a nurse was called in to assist, 
 Mrs. Sherman never leavino- him for a single nieht. 
 
 A Vein of Humor. — There was a decided vein 
 o{ humor \w Mr. Sherman's character. It manifested 
 itself constantly in his conversation and in his written 
 productions, and added zest and sparkle to both. 
 The popularity of his articles as a journalist was due 
 in no small degree to this " Attic salt," which sea- 
 soned so largely all that he wrote. 
 
 Properl)' tempered by other mental forces, wit and 
 humor are most valuable constituents of mind. Their 
 presence has a constant leavening influence upon the 
 dull routine of daily life, and infuses into the most dull 
 and prosy features of it a certain positive relief and 
 exhilaration. They add not a little to the pleasures 
 of home and the fireside, and become thus most val- 
 uable constituents of character. These elements of 
 soul were present in pleasant proportion in the 
 make-up of Mr. Sherman. 
 
 A CiiRiSTi.vN Man. — Mr. Sherman was, througn 
 and through, a Christian man. He was converted at 
 the early age of eleven. He was at this time attcMul- 
 ing the First Baptist Church of North Kingston, 
 under the pastoral charge of his uncle, William 
 Northup, to whom allusion has already been made.
 
 52 
 
 He did iu)t inimcdiatel)- unite wiih tlu' church, think- 
 ing, perhaps, as so nianx' persons do, that he was too 
 young to commit himseU to responsibilities so grave. 
 He may also have felt it best to wait until some 
 experience in life shoukl convince him that he was 
 truly a regenerated soul. He desired to be con- 
 vinced of his true discipleship before he venturetl to 
 assert himself a member of Christ's visible body. 
 However this may be, he evidently did not lose his 
 youthful faith by waiting. As the years went on, his 
 religion became to him a more profound and a more 
 precious conviction. The germ of spiritual life im- 
 planted so early in his soul took root deeper and 
 deeper, and its growth was constant and decided. 
 Accordingly, in 1838, at the age of twenty-nine, he 
 united with the First Baptist Church in Woonsocket. 
 I'Vom this time to the day of his death he kei)t up 
 his church connections with fc-rvor and zeal wherever 
 he happened to live. 
 
 Mr. Sherman's religion was not an empty profes- 
 sion. It was not a form. It was not a Sunday garb. 
 It did not consist in going to church and listening to 
 a sermon. It did not occupy and exhaust itself in 
 discussing theoloijical knots and Biblical- difficulties. 
 It was not an outside show to win confidence and 
 respectability. j\Ir. Sherman's faith was a lim:. It 
 was a life that had rooted itself deep in his soul. It 
 dwelt there. It absorbed the strength of his soul. 
 When he took possession of it, it took possession of 
 him, and ever held that possession firm and strong. 
 By its vigorous life and growth it gradually stran-
 
 eled the native vices of a sinful nature, while it itself 
 gradually put out the buds and blossoms of the 
 Christian i^races and charities. 
 
 He was not bisfoted, but tolerant of the religrious 
 views of others. He believed that there was true 
 piety represented in all faiths. He loved indeed his 
 own denomination, because he was a man of strong- 
 convictions, and he believed that the Baptist confes- 
 sion of faith most nearly represented the teachings of 
 the New Testament. But while he loved especially 
 his own particular form of faith, he fellowshipped and 
 loved any and every soul in whom he could discern 
 the spiritual lineaments of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 To him piety was better than profession, love than 
 creed, and charity than church, and he who truly 
 possessed these, in whatever fold of the Shepherd, 
 won his esteem and his affection. 
 
 A religion that is a lifc\s never inactive. It e\er 
 finds something to do. In a w^orld of ini(iuit\' it 
 finds the bad to reclaim ; in a world, of intemperance 
 it finds inebriates to reform ; in a world of igno- 
 rance it finds people to educate ; in a world ot pov- 
 erty it finds misery to relieve ; in a world of lost 
 sinners it finds souls to save. Along all these linens, 
 a true religion finds always and everywhere some- 
 thing to do. Seeing everywhere these pitiable 
 scenes among men, the true Christian can never look 
 on, an idle beholder. I !(■ must put forth a helloing 
 hand. Such did Mr. Sherman in all these direc- 
 tions. 
 
 " Pure reli'don and undefiled before God and the
 
 54 
 
 I-'athcr is lliis, to \isit the fatherless and the witlow in 
 their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from 
 the world." 
 
 It will be seen, further on, what claims Mr. Sher- 
 man had to be reoarded, under the above rule, as 
 one who possessed " pure religion and undetiled be- 
 fore God and the Father." 
 
 RiHLE Reading. — Mr. Sherman was a close student 
 of the Bible. To him, from boyhood, the Bible was 
 indeed the Book of Books. Naturally of a strong 
 religious bent, he had, in early life, been deepl)' im- 
 pressed by the preaching of his Uncle Northup, to 
 whom reference bas been made. 
 
 While at Wickford, and waiting for returning 
 health, he read four entire volumes of the " Com- 
 prcJicnsivc Commentary of t/ie Bi'b/c." The volumes 
 contain about one thousand pages each, and all the 
 reading matter except the text itself is printed in 
 small type. Conversant and familiar with the Scrip- 
 tures himself, he greatly enjoyed conversation and 
 discussion on sacred themes. He therefore sought 
 the society of clergymen and religious teachers and 
 thinkers. His house was often opened for the en- 
 tertainment of ministers. Indeed, as one acquainted 
 with the fact has said, " His house, from the time he 
 commenced housekeeping until the day of his death, 
 might well be called a minister's hotel, so frequently 
 were clergymen entertained over night and at other 
 times." One clergyman, an agent of the Bible So- 
 ciety, spent Sabbath da)' with him once each year, 
 rfor twelve consecutive years. This man, as being
 
 the representative of religious service, was always 
 welcome, and more than welcome, and would have 
 been if the twelve had continued to twelve times 
 twelve. 
 
 These visits from men of God made red-letter 
 days for him, because of his fondness for religious, 
 theological, and Biblical discussions. He used to say 
 that ministers always paid their way in the delight- 
 ful conferences and conversations of which ihey 
 were thus the occasion. Young clergymen, students 
 from the colleges and theological seminaries, stopping 
 with him over Sunday to preach at Marlboro' Chapel, 
 often expressed themselves as pleased with an op- 
 portunity of conversing with one so thoroughly versed 
 in a knowledcje of the sacred writincrs. Some of 
 the students, on leaving the neighboring academy, 
 expressed their gratitude and obhgation to him for 
 the encouragement and assistance he had rendered 
 them. 
 
 As the chapel was without a pastor, ]\Ir. Sherman 
 usually conducted the regular Wednesday evening 
 prayer-meeting. For this service he made special 
 preparation for the opening introductory remarks. 
 These are said, by those who listened, to have been 
 always of a most interesting and practical character. 
 On one occasion, at the close of an evening meet- 
 ing, Deacon V., who was present, remarked that 
 " Mr. Sherman's appeal that evening was one ot the 
 strongest he ever heard," 
 
 Mr. Sherman was asked to be ordained as a 
 deacon, but he declined to accede to this request..
 
 56 
 
 Many people, liowever, seem to ha\e been accus- 
 tomed to think of hini as a clerijNnian. A \'Ounof 
 man came to his liouse one day and inquired it 
 Elder Sherman lived there. On being told that 
 JMr. Sherman resided there, he seemed greatly sur- 
 prised and perplexed, sa)ing- : " W'liy, isn't he a 
 minister ? Doesn't he preach sometimes ? He con- 
 ducts religious serv^ices occasionally, does he not ? " 
 And then, looking up, with eyes full of curiosity and 
 mingled anxiety, he said : '' W'^ell, now, to whom 
 shall I cro ? I desire to be married." 
 
 Kind to the Poor and the Suffeking. — The 
 suffering, the poor, and the needy found in him a 
 ready and s)-mpathizing friend. He often extended 
 the hand of help and cliarity to the unfortunate. 
 He frequently aided by material means those who 
 were wishinof but were unable to establish themselves 
 in business. 
 
 Long will he be missed in the streets of East 
 Greenwich, which so many years he made his home, 
 and which in so many wa\s he benefited alike b\- 
 private charities to its poor, and by public benefac- 
 tions to its educational and religious institutions, 
 contributing ever to its needs, and endeavoring to 
 elevate its citizenshij). alike with his j)en and his 
 purse, and in constant personal effort in scores ol 
 other methods. 
 
 Pleasant and inspiring memories are these of a 
 noble and unselfish life; of a soul instinct with the 
 needs and wants of humanity, and a disposition and 
 a will ready ever to lend a helping hand. He evi-
 
 57 
 
 dently felt the force of Edward Everett Hale's beau- 
 tiful motto in Toi Times Ten : 
 
 " Look up and not down, 
 Look forward and not backward. 
 And lend a helping hand." 
 
 His charities were not of the kind which occur only 
 on great occasions and then " blow a trumpet be- 
 fore them." But springing- from a Christian life and 
 Christian principle, from that fountain whence only 
 and ever they spring in purity and in moral beauty, 
 they found their way, quietly and without demon- 
 stration, flowing into those channels where it seemed 
 to liim they could accomplish the most of good. 
 
 Feeline. as the true Christian alone can feel, that 
 he himself had been the subject of infinite charity, 
 love, and grace in Christ's great redemption work for 
 him ; feeling that all he most prized on earth, and all 
 that he most hoped for in the lifebe)ond, was to him 
 a pure gift of divine love and grace, his heart had 
 been deeply and profoundly touched, and he desired 
 to make some small return for all those infinite lov- 
 ing favors and blessings. 
 
 The Communion Service. — In this view we can 
 easily understand how it was that the Conununic^i 
 service, that sacred ordinance which, more than any 
 other known to the Church, commemorates the love, 
 condescension, the self-denial, and the self-sacrifice 
 of our Lord, was to him an occasion of inexpressible 
 solemnity and sacredness, and of the most tender and 
 profound devotional experiences. He ever seemed 
 
 5
 
 5S 
 
 to feci on these occasions that the Saviour was espe- 
 cially near to him. With him it was ever true dur- 
 ing tliis memorial service. " As oft as ye do it, do it 
 /;/ 7-c))ic)}ibrancc of mcy 
 
 It was that remembrance deepened and inten- 
 sified that oathered out of the streets children for 
 
 O 
 
 the Sabbath-school, that instituted the '' Shore meet- 
 ings," that established the colored school at his own 
 house, that built INIarlboro' Chapel, that extended so 
 often to the needy the hand of charity. "As oft as 
 ye do it unto them, ye do it unto me." 
 
 The Sadbath Day. — The subject of these me- 
 moirs believed fully in the old New England Sab- 
 bath. He felt that the command of the old Mosaic 
 Decalogue was still binding, and accordingly he 
 telt it his dut)' to observe in all its fulness of mean- 
 ing the command, " Remember the Sabbath day to 
 keep it holy." He was not superstitious. His good 
 common sense could distinoruish between faith and 
 credulity, between religion and superstition. But 
 the reading of the Bible to him was clear and explicit, 
 that Sunday is " the Sabbath of the Lord," and that 
 it was to be divided, severed completely in character 
 and observance, from the other days of the week. 
 All unnecessary work, all business, all recreation and 
 amusement was now to be put aside. The day must 
 be devoted to quiet, to religious or instructive secu- 
 lar reading, and to worship. 
 
 As an illustration of his regard for the Sabbath, 
 the following incident is full of significance : When 
 livinof in Wickford. a creditor of his, who owed him
 
 59 
 
 a sum of money, came ajourne)' of several miles on 
 the Sabbath to make settlement. Mr. Sherman re- 
 fused to accept the money, saying that there were 
 other days in the week in which to settle accounts. 
 
 The Sabbath-school was a fu;Id of Christian la- 
 bor in which Mr. Sherman took very great delight. 
 Among the very first things he did on his removal 
 to Woonsocket was to gather up out of the streets 
 and the lanes of the village, " out of the highways 
 and the hedges," the idle, outcast, Sabbath-breaking 
 children roaminir the streets listlesslv, or in search 
 of mischief, rao-aed wretches for whom, in their deer. 
 radation and poverty, no one seemed to have any 
 pity or sympathy. He looked upon these little \ag- 
 abonds, unattractive, sometimes uncleanly, and some- 
 times even repulsive in their exterior, and looking 
 deeper than upon the mere outside, he saw in them 
 minds and souls made of the same material as his 
 own — saw within tlieir rougli exteriors the germs of 
 eternal being, germs of infinite worth, and capacities 
 for infinite development — souls immortal ; however 
 buried now in external unsightliness and squalor, 
 yet. after all, souls immortal, all the same, for whom 
 Christ died. 
 
 MissioNARV Work. — He at once secured the use 
 of a neighboring school-house, and so far as he was 
 able he gathered therein and formed into a Sabbath- 
 school these little neglected waifs, heretofore un- 
 known and uncared for 1))- the Church of Christ. 
 
 The school thus formed, he did not leave to the 
 care of others, considering now his duty done. On
 
 6o 
 
 the contrar)-, callin*^^ in the aid and co-operation of 
 his excellent mission-loving Christian wife, he care- 
 fully tended and nursed his charge until it grew into 
 a strong organization of some three hundred mem- 
 bers, embodxing now ali kinds and conditions of 
 children and youth. This organization thus com- 
 menced was afterwards received under the . protec- 
 tion, care and guardianship of the Baptist Church of 
 Woonsocket, and continues to exist to-day, the 
 flourishing Sabbath-school of that society. 
 
