Maricopa County AZ Archives Biographies.....Sherman, M. H. unknown - living in 1896
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 5, 2005, 3:39 pm

Author: McFarland & Poole

p. 472-473

  M. H. SHERMAN. Progress can be no more forcibly illustrated than by placing
the past side by side with the present. Men forget what has disappeared from
view and assume unreflectingly that the comforts of to-day have always existed.
To show the advancement made by Phoenix in a few short, years it is only
necessary to halt adjacent the queer little long-eared burro street cars, that
are still running on one connecting line, and the swift gliding, perfectly
equipped electric motors with which the Phoenix City Railway Company moves its
passengers over the five miles of distance that represents the east and west
limits of Arizona's capital. In four years after the burro system had been
adopted it had been outgrown. The people were too numerous for it, and they
insisted upon rapid transportation. Accordingly, on the 28th of February, 1893,
tne Phoenix City Railway Company was incorporated, with General M. H. Sherman
for president, Colonel William Christy, treasurer, and B. N. Pratt, secretary.
The equipment of the electric line now includes five electric motors, in
connection with which are used four trailers and several two-horse cars. No
matter how rapid may be the heart beats of the Phoenician, he will find the
Phoenix City railway ever ready to set the pace for him. Altogether the road is
one of the most substantial and completely equipped electric street car lines in
the Southwest, outside, possibly, of Los Angeles, and for many years to come it
will hold that position. Work was commenced on this railway July 27, 1893, and
was finished September 26 of the next year. The track and overhead work of the
electric line are of the most substantial character; the company sparing no
skill or expense to make them of the best. The iron is thirty and thirty-five
pound steel rails, and they are laid on six by eight inch selected redwood ties,
brought from Oregon, and laid in heavy rock ballast, all work being done in the
most substantial manner.

  M. H. Sherman, president of the Electric Street Railway, is a native of the
Empire State. Until the age of sixteen he attended the common school and
assisted on the home farm, but at the age of nineteen, he decided to see
something of the West and not many weeks later was in Prescott, Arizona. There
he taught school for some time and worked at any other honest employment he
could find, thus saving a little money. His first investment was the purchase of
a cattle ranch, and in this he met with unusual good luck. In the latter part of
the seventies he came to Phoenix, purchased property and built the street car
line which was running as a horse car line. He was president of the Valley Bank
for some time, and was quite prominent in all public affairs. He was
superintendent of public instruction of Arizona, and was the owner of the
Phoenix Water Works. Mr. Sherman was a large stockholder in the Valley Bank and
Arizona Improvement Company, and he gave the capital site to the Territory. He
is the largest individual taxpayer in Arizona. Although many of his interests
are centered here, Mr. Sherman resides in Los Angeles, Cal., where he also has
large interests. He was president of Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway
and also of the electric road running from Pasadena to Los Angeles, and the
electric road from Los Angeles to Santa Monica, which has just been completed,
and is a sea shore road with an immense business. Mr. Sherman has numerous other
interests, both in Arizona and California, and is a stockholder in the National
Bank of California. He is a man of strong character and peculiar individuality.
All his business undertakings have been quite successful, and he has done a
great deal to build up and develop the Territory.


Additional Comments:
From:

A Historical and Biographical Record of the Territory of Arizona
Published by
McFarland & Poole, Chicago, 1896


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