Sherman, Sidney, 1805-1873

Born in Marlboro, Massachusetts, Sidney Sherman (1805-1873) was one of ten children of Micah Sherman and Susanna Frost. Orphaned at the age of 12, Sherman began working as a clerk in a Boston mercantile house four years later. After five years in New York City, he moved in 1831 to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he founded a cotton bagging company. In 1835, Sherman became captain of a volunteer militia company and sold his business in order to equip fifty-two soldiers to fight in the Texas Revolution. After Sherman and his company fought and carried the Texas Revolution’s flag in the battle of San Jacinto, they received the right to vote in Texas at the Convention of 1836. Sherman was subsequently appointed lieutenant colonel in Sam Houston’s regiment at Gonzalez in March 1836 and then promoted to colonel of the 2nd Regiment of the Texas Volunteers. In 1839, he moved with his wife Catherine Isabel Cox (1815-1865) and their three children to Cresent Place on the San Jacinto Bay and became a representative for Harris County. After introducing a bill to create the position of Major General of the Militia to augment protection along the western and southwestern frontiers, Sherman was elected to this position in 1843.

Following the annexation of Texas, Sherman settled in Harrisburg, where he purchased the local railroad company, which he reorganized to create the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway Company. Surviving the 1852 sinking of the steamer Farmer, Sherman suffered a number of tragedies, including the destruction of his business offices and home by fire and the death of his son, Lt. Sidney Sherman, while fighting in the battle of Galveston during the Civil War. His other son, David Burnet Sherman, and his wife Catherine had also died by the end of the Civil War. Sherman died in Galveston on August 1, 1873. His grandson, W. N. Bate, published a biography on him in 1975.

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