 1 his strong interest in the relicrious education of 
 children, and especiall)' of the neglected classes, con- 
 tinued to manifest itself most conspicuously in his 
 character wherever he made his home. In Wick- 
 ford, and afterwards at Greenwich, he showed the 
 same intense interest in these directions. 
 
 Shore Meetings. — On one occasion, while in 
 Greenwich, happening to go of a Sunday down to 
 the wharves along the shore, and seeing there a list- 
 less company of men and bo)s smoking, playing, 
 and in various ways desecrating the Sabbath, his 
 sympathies were at once stirred within him as in 
 Woonsocket before, and he began to cast about to 
 see what could be done. He saw at once that many 
 of them, bein<r erown men, could not be induced 
 to go within the circle of any Sabbath-school. He 
 therefore decided that, inasmuch as he could not 
 get them to come to him within the inclosure of the 
 walls of church or chapel, he must go to them if he 
 would do them an\- good. He accordingly insti- 
 tuted what were afterwards knowMi as "The Shore
 
 6i 
 
 Meetincjs." To these outdoor ratherinors laree 
 numbers of these low, rough people, old and young 
 alike, came, and were thus brought for the first time 
 in their life under Christian influences, and under 
 the sound of direct Gospel preaching. Good was 
 accomplished in these shore meetings. The good 
 seed was scattered, and some, there and then, were 
 induced to lead a nobler and better life ; but the full 
 result, the complete harvest, can be known only when 
 in the last day the " reapers shall be the angels." 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, Mr. Sherman not only worked 
 himself, but he also secured the help of others, 
 whose sympathies he was enabled to enlist in the 
 good cause. 
 
 He was himself very effective in his method of 
 reaching people, and in the presentation of religious 
 truth. • He was familiar with the Scriptures ; he be- 
 lieved them with all his heart ; he knew human na- 
 ture, also, and how to bring the former to bear upon 
 the latter. Of this fact the following little incident 
 will serve as an illustration : 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Richardson, who was pastor of the 
 Baptist Church in Rutland, and with whom he en- 
 joyed a pleasant acquaintance, was accustomed to 
 visit him. His first visit, which was during Mr. 
 Sherman's sickness, was on Thursday afternoon, be- 
 fore the regular prayer-meeting of his church. He 
 said to Mr. Sherman's daughter, " I took your 
 father's remarks in the evening meeting and made 
 them the topic for our evening service, and we had 
 the best meeting that I ever attended. Even old
 
 62 
 
 Deacon M., who has passed throLiL;li man)- revivals^ 
 was melted to tears." 
 
 Coi.ORKD Mission School. — Of his constant 
 Christian sympathy for and interest in the poor and 
 the neglected, there are abundant illustrations. In all 
 this it should be noted that he ever found in Mrs. 
 Sherman a most willing and (-nthusiastic helper. As 
 they were united Christian copartners in faith, so 
 also were they united and active copartners in every 
 form of Christian and missionary work and labor. 
 The writer remembers well the little gathering 
 which used to occupy regularly, Sunday evenings, 
 one or two rooms in the basement of Rose Cottage, 
 for religious converse and instruction. It was com- 
 posed entirely of colored people. It was most 
 deliehtful to note their interest and enthusiasm in 
 these religious exercises, — to hear them talk and 
 testify, and then to hear them sing so grandl)- and 
 feelingly, " making melody in their heart unto the 
 Lord." These colored gatherings were productive 
 of great good, and are, among these people, most 
 gratefully remembered unto this day. 
 
 The following letter, read at the Baptist S. S. Con- 
 vention, will further indicate the character, growth, 
 and religious value of these colored Sabbath-school 
 and conference gatherings. 
 
 To tlic Rhode Island Baptist Sabbath-school Convention, 
 the Little Mission School and Bible Class of East 
 Greeinvich send greet i u i^ : 
 
 Christians : This little scliool was formed Feb- 
 ruary I, 1866, and has increased from 3 little col-
 
 63 
 
 ored girls to 8i scholars. It is, and always has been, 
 held in our own dwelling house, and was cfathcred in 
 by and received only the care and instructions of 
 Mrs. Sherman, She has labored in the cause with 
 great zeal, and has had the real pleasure of seeing 
 the Lord's work prosper among these humble ones 
 under her untiring efforts. 
 
 In December, 1868, the writer, in connection witli 
 the school, in the same rooms, gathered a Bible class 
 from the " highways and hedges " of our vicinity, a 
 number of the class being contrabands. On this 
 class book we have enrolled the names of 153 indi- 
 viduals — 65 being the largest number present on any 
 one Sabbath. From our 2 classes 9 of our numl:)er 
 have united with different churches since the com- 
 mencement of the present year — 7 by baptism and 
 2 by experience. Others have desired the prayers 
 of the class, and profess a love for the cause, and 
 have their faces heavenward. We have men and 
 women of talent in our class — persons of deep-toned 
 piety — and this piety has often been beautifully ex- 
 hibited at the close of our lessons by a transforma- 
 tion from a Bible class into a prayer-meeting. Many 
 of these persons are contrabands, and they exert a 
 Qfood influence over their colored friends and others. 
 Once a month the lesson is omitted and the time is 
 spent in pra)er and conference. We have also a 
 service of praise for a half hour or more at the close 
 of every evening's exercises. The singing is often- 
 times heavenly. The notes of Canaan from the lips 
 of these deeply devoted ones have the true spirit of
 
 64 
 
 melody. The sacred old songs of the sunny South 
 are often sung with a soul -stirring and happy effect. 
 
 Had we time to write, and the Convention time 
 to listen, we could give scores of interesting and 
 even thrilling facts connected with our classes, but 
 as we are )et strangers to the State Sabbath School 
 Convention, we will not claim an undue portion of 
 its valuable time. 
 
 Perhaps, however, we ought to say that we circu- 
 late Sabbath-school and temperance papers freely. 
 We feel that God is doing a good work through us. 
 To Him and Him alone be all the glory. 
 In behalf of the Mission, 
 
 W. N. Slir.RMAN. 
 
 Marlboro' Chapel. — But what Mr. Sherman was 
 accomplishing in these limited quarters, less system- 
 atically and successfully and permanently than from 
 the nature of the case was his wish, he was now 
 preparing to accomplish in another jjlace much more 
 to his satisfaction. 
 
 At his own expense, and at a cost of about 
 S5,ooo, in a religiousl\- neglected part of the town 
 he now built a chapel, for the free worship of all, 
 black or white, high or low, rich or })Oor, who might 
 choose to come in. There, as soon as com[jleted, he 
 now instituted a Sabbath-school, with full equipment 
 of teachers, library, etc. To this also was now trans- 
 ferred the Mission Sabbath-school of colored people, 
 which for seven years had been accustomed to as- 
 semble at his own house. Here, mainh- at his own
 
 65 
 
 private expense, he instituted and sustained the 
 regular preaching of the Gospel, from this time until 
 the day of his death, a period of many years. 
 
 The chapel, capable of seating about three hun- 
 dred persons, was well attended. Scores of souls 
 were converted, and a church was formed. The 
 character of* the w^ork and how it was blessed may 
 be gathered from one or two simple incidents in 
 connection with the same. A poor widow who had 
 not been to church for over forty years was in- 
 duced to attend these chapel meetings. She be- 
 came interested, became anxious about herself, 
 was converted, and developed into a consecrated 
 and active Christian. Again, a man and his wife 
 who had been intemperate, and had not been to 
 church for tw'enty-four years, came to the chapel, 
 and were converted. This new church is men- 
 tioned in the recently published history of the town. 
 It was known as a Mission Church. There was no 
 regular pastorate, but supplies were regularly se- 
 cured from other churches, and from academies 
 and colleges, of students preparing for the ministry. 
 It was indeed, as its name indicates, a free church — 
 as free in form of faith, if that faith was orthodox, as 
 it was free in sittings ; consequently ministers of all 
 evangelical denominations were welcomed to its \n\\- 
 pit. This freedom of religous belief was not per- 
 mitted, however, to degenerate into license. Its 
 membership was composed, as was right, of onl\" 
 those who believed and testified that the)' had ex- 
 perienced the 7iczi> birth, and found full and com-
 
 66 
 
 plete forgiveness of sins in the grace and mercy of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 It fell to the lot of the writer of these memoirs 
 to conduct the pulpit exercises here on several occa- 
 sions. It was to him always a most delightful task. 
 The people were always orderly and attentive, and 
 showed by look and manner that they had come to 
 church for the purpose of true worship, and of 
 receivinor religious instruction. 
 
 Meetings have been sustained here for the greater 
 part of the time since the decease of Mr. Sherman. 
 During one year, under the preaching of a student 
 from the academy, some twenty conversions were 
 reported. 
 
 The following extract from a report to the Baptist 
 Convention will indicate more fully what this church, 
 an enterprise of Marboro Chapel, was and had been 
 accomplishing. 
 
 " The tenth anniversary of our school was held 
 Saturday evening, February 5, 1870. It was re- 
 ported that over fifty families connected with the 
 school since its commencement had removed from 
 the town. Total number of baptisms in the school 
 since its commencement, forty-two. Two of the 
 members sfathered in had not attended church for 
 more than twenty )'ears, and one for nearly forty 
 years. Our oldest scholar is seventy-five years old. 
 A beloved teacher, Mrs. Gracie D. Fish, died in 
 March, in full hope of an abundant entrance into 
 rest. Our last two concerts were held on Saturday 
 evenings with large congregations, and we like it
 
 67 
 
 better than on Sunday evenings, as it does not en- 
 croach upon our regular Sabbath worship. We 
 have learned ' to labor and to wait.'" The largest 
 number of scholars at one time at the mission school 
 at the chapel was one hundred and eleven. 
 
 Daughter's Conversion. — He that giveth re- 
 ceiveth full measure, pressed down and running over. 
 " It is more blessed to give than to receive." Was 
 it an illustration of this ever-beautiful and ever-true 
 teachino- of the Gospel of Christ, so faithfully preached 
 in this newly erected chapel, now consecrated to the 
 worship of God, that when doing for others, we are 
 always most effectually doing for ourselves ? Was 
 it a most pleasant fulfilment of this Bible promise, 
 that the only daughter of the founder of this reli- 
 o-ious charity was the very first to find and make 
 her own in this very chapel that Christ whom her 
 father had worshipped for so many years, and whom 
 he now, with a yet more consecrated faith, was 
 trying to honor and serve within these walls, which 
 he had erected as a loving benefaction alike to the 
 lowly poor and to his God ? At any rate such a 
 blessed fulfilnient there was, and as the happy father 
 now looked upon his only child and saw her in the 
 freshness and fervor of youth consecrating her life 
 to the same church, to the same faith, and to the 
 same glorious cause for which he had been laboring 
 for well-nigh fifty years, we may well believe that he 
 felt that he had found a reward sufficient, yes. am- 
 ple beyond the power of language to express, for all 
 he had done and all he had expended in the past.
 
 68 
 
 •" He that lovctli me shall be loved of my Father, 
 and I will love \\\va, ^nd zuiii viaiu'fcsf })iysc/f u?ito 
 him. " 
 
 The Trukst Haitinkss. — True it is beyond ques- 
 tion that the highest and truest happiness comes 
 from doine crood. Not when we work for ourselves, 
 but when we labor for others, are we most truly 
 blessed. On the occasion of the opening" of the 
 chapel for public worship, Rev. Mr. Aldrich, who 
 was present and took part in the services, re- 
 marked : " How heavenly Mr. Sherman has looked 
 all day." Many others noted the same thing, while 
 one Christian friend remarked to Mr. Sherman : 
 " Well, brother, this is )our coronation day, isn't it? " 
 Yes, and that crown, a crown of unfading amaranth 
 and gold he now wears, where now he lives, and 
 loves, and serves as king and high priest in the eter- 
 nal temple of his Father and his God. 
 
 Newspaper Notices. — The following notices of 
 Marlboro Chapel from the local papers will be of in- 
 terest, in this connection : 
 
 [From the Providence Journal.^ 
 
 Opening of Marlboro Street Ciiapee. — This 
 new and beautiful edifice, built solely by the liber- 
 ality of W. N. Sherman, of The Pendulum, was 
 opened on last Sunday afternoon as a free church. 
 The introductory prayer was offered by Rev. G. M. 
 Alvord, of the Methodist Church, and the introduc- 
 tory sermon was preached b\- Rev. Justus Aldrich. 
 The chapel was crowded with attentive hearers, and 
 
 I
 
 69 
 
 also in the evening the house was packed. The 
 whole congregation sang some of those good old 
 tunes and blessed words such as our fathers and 
 mothers used to sing, accompanied by the sweet 
 notes of a fine organ, the fruits of Mr. Sherman's 
 liberality. The chapel is a very fine building, and 
 under the control of its proprietor it will be not only 
 an ornament, but a blessing to the town. The poor 
 here have the Gospel preached to them. 
 
 [From the Providence Golden Rule, under date of August i6, 
 
 1873.1 
 
 The Free Church at Greenwich. 
 
 Last Sabbath we were at Greenwich, R. I., and 
 there we found a Free Church. At an expense 
 of some $5,000, Mr. Sherman, of The Pendnhun, 
 about a year ago purchased a site and built upon 
 it a church. Not far from it is his residence, and 
 for nine months now by himself, together with Mrs. 
 Sherman, his wife, has all the cares and responsi- 
 bilities of even the menial labor of the same been 
 looked after and met. They ring their own bell for 
 services and pay all tlie bills of expense for them, 
 whatever they may be. 
 
 In speaking of it they say it is ?i Mission ChiircJi ; 
 and the undertaking in the first place, as now, has 
 been for the purpose of saving, if possible, those who 
 are not much in the habit of attending the house of 
 Divine worship, anywhere or at any time. 
 
 In looking over their town they found that there
 
 70 
 
 were many who would be glad to avail themselves 
 of the opportunity of hearing the word of God on 
 Sunday, but, for reasons which they would not care 
 to give to the world perhaps, they could not do so. 
 
 And so these noble-hearted Christians have taken 
 the work in hand and prosecuted, with a zeal worthy 
 of their hiofh callinQf in Christ jesus, the venture at 
 a sacrifice and a cost. 
 
 Concerning the fruits of their labor, so far they 
 are well satisfied that it has not been in vain. Many 
 have at their little church found peace in believing. 
 
 Previous to starting the inissioii, however, they 
 had made it a practice to gather in on Sabbath, into 
 their own house and home, all such as would come 
 to read and hear read the word of God. Here, too, 
 they were constantly encouraged by new accessions 
 into the fold of the Master's Kingdom. 
 
 In the evening we had the pleasure of telling in 
 our own way the story of the Cross to a full house, 
 and on Monday morning we came away deeply im- 
 pressed with the value of such Christian souls, and 
 such free churches for the people. 
 
 A Sabbath-school Superintendent. — Besides 
 these private mission labors, Mr. Sherman was usu- 
 ally connected, generally in an official capacit}*, with 
 the Sabbath -school of the church he was accustomed 
 to attend. Thus he was superintendent of Sabbath- 
 schools in three different towns in which he lived, 
 servinof thus in the aoforreo;ate for a period of about 
 fifty years. His method of work was quiet and un- 
 obtrusive, but not the less effective and salutary.
 
 71 
 
 He took great pains with his Sabbath-school con- 
 certs, to make them pleasing and profitable to the 
 children, sometimes writing an original hymn or 
 poem to be sung on these occasions. A gentleman 
 from one of the village churches, on a certain occa- 
 sion was present at one of his concerts, and ex- 
 pressed himself as greatly surprised and delighted 
 at what he saw and heard. The secret of it all was 
 easy to explain. A man who loved Sabbath-schools, 
 and who loved children, and who loved the Lord 
 Jesus, and who loved the Church of Christ, and who 
 saw in the Sabbath-school the nursery of the Church 
 — a man inspired by all these kindred loves, and will- 
 ing to expend time, money, and labor to secure the 
 end desired, could not fail to produce something 
 beautiful and unusual in this line. 
 
 The following report, made by the minister of 
 Marlboro Chapel to the Rhode Island Baptist Sab- 
 bath-school Convention, will enable the reader to 
 get a still better conception of the nature and value 
 of Mr. Shernian's Sabbath-school services. 
 
 '' In making the annual report to the Convention, 
 it is with deeply saddened hearts, for two reasons : 
 First, because of the death of brother William N. 
 Sherman, who was our highly esteemed and greatly 
 beloved superintendent for more than seventeen 
 years, and whose loss to the school is almost irrep- 
 arable. Secondly, because his protracted illness 
 and consequent absence from the school have caused 
 a oreat decline in numbers and interest. Mr. Sher-
 
 / - 
 
 man was present in the school but once after the 
 I St of July, 1881. Some three or four different 
 persons have assumed the position of superintend- 
 ent, but, failing to sustain an interest, have become 
 discouraged, and to-day we are without a regular 
 superintendent. Brother Sherman, by his benevo- 
 lent spirit, earnest Christian zeal and warm-hearted 
 activities for the good of others, was an example 
 worthy of imitation. He was an indefatigable 
 superintendent and worker in the Sunday-school for 
 more than fifty years. The Woonsocket Baptist 
 School was founded by him in 1833. 
 
 ''A. R. Bradbury, 
 " Minister of tJic Church^ 
 
 After the reading of the above report the Presi- 
 dent of the Convention made remarks expressive of 
 the long and valuable services of Mr. Sherman in 
 the Sabbath-school field. In a previous Sunday- 
 school Convention before his death, it was remarked 
 that he had been a Sabbath school superintendent 
 more years than any other man in the Convention. 
 
 His Real Life Work. — And now, dear reader, 
 what does this all mean ? What is the significance 
 of a life like that of him of whom we write, spent so 
 lareelv in eatherinsf tos^ether, and in instruct'ncr in 
 the principles of morals and religion, the children 
 and youth around him ? Who shall estimate the 
 amount of good he thus accomplished 1 Who shall 
 tell how many of these youth, of all classes and 
 conditions, white and colored, he may have re-
 
 claimed from ways of wickedness and vice, from 
 Sabbath breaking, profanity, and iniquity, and by 
 bringing them into the Sabbath-school, and into 
 the house of God, have brought them thus also, 
 through the agency of these hallowed influences, 
 into the straight and narrow way of eternal life ? 
 His long services as a public journalist were more 
 conspicuous in the public eye ; they won to him 
 more of reputation and social power ; they added 
 largely to his pecuniary resources ; in the view of 
 men, they constituted what he had of success in 
 life. But there are realms of power and of influ- 
 ence other than those of matter, men and money. 
 There is a field where labor tells, not for the brief 
 span of a life, not for the fleeting period of the quick- 
 gone threescore and ten, but for the eternities of 
 God ! That realm is the field of immortal mind ! 
 That field, the field of the never-dying spirit! And 
 in that field Mr. Sherman wrought grandly, long 
 and well. 
 
 In this field he worked when in Woonsocket he 
 gathered the poor, the ragged, and the uncared-for 
 children of the village into the Sabbath-school, and 
 tauci'ht them thino-s orrander, nobler, and better than 
 they had ever conceived or thought of before. In 
 this field he worked, when in Greenwich he insti- 
 tuted the wharf meetincrs, and tauijht the uncouth 
 and unsightly frequenters of those haunts of vice — 
 of all colors, and characters, and ages — taught these 
 people about goodness, God, and heaven, and en- 
 treated them to enter upon new and better lives. 
 
 7
 
 74 
 
 In this field lie worked, when, in his own home, he 
 opened a Sabbath-school for colored people ex- 
 pressly ; when going out into the highways and 
 hedges he compelled them to come in ; when thus, 
 with a beofinninij of three little colored ijfirls, he and 
 his worthy and sympathizing wife found themselves 
 instructing a dark assembly of not less than eighty- 
 one sons and daughters of ignorance and immorality 
 and irreligion. 
 
 In this field he worked, when he built and sup- 
 ported at his own expense Marlboro Chapel, where 
 on a large scale, and with ample accommodations, 
 the poor of all classes, of all faiths, or of no faith, 
 could worship without money and without price. 
 
 This, dear reader, was the real life-work of Mr. 
 Sherman. Inconspicuous indeed, little regarded of 
 men, but in truth, and as he now contemplates it in 
 the realms of light, where all things are estimated at 
 their real value, this was his substantial and endur- 
 ing life labor. " For the thinc^s that are seen are tem- 
 poral, but the things that are not seen are eternal." 
 
 Beautifully and truly writes Philip James Bailey : 
 
 " We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; 
 In feelings, not in figures on a dial ; 
 We should count time by heart throbs. 
 He lives longest who feels the noblest, acts the best." 
 
 And Longfellow sings grandly when he says : 
 
 " It is the heart and not the brain, 
 That to the highest doth attain, 
 And he who followeth love's behest 
 Far excelleth all the rest."
 
 75 
 
 " He liveth long who livclh well ; 
 All else is life but thrown away. 
 He liveth longest who can tell 
 
 Of true things truly done each day." 
 
 Last Sickness. — As has been noted on a previous 
 page, Mr. Sherman's last sickness was painful and 
 protracted. At times his suffering was exceed- 
 ingly severe. All was endured, however, with 
 Christian composure and without complaint. 
 
 He gave his wife explicit directions to express, 
 personally, his gratitude to those who had been 
 especially kind and thoughtful during his sickness, 
 in Greenwich and in Rutland. So numerous were 
 these material expressions of thoughtful remem- 
 brance that he said it almost paid for being sick to 
 find so many friends who were willing and ready 
 to assist, and to contribute so man)- nice things for 
 his comfort — delicacies to tempt his appetite, rare 
 and luscious fruit, flowers rich and beautiful. He 
 remarked further, that he surel)^ had been greatly 
 favored in these regards, both in Greenwich and 
 in Rutland. He was constantly manifesting his 
 gratitude for the care and favors he received, and 
 said on one occasion : " No one ever had better care, 
 or even such good care." 
 
 About a week before his death he gave directions 
 that a small gift be sent to a niece, who had been 
 before overlooked when remeinbering others. 
 
 It is a matter of comparatively little importance, 
 in itself considered, and yet, as showing the kindly 
 relations he sustained to his ministerial brethren, it
 
 76 
 
 is a matter, perhaps, worth noting, that during his 
 last sickness he was called on by no less than fifteen 
 different clergymen of different denominations. He 
 was always exceedingly averse to all forms of ex- 
 ternal show and demonstration. In conformity with 
 this disposition of his, he gave especial directions 
 that his funeral and burial should be quietly con- 
 ducted, without display of an)- kind. Aside from the 
 mere physical aspects of death, in the form of sick- 
 ness, suffering, and separation, he was accustomed 
 to look upon it with composure and in conformity 
 with the teachinors of his faith. It was to Imn, not 
 an "eternal sleep — nor indeed even a ''temporary 
 sleep," but a passage, as through a darkened cham- 
 ber, to a realm of infinite beauty and glory. 
 
 To him, " there was no night there, and they need 
 no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God 
 giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and 
 ever." 
 
 To him it was a place where " God shall wipe 
 away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no 
 more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall 
 there be any more pain, for the former things are 
 passed away." 
 
 In his views the words of the Lord Jesus were 
 true, as true as the event of death itself was certain, 
 and upon them his soul reposed in a sweet and 
 blessed restfulness. 
 
 " Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in 
 God, believe also in me." 
 
 "In my Father's house are many mansions ; if it
 
 n 
 
 were not so, I would have told you. I <go to prepare 
 a place for you." 
 
 " And if I go and prepare a place for you, / luill 
 come again, and receive you nnto myself; tJiat where 
 I am, there ye may be a/so." 
 
 It was in conformity with these uplifting Christian 
 views, hopes, and feelings that he made the request 
 that, when Professor Blakeslee should conduct his 
 funeral services, if it was thought desirable to have 
 any, he should speak to the living of li/es great 
 blessings — speak of the deep, the unspeakable sig- 
 nificance of this life, rather than to make any refer- 
 ence to himself, or to dwell upon the sad and mel- 
 ancholy associations of bereavement and death. 
 
 Funeral Directions. — His life-long instincts, 
 ever manifesting themselves in all things pertaining 
 to the decencies and proprieties of life, continued 
 with him to the last, and he gave explicit directions, 
 in writing, as to the disposition of his remains after 
 his decease. Just before he died he made mention 
 of some business matters ; then said : " I believe I 
 have done all that is necessary." Thus all affairs 
 relating to this life were cared for and completed. 
 
 Remembers iils Friends. — To a large number 
 of friends he sent gifts and messages — to "Father 
 Mitchell," the blind centenarian, with whom he had 
 enjoyed many hours of religious conference, and to 
 others. 
 
 Near the close of his life, as the 17th chapter of 
 St. John was being read to him, when the 24th verse 
 was reached — " Father, I will that they also whom
 
 78 
 
 thou liast nivcn mc be with iiu; where 1 am ; tliat 
 they ma\' bchoKl m}- ,L;l<>r\', which thou hast ^ix'en 
 me" — he said, " There is where 1 am to be." Then 
 seeming to fear that he had spoken with too much 
 assurance, he added, "There is where I hope to 
 be." 
 
 And, feeHng evidentl\- that the end was near, he 
 remarked, " Ma, I have reached Beulah Land." 
 
 Services Ar Rutland. — No public service was 
 held at Dr. Mead's. The Rev. J. R. Richardson, 
 pastor of the Baptist Church, offered prayer at five 
 o'clock P.M., on Friday, preparator)' to the removal 
 of the reniains next morning. There were a num- 
 ber present, being those who had especially kindly 
 feelings toward Mr. Sherman, and were particularly 
 thoughtful of him, Tliis service seemed more like 
 a family gathering for evening devotions than 
 funeral obsequies. 
 
 His Favorite Hymn. — After the prayer, his fa- 
 vorite hymn was sung by two ladies, and most beau- 
 tifully rendered : 
 
 I come to thee, I come to thee ! 
 Thou precious Lamb who dietl for me ; 
 I rest confiding in thy word, 
 And "cast my burden on the Lord." 
 I come to thee with all my grief, 
 Dear Saviour, help my unbelief; 
 Thy blessed name, my only plea. 
 With this, O Lord, I come to thee ! 
 
 I come to thee, whose sovereign power 
 Can cheer me in the darkest hour ;
 
 79 
 
 I come to thee thro' storm and shade, 
 For thou hast said, " Be not afraid." 
 1 come to thee with all my tears, 
 My pain and sorrow, doubt and fears ; 
 Thou precious Lamb, who died for me, 
 I come to thee, I come to thee ! 
 
 To thee my trembling spirit flies, 
 
 When faith grows weak and comfort dies, 
 
 I bow adoring at thy feet, 
 
 And hold with ihee communion sweet. 
 
 wondrous love ! O joy divine ! 
 
 To feel thee near and call thee mine ! 
 Thou precious Lamb, who died for me, 
 
 1 come to thee, I come to thee 1 
 
 As was fittingr, on the morning" when his remains 
 were taken from his home in Greenwich, the bells 
 of Marlboro Chapel tolled the number of his earth- 
 life years. These solemn strokes told of the cessa- 
 tion of a life as complete in years (^y^,) as it had 
 been in virtues. 
 
 Elm Grove Cemetery. — The place where he 
 was laid is pleasantly laid out and ornamented, and 
 owes its existence as a cemetery to him, he having- 
 initiated the movement which secured the lot in the 
 years of his Wickford life. 
 
 He afterward Ijccame desirous that the corpora- 
 tion having charge of the cemetery should establish 
 a perpetual fund, the interest of which should be 
 used to keep the lots in good repair, and the whole 
 in proper condition. This he proposed to the di- 
 rectors of the corporation, but though it was well 
 approved, it was not accomplished. He mentioned
 
 8o 
 
 the matter a^^ain a short time before his death, re- 
 gretting extremely tliat it had not been done. He 
 was told that it should not be fori^f^otten. In 1886, 
 four years after his decease, the directors succeeded 
 in securing a charter which empowered them to es- 
 tablish a fund for the object above named ; and now 
 a sum of mone)-, thus raised, is regularly expended 
 in conformity with the expressed wishes ol Mr. 
 Sherman, the projector of this wise and excellent 
 plan for keeping the cemetery in proper condition. 
 
 A Present to the old Chikcii of his Boy- 
 hood. — Allusion was made above to the Allenton 
 Baptist Church. This was the Old First Baptist 
 Church of North Kingston, to which reference has 
 already been made, and which was for so many years 
 under the pastoral charge of Rev. William Northup, 
 the uncle of Mr. Sherman. It was here that, in boy- 
 hood, he was accustomed to attend church in com- 
 pany witli his parents, and it was here that he 
 commenced the Christian life at the early age of 
 eleven years, though he did not at this time unite 
 himself with the church. 
 
 A short time before the close of his life he re- 
 quested that the fine oil portrait of his uncle, whom 
 he had ever most highly respected and revered, 
 should be presented to this church, and hung upon 
 the walls of the audience-room, should the church 
 be pleased so to do. Accordingly this was done, 
 and most fittingly the presentation was made by Mrs. 
 Sherman, on the occasion of the centennial celebra- 
 tion of the church, November 12, 1882.
 
 8i 
 
 It was, altogether, a most interesting occasion. 
 The followinor outhne of the exercises, abbreviated 
 from one of the local papers, will be of interest to 
 the many friends of this church, as well as to the 
 sorrowing members of the Sherman family : 
 
 **The First Baptist Church in North Kingston, 
 established one hundred years ago, celebrated its 
 centennial on Sunday. The service opened with an 
 anthem song by a chorus choir — ' Praise the Lord.' 
 The sermon was preached by Rev. F. J. Jones, re- 
 cently pastor of the church. His discourse was a 
 sketch of the church since its organization, its history 
 being the history of its founder and father, Rev. 
 William Northup, who was a native of the vicinit\\ 
 born in i 760. He served for a time in the War of 
 the Revolution as drum-major, but wheji converted 
 he went at once into the preaching of the Gospel. 
 For fifty-nine years he was pastor of this church. 
 Six revivals of much power were enjoyed in his min- 
 istry, bringing 400 persons into the church. He died 
 in 1839 at the age of 79. The church was organized 
 November 12. 1782. It began with 12 brethren and 
 20 sisters, converts of Mr. Northup. A short time 
 afterwards, on the same day, a public recognition ot 
 the church, with the ordination of Mr. NorthuiJ. 
 took place. The next Sunday Mr. Northup bap- 
 tized 7. 
 
 "The first meeting-house was built in 1786. 
 
 Another was built in 1846. In 1848 the present 
 
 meeting-house was built. In 1870, the church being 
 
 without a pastor, a great revival was enjoyed under 
 
 s
 
 8. 
 
 the labors of the Revs. ]. Aldrich and Wheeler, 
 neighboring pastors. In 1880 the Rev. F.J.Jones 
 was ordained, under whose labors a revival was en- 
 joyed and some forty members added. The church 
 was constituted with 32 members. Its present mem- 
 bership is 184. 
 
 " When the discourse was finished, the portrait of 
 Elder Northup, a remarkably fine one painted many 
 years ago by Lincoln, was brought in and suspended 
 in the rear of the pulpit. The venerable features 
 were recognized by man)- of the older people in the 
 audience. The portrait was then presented to the 
 church by Mrs. W. N. Sherman, of East Greenwich, 
 whose husband, William Northup Sherman, was the 
 nephew of Elder Northup. The presentation was 
 accompanied with a written note signifying that the 
 gift was made in accordance with one of the last re- 
 quests of her late husband, and in harmony with her 
 own desire. Deacon J. Eldred responded in behalf 
 of the church, in a brief and appropriate address. 
 Mrs. Sherman appeared before the audience in deep 
 mourning for her husband, and. with the assistance 
 of Rev. J. Aldrich, exhibited several ancient books 
 with quaint titles, which had been owned by Elder 
 Northup, with other interesting relics, among tliem 
 a manuscript sermon of the old preacher, faded and 
 smoky, on the text, Jeremiah, xxxviii. 20 : ' Obey, I 
 beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak 
 unto thee ; so it shall be well unto thee, and thy 
 soul shall live.' The volumes had a very old and 
 smoky look. A hymn was sung, of which the two
 
 83 
 
 last stanzas were " lined off," in the fashion of the 
 first half century of the church. The hymn was, 
 ' How did my heart rejoice to hear,' sung to Mear. 
 The singing- was as old-fashioned as the words and 
 the tune. At this point a member was received into 
 the church by the hand of fellowship. The service 
 was closed with the doxology, and the benediction 
 by the Rev. Dr. Smith. The administration of the 
 Lord's Supper followed, the Revs. J. Aldrich and 
 Dr. Smith assisting in the service. 
 
 "The choir sang another anthem, 'Crown Him 
 Lord of All,' and the benediction closed the service.'
 
 MEMORIAL CLOCK.— After the death 
 of her husband, Mrs. Sherman, stricken 
 down, as onl)' those who have had a similar 
 experience can tell, had the feeling that she would 
 like to leave in East Greenwich, where for so many 
 years Mr. Sherman had been so well known and so 
 much esteemed, some appropriate reminder and 
 memorial of his honored name. She accordini^dy 
 decided to present the town with a memorial clock. 
 
 Nothing else, certainly, could have been more ap- 
 propriate and fitting. Nothing else could be so con- 
 stant and so perfect a reminder to the citizens of the 
 village of him who had for so many years mingled 
 with them in business, and had taken so deep an in- 
 terest in all their affairs, — educational, beneficiary, 
 reformatory, and religious. 
 
 Mrs. Sherman accordingly addressed a letter to 
 the Town Clerk of East Greenwich, offering to pre- 
 sent a clock, to be placed in some dome tower as a 
 memorial of her late husband and to be known as 
 the "Sherman Memorial Clock." 
 
 At the same meeting of the town council in 1883 
 this proposition was accepted, a vote of thanks 
 passed, and a committee appointed to have the mat- 
 ter in chargre. Of this committee Professor F. D. 
 Blakeslee was chairman.
 
 85 
 
 The following is the preamble and vote as passed by the council : 
 
 " JVhcreas, Mrs. Mary M. Sherman, of Rutland, 
 in the State of Vermont, has at her own expense 
 placed in the tower of the town hall of this town a 
 very beautiful and valuable town clock to be known 
 as the Sherma7t Memorial Clock, in memory of her 
 late husband, William N. Sherman, for many years 
 an honored citizen of East Greenwich, now de- 
 ceased ; 
 
 " It is therefore voted by the taxpayers in town 
 meetinof assembled that Mrs. Sherman is entitled to 
 the gratitude and thanks of all the people of this 
 town for her generous, costly, and valuable gift. 
 
 " And it is further voted that the town clerk be 
 and he is hereby directed to transmit a copy of this 
 preamble and vote to Mrs. Sherman. 
 
 " Edward Stanhope.'' 
 
 In due time, June, 1886, the clock was finished 
 and placed in the dome of the new town hall just 
 completed. 
 
 The following from a Providence paper will be ot interest in this 
 connection. 
 
 " The Sherman memorial (town) clock is in its 
 place in complete running order. It certainh' is a 
 thing of beauty, and appears to be perfect in mech- 
 anism. The clock itself is placed in a roc^in built on 
 purpose for it in the new town hall, some twenty feet 
 below the bell and dial plates. By an ingenious yet 
 simple construction of gearing, the hands of all four
 
 86 
 
 dial plates are connected with the clock by one 
 shaft. On front of the clock, as one enters the 
 door, is seen the solid silver i)late, bearing the fol- 
 lowing inscription : 
 
 In Memoriam. 
 
 Placed in position and presented to the town 
 
 of East Greenwich, R. I., June, 1886, 
 
 B)- 
 
 Mary M. Sherman, 
 
 In memory of her husband, 
 
 William Northup Sherman, 
 
 Who died March 2, 1882. 
 
 " The clock has two small dial plates, one with the 
 minute and hour hands, the other with the second 
 hand, and by an ingenious piece of mechanism the 
 four dial plates in the tower above are set to a second 
 by turning a small key which sets the two small dial 
 plates upon the clock. The weight of the pendulum 
 is about 125 pounds, the running weight about 100 
 pounds and the striking weight about 1,000 pounds. 
 The latter raises the 40-pound hammer 8 inches. 
 There is 100 feet of cord on the time weight, 200 
 on the striking weight. It has the Graham dead- 
 beat escapement. It is an eight-day clock, will run 
 two weeks without winding, though it is intended to 
 be wound once a week. The running weight winds 
 about 50 feet. The time weight is about 126. The 
 town is to be congratulated, and Mrs. Sherman is 
 entitled to a unanimous vote of thanks for the 
 beautiful crift.
 
 This clock has been heard to strike at Pine Hills, 
 a distance of ten miles far away across the bay. 
 
 Conclusion. — Thus we have briefly narrated some 
 few of the more salient points in the earth life of 
 this good man. Early in life he " commenced doing 
 good," and so, as the apostle Paul says, sen^ on his 
 works before to meet him, when by and by he 
 should pass on to the heavenly land. But now he 
 has made the eternal passage, and the full harvest 
 of his Christian labor is his, "and his works do follow 
 him."
 
 E-TTERS.
 
 I^ettei'^. 
 
 HE following letters, — one to himself, and 
 others letters of condolence, some to his 
 
 wife, and some to his daughter, — make 
 
 many interesting references to his life and charac- 
 ter, 
 
 (From Rev. Mr. RoLbins to himself.) 
 
 Cape Neddick, Nov. 4, 1879. 
 Dear BrotJicr Sherman : 
 
 I take the liberty of sending to you a picture of a 
 man who feels greatly indebted to you for the many 
 expressions of kindness and good will which he has 
 received from you. I need not enumerate these 
 acts of kindness, but they have made an indelible 
 impression on my heart and I want, in some way, 
 to let you know it. The interest you took in un- 
 ease during the days of darkness and sorrow which 
 followed the resignation of my pastorate at Green- 
 wich, and the soothing, comforting words which your 
 wife addressed to me just before I entered the cars 
 when I left for Boston, will never be forgotten by 
 me. And the delightful meetings I enjoyed in your 
 chapel I often remember with great pleasure, and 
 with a feeling of regret that 1 cannot enjoy ihem 
 aorain. I have no such meetinors here. I ha\c a 
 good congregation t(^ j)reach to on the Sabbath, and
 
 our prayer and praise meetings in tlie evenings are 
 well attended ; but I have to do most of the talk- 
 ing-. The church beinor small, tlic number of workers 
 
 o o 
 
 is small. We have not such a hive of busy bees as 
 you have at the chapel. The Lord bless you, 
 Brother S., and your chapel work. We shall be 
 happy to see you at any time, and also to hear from 
 you by letter. 
 
 Fraternally. 
 
 GiLlJERT RoiiBINS. 
 (From the Rev. J. Aldrich to Mrs. Sherman.) 
 
 Mrs. IV^n. A^. Sherman. 
 
 Dear Sister : As I was confined to my house, 
 on the funeral occasion of your dear husband, and 
 denied the privilege of mingling my tears of sym- 
 pathy for )ou in common with your many friends, 
 you will allow me to address to you a few words 
 with my pen. I rejoice, that while you are passing 
 through a very heavy sorrow, which nothing less 
 than God's grace can reconcile you to bear pa- 
 tiently, )ou are not left to mourn as those who 
 have no hope ; for your husband has not only died 
 in the hope of a better resurrection, but has also left 
 behind him, for your comfort, the record of a useful 
 life. It is not my special office to eulogize the de- 
 ceased ; and to you, who know so much better than 
 I the various offices of honor which he has filled 
 with all the details of his useful life, there is no 
 need that I should rehearse his praise. His record 
 is not only in Heaven, but it has been eloquently
 
 93 
 
 chronicled by others on earth. I)Ut it is so pleas- 
 ant to recall the deeds of our departed friends, that 
 I cannot well forbear an allusion to a Sabbath 
 which it was my privilege to spend at your house 
 ten years ago last November. That beautiful day 
 was made especially memorable to me b)- the Sun- 
 day-school service, held at mid-day, in a convenient 
 apartment of your own house. I had seen your 
 husband happy on other occasions, but never so 
 happy as that day, when the poor and neglected 
 people of the place flocked in, and gathered around 
 him for Bible instruction. He seemed to feel that 
 it was his special mission to provide for that class, 
 and to be perfectly satisfied, as to compensation 
 for his labor ami expense, with the affectionate 
 gratitude which they manifested on that occasion. 
 The pleasing scenes of that Sunday-school session 
 come to me to-day with almost as much freshness 
 as if the}' had occurred but yesterday. My first 
 surprise was that so large a number of that class 
 which is so hard to interest in religious instruction 
 had been drawn together in a private house, and 
 that they all seemed so cheerful, and so much at 
 home in the exercises of the school. The poor and 
 illiterate of our larger towns are made to feel so 
 keenly the contrast between their social condition 
 and that of the ordinary congregation that gathers 
 in our larcfer churches on the Sabbath, that when 
 the few conscientious Christians do try, now and 
 then, to bring tliem into the house of God. they suc- 
 ceed onl)' in a very few cases. The instinctive de-
 
 94 
 
 sire of the poor and wrctchetl to receive sympathy or 
 kindly attentions from their superiors — whicli is one 
 of the hopeful features of fallen humanity — was hap- 
 pily realized that day in your cheerful and commo- 
 dious home. I remember how I thanked God in my 
 heart that He had provided at least one family 
 and one home in East Greenwich to succor and ele- 
 vate the poor and unfortunate. I cannot forget the 
 grateful and satisfied expression which beamed with 
 a beautiful radiance upon all their faces, as they par- 
 ticipated in the exercises of that day. I had never 
 before so fully appreciated the blessedness ot minis- 
 tering- to God's little ones. I then and there felt 
 somewhat, at least, the grave import of Christ's 
 words, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
 the least of these, my disciples, ye have done it unto 
 me." I remember how I was impressed that evening, 
 in conducting the introductory services of Marlbor- 
 ough Street Chapel, to speak of that beautiful inci- 
 dent in the life of our Saviour which is recorded in 
 Matt. xi. 4-6, making, in my discourse, a special 
 point of the fact that in answering John the Baptist's 
 inquiry, " Art thou he that should come, or do we 
 look for another?" Jesus said to John's disciples: 
 " Go, tell him the blind receive their sight, the lame 
 walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead 
 are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached 
 to them ; and blessed is he whosoever shall not be 
 offended in me." As I then said, " The Marlbor- 
 ough Street Mission must prove to the churches of 
 East Greenwich its divine commission, to undertake
 
 95 
 
 an independent work for the salvation of sinners, by 
 savi}ii^\\\^x\\y so noiv I believe it JiasAoVi^ this to the 
 satisfaction of some of the best members of each of 
 the churches. That many doubted the expediency of 
 the mission, and others sincerely regretted its inau- 
 guration, shows nothing, now that it has proved the 
 birth-place of souls ; but it is clearly evident that my 
 departed brother was divinely directed to erect this 
 chapel to God's service ; and I sincerely pray that 
 God will provide wise and faithful men to carry on 
 successfully in the future what your dear husband 
 so well commenced. I am snre that he who conse- 
 crated his money so liberally, and gave his services 
 with so much self-denial to this enterprise, while on 
 earth, can but feel a deeper interest in its present 
 and future success in saving souls, now that he 
 knows their worth and the glorious rewards of 
 Heaven. Regretting that I have extended these 
 lines which I had desio-ned to limit to a brief note to 
 so long an epistle, praying that you may be di- 
 vinely comforted and sustained in this hour of your 
 great sorrow, I hasten to subscribe myself 
 
 J. Aldkich. 
 
 (From Mrs. Clement to Mrs. Mead.) 
 
 Hartford, March 8, 1882. 
 My deal' Mrs. Mead : 
 
 I have just heard of )-our sad bereavement, and 
 desire to assure you of ni}- sincere s\-mi)ath\-. I 
 have thought so much of )'ou and )oiir poor 
 mother in your great loneliness which must follow
 
 96 
 
 the loss of one to whom you were so constantly and 
 devotedly attached. And your dear little daughter 
 must miss so much the grandpa whose fondness for 
 her was so remarkable. 
 
 But your faith in the promises of our blessed 
 Saviour will surely bring comfort to your stricken 
 hearts, and the memory of such a useful life is some- 
 thing to be thankful for. 
 
 Mrs. Parker unites with me in expressions ot 
 sympathy. 
 
 ^ (From J. W. Miller to Mrs. Sherman.) 
 
 Bellefonte, Pa., March i6, 18S2. 
 Dear Mrs. Shcynian : 
 
 As I read in the Philadelphia Record of a week 
 ago last Saturday a despatch announcing the death 
 of Mr. Sherman, both his own and your many kind 
 words and acts came before me with increased 
 force, and 1 felt a desire to express in some way my 
 sympathy for you. And yet, I feel your grief is so 
 sacred that I dare not break in upon it with my 
 words. The music of nature may seem discordant 
 and jarring to friends, and earth may be sorrowful ; 
 but only to that little immediate circle from which is 
 taken the loved one does the broken chord appear 
 and the voices of earth seem indeed to be harsh. 
 At such times, grief shuts out our grosser selves, and 
 conforms us insensibly to our God-natures. How 
 we should cherish those feelings of love which are 
 immortal ! The sorrows of separation will multiply 
 the joys of reunion, and we shall in the hereafter
 
 97 
 
 bless the Father wlio permitted us to ha\e affliction 
 in time, only that we may more fully aj^preciate 
 Heaven's pleasures in eternity. 
 
 Clara wrote me fuller with regard to your be- 
 reavement, and, since together we shared your 
 kindness, we likewise ma\- unite in asking our 
 Heavenly Father to reveal unto you the deeper 
 things of His love, and give you constant trust in 
 the ultimate joyful meeting with your loved one in 
 the land of Beulah. ^ J. W. Miller. 
 
 (From Miss Blakeslee to Mrs. Sherman.) 
 
 Cortland, N. Y., March 20, 1882. 
 Mrs. Sherman : 
 
 Our Dear Friend : I can add but little, for words 
 at such a time are useless, but I wanted you to know 
 that I was not unmindful of your great sorrow. 
 
 You do not sorrow without hope, I am sure, and 
 Heaven grows very near us when it holds a dear 
 one taken from our family. 
 
 If such notes as these pain you at present, wait 
 and read them with more care later, and you may 
 possibly be glad to know that they were prompted 
 by sympathetic hearts. We shall all miss your 
 husband. 
 
 '■' We wept — 'twas Xaturc wept, but failli 
 Can pierce beyond the gloom of death, 
 And in 3-on world, so i\\ir ami bright, 
 Behold thee in refulgent light ! 
 We miss thee here, yet Failh would rather 
 Know thou art with thy Heavenly Father. 
 
 ID
 
 98 
 
 XiiUirt sees the body dead — 
 Faith beholds the spirit fled ; 
 Xa/nre stops at Jordan's tide — 
 Fiii/h beholds the other side ; 
 Thai but hears farewell, and sighs, 
 This, ///r ivelcome in the skies! 
 
 Please accept my love and sympathy. 
 
 (From Miss C. S. Weeks to Mrs. Mead.) 
 
 New York, March 19, 1882. 
 My dear Mary : 
 
 I have just heard of the great sorrow which has 
 recently come to you, and I cannot help writing a 
 line to express my sympathy for your loss, though 
 we have been so long separated as to be now almost 
 strangers. 
 
 The )ears have doubtless brought man)' changes 
 to us both, but none which seems to me sadder than 
 that which robs you of your good father, whose 
 kindly and genial nature I remember well. I count 
 among the pleasantest memories of my girlhood the 
 days wliich I spent in your household, which he as 
 well as your dear mother and yourself did so much 
 to render home-like to a homeless child. 
 
 I read of your father's death with so sincere a 
 feeling of regret and so tender an appreciation of 
 the sorrow that it must be to you, that I cannot re- 
 frain from giving expression to it. that you may be 
 assured that whatever comfort may be derived from 
 the cordial sympathy of your friends is at least 
 yours.
 
 99 
 
 Give my warmest love to your mother. 
 I remain with much affection and many kind re- 
 membrances, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 C. S. Weeks. 
 
 (From S. M. Sherman to Mrs. Mead.) 
 
 Jamaica Plain, March 29, 1882. 
 
 My dear Mrs. Mead: 
 
 I was very sorry to learn ot your father's death. 
 As a boy I was with him a good deal. He used to 
 take me to ride with him very often. Some of my 
 pleasantest recollections as a boy are associated with 
 him. You have my deepest sympathy in your great 
 loss. 
 
 Give my most affectionate regards to \our mother. 
 She was my Sunday-school teacher when I was a 
 boy in Wickford. I have always cherished her 
 memory as the first teacher who imparted to me 
 when a boy my first knowledge of that Being whom 
 now, as a man, I acknowledge with love and rever- 
 ence and humility as my Master and Saviour. 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 S. M. Sherman. 
 
 (From Rev. Mr. Stetson to Mrs. Sherman.) 
 
 Providence, R. I., April — , 1882. 
 No. 32 Gilmore Street. 
 Sister Sherman : 
 
 I hasten to do what I have been intending to do 
 ever since the death of your dear and much respected 
 husband. I know you feel sad and lonely since his
 
 lOO 
 
 departure to the blessed spirit land. But the sweet 
 recollections of the past, the life he lived, the earnest 
 catholic spirit of loyalty to truth, the fervent spirit 
 of love to Christ, the self-denial for the cfood of hu- 
 manity, the constant, fervent spirit of prayer, the 
 noble reaching forth after higher attainments, the 
 manliness he maintained on every side, the sweet 
 fragrance of love he threw around his earth home, 
 and earth life, still remain. They are not dead. 
 They still cheer and speak to you. Not only to you 
 but to us all who were permitted to share his ever 
 kindly greetings. 
 
 Many have been the pleasant hours I have spent 
 at your Rose Cottage with your husband and your- 
 self. Pleasing recollections they indeed are to me. 
 How pleased I would be to repeat them, but that 
 cannot be. I cannot mourn for Brother Sherman, 
 for he has gone to that rest we used to talk about 
 and pray for. Pleased would I be to meet him again 
 as I used to and see his smiling face, but I must wait 
 in that future hope through the mercy of Christ and 
 the Father, God, of finding him in that happy land 
 where disease and pain and sorrow and all tears are 
 removed. I was surprised when I heard of his 
 death, and I should have been present at his funeral 
 had it been that circumstances favored. I thouo-ht I 
 would write you and try to speak some word of com- 
 fort to you, and then I thought that I would wait till 
 the first hours of sorrow had passed and the more 
 lonely hour of secret sorrow had dropped its shad- 
 owing cloud over your spirit. l)Ut I trust as the
 
 lOI 
 
 bright hope of the future world with all its happy 
 reunions is pictured on your spirit, the light from 
 glory is so strong that the shadows are quickly re- 
 moved, and you are led to trust all to Him "who 
 doeth all things." " Blessed are the dead that die 
 in the Lord." 
 
 I have heard nothing of your future arrangements, 
 but presume you will be with your daughter. 
 
 What did he do with the chapel ? Is it to be con- 
 tinued as a place of worship ? I have enjoyed many 
 a pleasant hour of worship in that place. 
 
 I hope you are enjoying a good degree of health 
 and very much of the consolations of the Gospel of 
 Christ. 
 
 From your brother in Christ, with Christian love. 
 
 (From Miss Mary Crane, daughter of Rev. S. A. Crane, D.D., who 
 
 was rector ot St. Luke's Church, Greenwich, for more 
 
 than thirty years, to Mrs. Sherman.) 
 
 Rome, Italy, May 1 1, 1882. 
 My dear Mrs. Shcriiui)i : 
 
 I know that letters and words can only comfort 
 those in sorrow as proofs that friends are sympathiz- 
 ing with them, and, therefore, though perfectly con- 
 scious that I cannot take one sorrow from )our 
 heart, I am going to send a few lines to tell you that 
 though so far away I do not forget you and Mar\- in 
 the bereavement to which you have been called in 
 the loss of husband and father. I know, too, that
 
 I02 
 
 you know in wliom )ou trust, and that He is willing 
 and able to ])ring- )ou comfort in this hour of trial, 
 and that He only can. It is a sad break in the home 
 when the head is taken, and )ou know how sadly 
 we were called to feel this. I well remember your 
 kindly sympathy when my dear father was taken 
 from me. and afterward when my mother followed 
 him. )our kindness to me. In both these afflictions 
 )ou were very kind, and I have many times said I 
 wanted to write to you now and tell )Ou you and 
 Mary were not forgotten, though so far away. Max- 
 God bless and comfort you both. For Mary it is 
 less hard, as she has her own family about her, and 
 no doubt you will go and be with her most of the 
 time, but wherever you are the great blank in your 
 future must ever follow you. But in your daughter's 
 home and in her family you will find much to occupy 
 and interest you, and in time, God's good angel of 
 comfort which must soften our orrief however orreat, 
 you will find yourself looking more on the time of 
 meeting and less back to earth and its sadness. In 
 fact it will be but a short time before we shall all 
 meet in that home where partings cannot come. 
 
 Indeed, dear Mrs. Sherman, were it not for the 
 blessed hope in that world to come where the 
 Saviour will be our light and our peace, what 
 should we do in these hours ? Oh, let us thank 
 Him for the inestimable blessing of His love and all 
 that He has done for us and our hopes for the 
 future. May He bless and comfort you and )ours 
 in your hour of trial. Will you remember me most
 
 TO 
 
 kindly to Mary and accept for both my sincere sym- 
 pathy in your bereavement. 
 
 Your very truly sympathizing friend, 
 
 Mary Crane. 
 
 (From Miss R. H. Smiley to Mrs. Sherman, a preacher in the Society 
 
 of Friends.) 
 
 Lake Mohonk, March 31, 1882. 
 Dear Mrs. Sherfuan : 
 
 My thoughts often turn to thee with loving sym- 
 pathy as I remember thee in thy loneliness, and I 
 do pray that the " God of all comfort " may be very 
 consciously near thee each moment. 
 
 He a/ojie can fill the void that death has made 
 and lift thy thoughts to that blessed home where the 
 dear one gone before is "forever with the Lord." 
 
 That life seems more and more to me the realYii^, 
 and I love to dwell upon it and think of the joy of 
 those who have entered in. Only " a little while " 
 and we, too, shall join with them in their songs of 
 joy and triumph. As dear friends one by one are 
 taken, I can but rejoice for them that the trials of 
 earth are ended and they rest with Jesus. 
 
 I know there is the sorrow for those remaining — 
 the daily missing the dear ones, but He knows all 
 this and sympathizes with those who sorrow. I trust 
 thou dost so enter into the joy of thy dear husband 
 that thy own heart is uplifted with a blessed foretaste 
 of the joy beyond. 
 
 Thy dear one is with Jesus now seeing Him face 
 to face. Oh, what joy ! satisfied forever ! He has
 
 I04 
 
 seen it best to leave thee here a httle longer to live 
 for Him — to manifest forth the life of the Lord Jesus, 
 and I do pray that thou mayest realize day by day 
 that the Lord Jesus is a blessed reality, and that 
 thou mayest be a living- witness of His love and sup- 
 porting grace, and be anew set apart for Him. 
 
 "Set apart for Jesus, 
 
 Is not this enough ? 
 Though the desert prospect 
 
 Opens wild and rough ? 
 Set apart for His delight. 
 
 Chosen for His holy pleasure, 
 
 Sealed to be His special treasure ! 
 Could we choose a noble joy, 
 
 And wou'd we if we might?" 
 
 And then the blessedness of being set apart to 
 serve Him. May we delight to do His will, giving 
 Him a joyful service with praise. 
 
 May the Lord bless and comfort thee. 
 Lovingly thy friend, 
 
 R. H. Smiley. 
 
 (Extracts from Mrs. C. W. Ray, D.D., to Mrs. Mead.) 
 
 3214 ILWEKFORD St., 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 My dear Mary : 
 
 In your family there have been sad ravages. 
 Death has been there — rather the dear departed has 
 been promoted to a nobler immortal career, his mor- 
 tal life was well rounded — everything finished. 
 Blessed rest in paradise, after so much labor.
 
 I05 
 
 Give much love to your dear mother and say to 
 her that in my heart of hearts I have sympathized 
 with her in her great loss — with yourself too, but 
 you have your husband and child, while she is quite 
 alone. 
 
 Several friends sent me papers containing sketches 
 concerning the life and labors of your father, which 
 have been of much interest to me. It seems to me 
 that his was a finished life. He was able to accom- 
 plish so much good in the Master's cause, and had 
 such a Ions: life in which to labor. Grateful is the 
 memory of such. 
 
 Mrs. C. VV. Ray. 
 
 (Extracts from Rev. Gilbert Robbins to Mrs. Sherman. Mr. R. 
 remarked to Mr|. Sherman as he left E. Greenwich for another 
 field, " You have done for me more than any other one here unless 
 it be Mrs. V." He lived in Mrs. V.'s house.) 
 
 Cape Neddicii, March. 
 Deal'- Airs. Sherman : 
 
 Most sincerely do I sympathize with you in your 
 bereavement. May you find the grace of God suf- 
 ficient to sustain you under it. I feel that in the 
 death of your husband I have lost a friend ; for dur- 
 ing my ten years' residence in Greenwich I always 
 regarded him in that light. One of the pleasantest 
 trips of my life I owe to him. I refer to the trip I 
 made with him to Washincrton, several vears 7s.^o, 
 when our missionary anniversaries were held there. 
 He generously furnished me with the means of going 
 and returning, and, indeed, of defraying all the ex-
 
 io6 
 
 penses of the journey. And I remember with 
 pleasure how I went with him down the Potomac to 
 Mt. Vernon and visited the tomb of the immortal 
 Washington. Oh, what thrilling emotions we had as 
 we stood together gazing upon that sacred tomb ! It 
 was an event to be remembered for a life-time. And 
 I never think of it without feeling grateful to the man 
 who gave me the opportunity of doing it. I should 
 not have enjoyed that privilege had it not been for 
 the kindness of Brother Sherman. And that is not 
 the only occasion on which I was the recipient of his 
 benefactions. I think, with pleasure, of the kind 
 attentions I received from him during the trials 
 through which I passed in some of the last months 
 I lived in Greenwich. And I remember the words 
 of sympathy uttered by you, dear sister, just as I 
 left the village in the cars for Boston. 
 
 The good Lord reward you for your good wishes 
 and words, and may you be supported by his 
 precious promises now that you are left alone. Man}' 
 will lament the departure of your husband as well 
 as yourself. The worshippers in the chapel will 
 sadly miss the man to whose Christian liberality they 
 are indebted for that pleasant place of worship. But 
 you must remember, and so must they, that the 
 builder and owner of that chapel has entered that 
 " house not made with hands eternal in the heavens." 
 He has gone where, often on earth, his spirit longed 
 to be, and we shall all soon follow him. Mrs. R. 
 sends her love and kindest sympathy. 
 
 Gilbert Robbjns.
 
 I07 
 
 (Extracts from Mrs. Asenath C. Green, for more than twenty years 
 a missionary in the Sandwich Islands, to Mrs. Sherman.) 
 
 Makawas, S. I., Jan. 24, '84. 
 Very dear Mrs. Sherman : 
 
 I take a note sheet this morning to fully assure 
 you that a well-covered letter was mailed for Green- 
 wich long, long ago, taking my love and sympathy 
 to a cherished friend ; perhaps had I directed to 
 Mrs, Wm. N., instead of M. B., you would have re- 
 ceived it. 
 
 Your dear daughter Mary is located in the 
 " Green Mountain State," making a home for her- 
 self. I think of it as the place of her devoted father's 
 last weariness and ^2i\w, from which his spirit took 
 flight to an abode of rest and unending bliss. How 
 truly it may be said of him, he lived not for self 
 but others ! My delightful visits at your pleasant 
 Wickford home are oases in my memory. 
 
 With much love to yourself and friends, I am 
 ever yours, 
 
 Mrs. Asenath C. Green.
 
 JSemori/^l Sermon.
 
 HE Sabbath succeeding his burial, March 19, 
 1882, a memorial service was arranged 
 and conducted by the Rev. Mr. Bradbury, 
 of Providence, in Marlboro Chapel, East Greenwich. 
 The following selections from this sermon will be 
 read with interest : 
 
 Text, Ps. cxii. 6 : " The righteous shall be in 
 everlasting remembrance." The last clause. 
 
 The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, separates 
 the human race into two large divisions. It names 
 them the righteous and the wicked ; the saint and 
 the sinner ; the believer and the unbeliever. 
 
 It represents them as serving two masters, the 
 righteous serving God the Father, Christ Jesus, the 
 Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Great Comforter ; 
 the wicked serving Satan, who, for sixty centuries, 
 has been trying to rob God of his glory, and men of 
 their souls. 
 
 The Bible also represents them as walking differ- 
 ent ways — the righteous walking in a straight, nar- 
 row, sun-lit, star-jjaved way ; the wicked in a broad, 
 easy, sliding-along way. 
 
 They meet with opposite deaths. The righteous 
 often triumph in death, shouting, " O, deatli, where 
 is thy sting? " The wicked are driven awa)- in their 
 wickedness, without hope and without God. 
 
 The Bible goes still further. St. Matthew, in the
 
 I 12 
 
 25th chapter, from the 31st verse to the close of the 
 chapter in his gospel, gives a graphic, glowing de- 
 scription of the august scenes of the General Judg- 
 ment, when, for the first and last time, the whole 
 human race were ever together, or ever will be. 
 My theme is the character and destiny of the 
 
 righteous. We remark in describing- their char- 
 ts o 
 
 acter : 
 
 1. You may know the righteous, for they are right 
 in their thoughts, meditations, plans, purposes, and 
 motives. Their chief motives are to glorify God and 
 do good. They can well remember when their 
 motives were not good. But now they are. How 
 true this was of our dear departed Brother Sherman. 
 His aims and motives, from a little boy, were to 
 glorify God and build up his cause. 
 
 2. You ma)- know the righteous, for they are right 
 at heart, right in their affections. They love God 
 supremely, and try to love their neighbors as them- 
 selves. How true this was of our dear brother! 
 
 3. You may know the righteous, for they are right 
 in the words which drop from their lips. They are 
 like honey and the honeycomb. Oh, what sweet, 
 heavenly words have dropped from our beloved 
 brother's lips in this chapel, ever since it was built! 
 Oh, how fresh in our memory are the heavenly ex- 
 hortations in praise, prayer, and conference meet- 
 ings, when his whole soul was drawn out in agonies 
 for the conversion of sinners. They even now seem 
 to ring in our ears. While memory remains, they 
 will remain.
 
 1 1 
 
 4. You may know the righteous, for they are right 
 in their doings. The deeds of their hands are hke 
 their words — useful, beneficial. Like their Master, 
 thev 2fo about doinor crood. How true this was of 
 Brother Sherman. See the work of his hands in 
 this beautiful house of worship. 
 
 5. You may know the righteous, for they are right 
 in their views of the atonement ; of the plan of salva- 
 tion ; of the redemptive scheme of mercy through 
 the Crucified. You remember, my hearers, how 
 clear our dear brother's views were of the way of 
 life and salvation. Very seldom do we find even 
 ministers who can grasp these weighty truths better 
 than Brother Sherman did, or who could expound 
 and explain better than he could ! 
 
 6. You may know the righteous, for they are right 
 on the great benevolent institutions of the day, 
 such as missions, temperance, Sabbath-schools, and 
 anti-slavery. On these institutions, without an ex- 
 ception, our esteemed and dearly beloved brother, 
 from a boy, took a right stand. He embraced them, 
 brought them home to his bosom, and worked for 
 them with an undying zeal. For all of them his 
 ardor never waned. When the State had the pro- 
 iiibitory law. he thought we now had a panacea for 
 the horrible ills of intemperance. We could now 
 demolish the Qficrantic crime of crimes, and destrov 
 the sum of all villainies. And oh, how grieved he 
 was when the prohibitory law was abolished. His 
 heart seemed to sink within him. 
 
 And he was an earnest friend and zealous worker
 
 114 
 
 \n Sabbath-scliools. Wlicn he lived in Woon- 
 socket, and was proprietor and editor of T/ic U'oon- 
 sockei /\ilrioLhii found time to _f(0 out into the lanes 
 and l)\\va\s and collect toi^ether the ragged, dirt)', 
 "filthy, vicious children in the school-house, taught 
 them the way of life and salvation, and led them to 
 '' the lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the 
 world." 
 
 And how he rejoiced when the chains fell off 
 from the millions of slaves in our otherwise happy 
 land ! And when the contrabands came to East 
 'Greenwich, he took some twelve or fifteen of them 
 into his house, taught them to love and serve God, 
 and. that they might feel more at home, purchased 
 the lot on which this beautiful chapel stands, built the 
 chapel, put in a large organ for the public services, 
 a small one for social meetings and the Sabbath- 
 school, at the cost of several thousand dollars. And 
 for some eight or ten years he has seen the salvation 
 of God in the conversion of sinners. 
 
 11. It remains to speak of the destiny of the right- 
 eous. P'or they shall be in everlasting remembrance. 
 We observe, then : 
 
 I. To be in everlasting remembrance is to be 
 eternally in the mind of God Almighty. As He is 
 oninipresent and omniscient, it follows that He will 
 hold the righteous eternally in llis meinor)-. It is 
 impossible that they should, for one moment, be for- 
 ofotten. " Can a woman foro^et her suckinor child ? 
 Yea, she may forget, yet will I not forget." The 
 righteous will be graven upon the palms of His hands.
 
 1 1 
 
 2. To be in everlasting remembrance is to be 
 eternally in God's great heart of affections. On the 
 righteous He pours a flood of His love. Never, no, 
 never, can He cease to love them. Nothing can 
 withdraw His affections from them. " For I am per- 
 suaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
 other creature, shall be able to separate them from 
 the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our 
 Lord." 
 
 3. To be in everlasting remembrance is to be 
 eternally in God's presence. What particular part 
 of the universe He will furnish for a home v/e are not 
 informed. The locality of hca\en, the paradise of 
 God, the mansions of rest, is not given us in the 
 sacred Scrijitures. They tell us there are such 
 places, and for whom they are prepared, viz.. saints 
 and anofels, and that the riofhteous shall dwell in 
 them for ever and ever. 
 
 4. To be in everlasting remembrance is to be 
 eternally supported by him. The sacred books 
 of the Bible only hint at what may be needed for 
 their support. John, the Revelator, sa)s : "And he 
 showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as 
 crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of 
 the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on 
 either side of the river, was there the tree of life, 
 which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her 
 fruit every month." And in another chapter he 
 writes : " And white robes were given unto every
 
 ii6 
 
 one of thcin." This is fiLiiiralivc lang'uao-e, but Iil-- 
 ures have a deep and iiii|)ressi\(' meaning-. 
 
 5. To be in everlastinof remembrance is to be 
 eternally protected by God. Just what protection is 
 needed for the righteous does not readily appear. 
 It cannot, for a moment, be supposed that in the 
 future world dangers beset our paths, or that any 
 evils will overtake the righteous. They are safe, 
 protected by His Almight)- power. His omnijjotent 
 hand will hold them up. 
 
 6. To be in everlasting remembrance is to be, 
 perhaps, nearer Christ's throne eternally than any or 
 all the holy angels of heaven. These angels never 
 sinned, never needed the pardoning mercy of a 
 crucified Redeemer. St. Paul writes in his first epis- 
 tle to the Corinthians : '' Know ye not that we shall 
 judge angels," which seems to imply we shall in 
 some sense be superior to the holy angels of heaven. 
 Hence the poet sings : 
 
 " Earth has a joy unknown in heaven — 
 The newborn peace of sin forgiven ! 
 Tears of such pure and sweet delight, 
 Ye angels ! never dimmed your sight." 
 
 7. To be in everlasting remembrance is to be 
 eternally in the best society of the universe of God. 
 The archangel Michael, Gabriel, all the hoh- angels, 
 the ch(M-ubim and the seraphim, together with all the 
 redeemed, from Abel down the long stream of time, 
 and all the ransomed who now live, or ever will 
 live, will compose that hap}))', hoi)-, glorified society. 
 There, oh, there will be the righteous. There, oh,
 
 I [ 
 
 there is our dearly beloved Brother Sherman. Could 
 the curtain be removed, and we look in, what raptur- 
 ous delight would thrill our souls ! What overpow- 
 ering joy would fill our minds ! For aught I know, 
 we should like to hasten our flight to join that holy, 
 happy throng. Well, my dear hearers, we ma}-, if 
 righteous, be nearer that glorious society than we 
 are aware. There may be but a step between us 
 and death. The angel may already be summoned to 
 cut the brittle thread of life. Oh, may we see to it 
 that we are ready, all ready, for the summons. 
 
 8. Finally, to be in everlasting remembrance is to 
 be eternally in happiness, in bliss. Blissfulness will 
 thrill every faculty of the mind, the intellect, the sen- 
 sibilities, and the will. The glorified body, after the 
 morning of the resurrection, will also be full of hap- 
 piness. Such joy, such delight, is unknown on earth. 
 Our earthly bodies are often full of death, sorrow, 
 misery, pain. These, in the new body, will never be 
 known. But unspeakable felicity will take posses- 
 sion of our entire being. In this life it is difficult 
 for our minds to grasp the blessedness of heaven. 
 But as it is written : " Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, neither have entered into the heart of man 
 the things which God hath prepared for them tluit 
 love him." 
 
 In review, what lessons do we learn ? 
 
 1. We may know if we are righteous. Have we 
 their character? Are we doing their works? 
 
 2. We may know if we are not righteous. We 
 shall not have their character, nor do their works.
 
 ii8 
 
 3. We see, although faintly, the glorious, un- 
 speakable destiny of the righteous. Pen cannot 
 describe it, nor pencil throw it on the canvas. With 
 our lively imagination we can see Brother Sherman 
 in the Holy City, walking its streets with a crown 
 of glory on his head studded with tiazzling gems> 
 sparkling like the sun's brilliant rays, clothed with 
 the celestial robe of riMiteousness, more cflorious 
 than language can picture, chanting to his infinite 
 Redeemer heavenly pseans, loud hallelujahs, sweet 
 doxoloo^ies, with saints and ancjels rnakino- the arches 
 of heaven rinof- Oh! how soon, how soon, if rio-hte- 
 ous, we shall join him, and then!
 
 fRDSS MOTICES
 
 ]\^nicei^ of the ftQ^^. 
 
 EFORE and after Mr. Sherman died, many 
 references to him appeared in the New 
 England papers. As indicating the im- 
 pression which he made upon those outside of his 
 own immediate circle of relatives and friends, we 
 make below a few selections. 
 
 [From T/ie Advi'rtiser, Providence, R. I., after his retirement from 
 the Pendulum. \ 
 
 It is with very melancholy emotions of heart 
 that we sit down to write a paragraph or two record- 
 ing the retirement of William N. Sherman, Esq., 
 from the proprietorship and management of The 
 Rhode Island Pcjidu/um, published at East Green- 
 wich for so long a period, and so well known as a 
 very ably conducted and most respectable and excel- 
 lent family newspaper. The Pendu/nvi was originally 
 started by Mr. Sherman about twenty-three years 
 ago, and has been owned and steadily conducted by 
 him ever since, with very good success. 77/<' JVoofi- 
 socket Patriot was also originally started by Mr. 
 Sherman, who conducted it for about nine years, 
 when he was afflicted with a long period of sickness 
 and disposed of that paper to its present publisher. 
 His subsequent residence in East (ireenwich })r()\ cd 
 every way healthful to him, and he has long been 
 13
 
 1 2 
 
 held in the lii<^-liest estimation there as a man of ex- 
 cellent general intelligence, fine business capacity, 
 irreproachable character and large-hearted Christian 
 benevolence. 
 
 Mr. Sherman's first enterprise as an editor and 
 proprietor was the publication of ^hc Ladies j\Iir- 
 ror, which lie started at Southbridge, Mass., about 
 the year 1S31 ; and we are happy to be able to state 
 that such has ever been his prudence, judicious man- 
 agement, persevering industry and honorable con- 
 duct, that he now retires from business not only 
 '' with all his blushing honors thick upon him," but 
 also with a very handsome amount of "real and per- 
 sonal.'' If we had his note at six per cent, for fifty, 
 seventy-five or a hundred thousand dollars, we should 
 feel that we were " very well fixed." 
 
 We have said that it made us feel sad to record 
 the retirement of Mr. Sherman from The Penduhini, 
 and the reason is that we have been in the habit, for 
 a long time, of meeting him often, every week, in 
 the office of The Gefieral Advertiser, and have 
 learned to " like his ways," as the saying is. He has 
 always proved to be a most affable gentleman as well 
 as a most diliofent and methodical business man. 
 
 (From The Advertiser and Gazette of I'rovidence, after his death.) 
 
 A good man — a thoroughly upright, intelligent, 
 respected, successful business man, and a consistent 
 Christian man — has departed, and Rhode Island has 
 lost another of her excellent citizens. William N. 
 Sherman, one of the old master-printers of the State,
 
 I 2^ 
 
 the original proprietor of The Woonsockct Patriot, 
 and subsequently of The East Greenwich Pendulum, 
 died on the 2d instant, in Rudand. Vt., at the ripe 
 age of seventy-three. 
 
 In this office — the old office of A. Crawford Greene 
 & Son — Mr. Sherman was familiarly known as " Un- 
 cle William," he being the uncle of the late lamented 
 senior partner. But so much w^as he liked by all 
 the old employees, who had been here for so many 
 years, that they all claimed him as uncle. His 
 last paper, The Rhode Island Pendulum, he had 
 printed in this office up to the time when he sold it 
 to its present proprietor ; and as we were accus- 
 tomed to seeing him more or less every week for a 
 long period, we learned to esteem him very highly. 
 He was always very pleasant and sociable and often 
 quite jocular ; and although we had not, of late, 
 seen much of him. since he retired from business, 
 we still find it hard to realize that he has gone for all 
 time. 
 
 He was a well-informed, sagacious man, who had 
 been about our country considerably, and always 
 had much to say that was interesting and instruc- 
 tive. He was a man of high and firm moral and re- 
 ligious principles, and no one was ever more honor- 
 able in the fulfillment of all obligations. Being a 
 practical and good printer, he liked to work over his 
 paper, and did more or less, every week, in the way 
 of what is technically called " making-up." Rather 
 unexpectedly to us, however, he finally sold out Tlic 
 Rhode Island Pendulum and retired — as. indeed,
 
 124 
 
 he might well have done long before, for he had 
 accumulated a decidedly handsome property. 
 
 Although Mr. Sherman was entirely successful 
 with TJic Patriot at Woonsocket, he told us once that 
 he never was well there. Something- about the climate 
 of the place did not seem to agree with him ; and 
 after a severe fit of sickness he decided to go to 
 East Greenwich. Here, for many years, he enjoyed 
 good health, and here, we may say, he was greatly 
 esteemed and respected. He was a worthy mem- 
 ber of the Baptist Church there, and l)uilt, at his own 
 cost, what is known as the Marlboro Chapel. 
 Whether this was given by him, in his lifetime, or 
 whether it has been willed, to any society, we are 
 unable to say. Mr. Sherman leaves a widow and a 
 married daughter, an only child ; and, as we learn, 
 he possessed real and personal estate to a very con- 
 siderable amount. 
 
 (From TJie Boston G/ol>e.) 
 
 He was a journalist of conservative views and was 
 ever the advocate of all that tended to the improve- 
 ment of those around him and the furtherance of the 
 principles of justice, humanity and benevolence. A 
 man of benevolent and religious impulses, he sought 
 the crood of his fellow man in acts of useful benev- 
 olence. He was one of the founders of the Free 
 Library in 1867, and, associated with Governor 
 Green, was one of its liberal benefactors, and con- 
 tributed to the fund for the erection of a handsome 
 library building. Among his last public acts was a
 
 125 
 
 contribution of one hundred volumes to its already 
 large collection. Honoring religion in all its forms, 
 he had his own peculiar ideas upon creeds and 
 tenets, — tending to liberality of religious opinion. 
 In accordance with his views and the promptings of 
 a benevolent nature the Marlboro Street Chapel of 
 East Greenwich was erected in 1872 at the sole ex- 
 pense of Mr. Sherman at a cost of $5, 000. In 1874 
 an Independent Baptist Church was organized ot 
 open communion. The pulpit has been regularly 
 supplied by various ministers of evangelical denom- 
 ination, and the Sunday-school and library have 
 been supported almost entirely by Mr. Sherman. 
 The sittings are free, and at this chapel all can wor- 
 ship whenever they choose free of expense, in all 
 accordance with the invitation given at its dedica- 
 tion : "Whosoever will may come." 
 
 He was a member of Harmony Lodge of Odd 
 Fellows, and for several years a prominent member 
 of the order in Rhode Island. Thus closes a useful 
 life full of good deeds, and an industry that brought 
 to him comfort and ease in the sunset of life, and 
 left to the generations that shall follow a wholesome 
 example. 
 
 (From The Rhode Island Pciidulutii.) 
 
 Mr. Sherman was a man of strong prejudices, 
 but possessed sterling traits of character. He was 
 a man of marked individuality, condemning what 
 he conceived to be wrong. He became united with 
 the Baptist Church at Woonsocket in 1838, but
 
 126 
 
 previously had induced a goodly number of children 
 of the villaofe who seemed to need moral and relitr- 
 ious instruction to assemble in the old Red School- 
 house, where he conducted a Sunday-school that 
 was afterward transferred to the Baptist Church. 
 After his removal to East Greenwich, with a true 
 missionary spirit he incorporated those benevolent 
 impulses which prompted him, about the year 1872, 
 to buy a notorious rookery at the corner of Long 
 and Marlboro Streets and erect on the spot a chapel 
 where there has been preaching since, with free 
 seats, a flourishing Sunday school being connected 
 with it, while the whole has been mainly sustained 
 by the bounty of the subject of this sketch. 
 
 (From The Providence Press.) 
 
 He was the liberal patron of every good work 
 in East Greenwich, and his effort to lift up the lower 
 classes of society in that place deserve the most un- 
 qualified commendation. That these might have a 
 place of worship where they would feel entirely at 
 home, he erected the Marlboro Street Chapel at his 
 own cost, and sustained the greater part of the ex- 
 pense of supplying the pulpit for many years. He 
 was kindly, great-hearted, and the friend of every- 
 body who deserved friendship. 
 
 (From T/te Providence yournal.) 
 
 William N. Sherman, of East Greenwich, died 
 Thursday, in Rutland, Vt., aged seventy-three years 
 Mr. Sherman was the founder of 77/r IVoofisocket Pa-
 
 127 
 
 triot, and subsequently started The Rhode Island 
 Pejiduluiu which he conducted for many years. Mr. 
 Sherman was a plain, upright, conscientious man, 
 whose daily life was devoid of reproach, and whose 
 labors were modestly, but earnestly and intelligently, 
 devoted to the elevation and improvement of his 
 fellow men. 
 
 (From TJic Veniiotit Baptist.') 
 
 An indefatigable worker for God, his country, 
 and his fellow men. 
 
 He was greatly esteemed and respected. He 
 was a worthy member of the Baptist Church, and 
 built, at his own cost, what is known as the Marl- 
 boro Chapel. Mr. Sherman leaves a widow and a 
 married daughter, an only child ; and, as we learn, 
 he possessed real and personal estate to a very con- 
 siderable amount.
 
 DES, fODMS AND ^YMNS. 
 
 14
 
 WRITTEN BY WILLIAM N. SHERMAN, ON DIFFERENT 
 OCCASIONS. 
 
 Ode. 
 
 Prepared for a Fourth of July Celebration in Southbridge, 
 Mass.y 1832. 
 
 All hail to the day whose triumph was bright ! 
 And hail to fair freedom, emerging to light, 
 Reflecting the brilliant escutcheons of fame. 
 From darkness, which shrouded America's name. 
 
 Its lustre has circled the brow of the brave, 
 And deck'd with green laurels the patriot's grave, 
 Has braided its garland of vict'ry and peace, 
 And lightened the footsteps of time in its pace. 
 
 With songs and with honors let us now entwine 
 A wreath of thanksgiving for gifts so divine ; 
 Let hearts bright with gladness and glory rebound, 
 Generations to come shall echo the sound. 
 
 Proclaim to the world our fifty-sixth morn, 
 Since the birth of our freedom — our new world was born; 
 We're joyful, we're free, Independence still claim, 
 And proud of our country we boast of our name. 
 
 "United we stand, divided we fall," 
 
 '' E Pluribus Utinm" America's all — 
 United in bonds of affection and peace. 
 May wisdom, and science, and virtue increase.
 
 132 
 
 Oh, thus be it ever, and triumph long wave, 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ; 
 Preserve us, defend us, oh. Power Supreme, 
 All glory and honor we give to thy name. 
 
 Written for the Same Oecasion. 
 
 Hail, Freedom ! long with us abide — 
 For thee our fathers lived and died — 
 Thou art our boasted song and pride — 
 
 Thou art our glowing fame. 
 Years have fled since bold hearts high 
 Beat to the sound, " Our Country ;" 
 Swore that they'd live free, or die, 
 
 And crush the oppressor's name. 
 
 That proud oath, where war-smoke curled, 
 They redeemed, and then unfurled 
 Their banner to the western world — 
 
 "Union and Liberty." 
 Banner of the sainted dead. 
 Wave in triumph o'er their bed 
 Whom thy folds to vict'ry led, 
 
 To immortality. 
 
 Loud, long applaud each hero's name. 
 And sing their deeds of deathless fame, 
 Their struggle with oppression's flame. 
 
 Their many a pain and toil ! 
 For us in war-pomp, proud arrayed. 
 They boldly fought, they bravely bled — 
 Their sons to freedom they have led, 
 
 Upon the war-ground's soil.
 
 133 
 
 Then let Columbia's sons rejoice, 
 Let music burst from every voice, 
 And sound the p:lory of our choice, 
 
 Our blest America. 
 Let poor old England cry '■ Reform," 
 We care not for the impending storm. 
 We'll fortify in every form 
 
 For Liberty's array. 
 
 %-nm. 
 
 Written for The MoiitJily Harvester, 1841. 
 
 Ye Stars ! Ye Stars ! 
 
 Ye stars, ye stars, ye burning stars — 
 
 Ye heavenly hosts of light — 
 Set round in glorious diadems 
 
 For heaven and earth's delight. 
 Say, are ye the tapers round the throne 
 
 That shone on Bethlehem's plain 
 When the only Son of God was born, 
 
 And angels sang, "Amen ! " 
 
 Yes ; there ye shine, and there have shone, 
 
 E'en since creation's birth ; 
 And there forever still may shine, 
 
 'Till a new heaven and earth ; 
 And when old things are passed away, 
 
 And truth and error sever. 
 When by the throne of your own God, 
 
 The saints shall shine forever. 
 
 O blessed stars ! — since time began, 
 
 Your glory beamed as bright ; 
 The patriarchs and prophets found 
 
 In ye much sweet delight.
 
 '34 
 
 The same our fathers looked upon — 
 Our father's fathers praised — 
 
 Are the very stars that still shine on, 
 Above our fathers' graves. 
 
 And so 'twill be when we are gone — 
 
 Ye'll twinkle still as bright ; 
 And morning stars together sing, 
 
 As at creation's light. 
 When earth and heaven dissolve and fly 
 
 And ye shall " fall " away, 
 The stars of God's eternity 
 
 Shall make eternal dav. 
 
 Written for The Monthly Harvester, 1841, 
 " That Fade th Not Away." 
 
 Oh 1 who would always live on earth 
 
 Where sorrows ever rise ? 
 Where cloud on cloud of anguish comes 
 
 Across our brightest skies } 
 Where gnawing cares are ever fresh, 
 
 And pain oft fills the breast.^ 
 Oh, know ye not, ye earthly ones, 
 
 This is no place of rest ? 
 
 Oh. who would barter gems of bliss, 
 
 And joys that never tire. 
 For earth's best glories, mutable. 
 
 Which bloom but to expire.' 
 Oh, who would brave life's scathing storms, 
 
 Without a hope in heaven.' 
 There fadeth not away that hope. 
 
 If sinners are forgiven.
 
 135 
 
 Then seek not wealth and pleasure here, 
 
 Beneath a changeful sky, 
 Where love grows cold, and friendships ebb, 
 
 And bosom friends must die ; 
 But treasure deep within the heart, 
 
 A mansion bright and fair, 
 For there immutable, unfading bliss 
 
 Is — there, and only there. 
 
 Oile. 
 
 Prepared for the Fourth of Jiily Celebration at Wick ford, 
 
 1843. 
 
 'Tis Freedom's natal day — 
 
 A nation's jubilee ; — 
 And here our festival we pay, 
 
 Sweet Liberty, to thee ! 
 
 Let tuneful shouts arise. 
 
 From every heart and voice ; 
 Let paeans reach the upper skies. 
 
 And echo back, " Rejoice." 
 
 Nor king's nor tyrant's power, 
 
 Nor monarch's haughty sway. 
 Can dim the glory of the hour 
 
 We consecrate to-day. 
 
 The king upon his throne. 
 
 Rules with oppression's rod ; 
 But we no king or sovereign own. 
 
 Save the Eternal God. 
 
 Let tuneful shouts arise, ' 
 
 From every heart and voice ; 
 Let pagans reach the upper skies, 
 
 And echo back, " Rejoice."
 
 136 
 
 Written for the Same Occasion, 
 
 Eternal God ! to thee we bend, 
 Our fathers' God, our fathers' friend ; 
 To thee our grateful voices raise, 
 In humble hope and solemn praise. 
 
 Thy hand sustained each bleeding breast 
 
 When by a tyrant's power oppress'd, 
 
 And when upon the batde-field, 
 
 Thou wert their strength, and thou their shield. 
 
 Thy mighty arm was bared to save 
 Our fathers from oppression's grave ; 
 And we, their sons, are pledged to be 
 Heirs of their immortality. 
 
 Departed sires ! we sing thy fame ! 
 Thy valor and thy deathless name, 
 Thy banner waves yet, sainted dead ! 
 In triumph o'er your silent bed 1 
 
 Forever wave that banner high 
 Through every arch of Freedom's sky ; 
 And ever may our banner be 
 Inscribed "To God and Liberty ! " 
 
 Hvimi. 
 
 Prepared for the Centennial Celebration at Greenwich, 
 Fourth of July, 1876. 
 
 Eternal God ! to Thee we raise, 
 In humble thanks and solemn praise, 
 Our heart and voice before Thy throne, 
 For blessings of a century gone.
 
 137 
 
 When our young nation was oppressed, 
 
 Thine arm sustained in our distress, 
 
 And when upon the battle-field 
 
 Thou wert our strength, and Thou our shield. 
 
 A hundred years have passed away, 
 And on this hundredth natal day 
 The banner of our sainted dead 
 Floats in rich folds above our head. 
 
 Forever wave that banner high, 
 Through every arch of Freedom's sky, 
 And North and South, and East and West, 
 In Union be forever blest. 
 
 Then God's right liaml shall shade our fears 
 And bless the coming hundred years ; 
 And Freedom from her mountain height 
 Proclaim aloud that right is might. 
 
 A century hence ! We shall be gone ' 
 But generations yet unborn 
 May float the flag — may voices raise, 
 And sing again Centennial praise. 
 
 Written for a SabluUh-sc/nwl Concert. 
 What did Jksus Sav.^ 
 
 Jesus in the temple with the doctors wise, 
 .•\sking wondrous questions, giving wise replies ; 
 When His parents found him, seeking night and day 
 Jesus in the temple, what did Jesus say .' 
 
 Luke, it. 49. 
 15
 
 Jesus at the Jordan, coming unio John, 
 That He miglu baj)tize him, the beloved son ; 
 When John from His j)urpose sought to turn away, 
 Jesus at the Jordan, wliat did Jesus say ? 
 
 Matt. ill. 15. 
 
 At the well of Jacob, resting by its brink, 
 Bidding the Samaritan give to Him to drink, 
 When she asked of Jesus where men ought to pray. 
 At the well of Jacob, what did Jesus say? 
 
 John, iv. 2\, 2 1. 
 
 On the sea of Galilee, when the storm was high, 
 "Save us. Lord, we perish ! " His disciples cry, 
 While they marvel greatly as the winds obey, 
 On the sea of Galilee, what did Jesus say r 
 
 all. Tin. 26. 
 
 Coming into Bethany, meeting full of gloom 
 INIartha mourning Lazarus lying in the tomb ; 
 Of the resurrection and the last great day. 
 Coming into Bethany, what did Jesus say ? 
 
 yohn, xi. 25, 26. 
 
 Weeping o'er Jerusalem, city of the king, 
 Whom He would have gathered 'neath his loving wing, 
 Mourning for her children, going all astray. 
 Weeping o'er Jerusalem, what did Jesus say ? 
 
 A/at/, xxiii. 37. 
 
 At the Lord's last supper, ere He went to die, 
 In that upper chamber, as the end drew nigh. 
 When He gently told them He must go away. 
 At the sacramental supper, what did Jesus say ? 
 
 jfohn^ xiv. 2. 
 
 In the dark Gethsemane His disciples slept, 
 While, exceeding sorrowful, Jesus prayed and wept, 
 When He found them sleeping who should watch and pray, 
 In the dark Gethsemane, what did Jesus say ? 
 
 Luke, XX a. 45, 46.
 
 139 
 
 From the Mount of Calvary, on the cross of woe, 
 Seeing the three Marys, they who loved Him so, 
 To the dear disciples ere he went awav, 
 On the Mount of Calvary, what did Jesus say? 
 
 yuhn, xix. 26, 27. 
 
 From the cross of sorrow, ere His soul went up, 
 As He drank the fullness of the bitter cup. 
 Looking on His enemies, in their dark array, 
 On the cross of sorrow, what did Jesus say ? 
 
 lAike, xxiii. 34. 
 
 At His home in Heaven, in the world above, 
 Where the little children learn His wondrous love. 
 And their sins forgiven on that blessed day. 
 At His home in Heaven, what will fesus say ? 
 
 A faff. XXV. 34. 
 
 Written for a Sabbath-school Concert. 
 Heaven. 
 
 There'll be no night in Heaven ; 
 
 In that blest world above 
 Work never can bring wearines=, 
 
 For Heaven's work is love. 
 
 There is no grief in Heaven, 
 
 For life is one glad day, 
 And tears belong to former things 
 
 Which long have passed away. 
 
 There'll be no want in Heaven, 
 
 Hunger and thirst no more 
 Shall reach the followers of the Lamb 
 
 On that celestial shore.
 
 I40 
 
 Tfiere'll be no sin in Heaven ; 
 
 Behold that blessed throng 
 All holy in their spotless robes ! 
 
 And holy is their song. 
 
 There'll be no death in Heaven, 
 For they who gain that shore 
 
 Have put on immortality 
 And thev will die no more. 
 
 [The followinor lines were suggested l^y a thrilling 
 scene which recently transpired in our vicinity. A 
 man was run over by a train of cars and had both 
 legs cut off, and in a d)ing state was taken to his 
 home. His little daughter, who, though very young, 
 had been taught in the Sunday-school that without 
 repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ there 
 could be no admission into heaven, realized the situ- 
 ation of her dear father, and bursting into tears en- 
 treated him to pray. It was too late for audible 
 prayer, but it is hoj^ed that he found peace and 
 Heaven.] 
 
 Pray ! Papa, Pray ! 
 
 pRAV, papa, pray ! oh, quickly pray ! 
 
 Heed, heed thy little daughter's cry ; 
 Thine end is near — pray, papa, pray ! 
 
 This day, dear papa, tnou must die. 
 
 Pray, papa, pray ! 'tis not too late ; 
 
 Oh, haste to have thy sins forgiven ; 
 Jesus is ready to receive, 
 
 And save thv soul this dav in Heaven.
 
 141 
 
 Oh, Jesus ! love my papa dear, 
 And gently wash his sins away ; 
 
 Oh, fit him for a heavenly home 
 
 Where we may meet — pray, papa, pray ! 
 
 A moment more — the spirit fled, 
 And bitter silence reigned that day ; 
 
 The child still lingered near the dead, 
 And asked in vain — Did papa pray ?
 
 UC SOUTHERN R 
 
 AA 001