Carl G. Sherwood Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1539-1541 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	CARL G. SHERWOOD was born on a farm on Connecticut hill, Broome 
county, New York, near Whitney Point, on the 18th of January, 1855, 
being a son of George and Mary A. (Jeffords) Sherwood. His father was a 
farmer by vocation and was a man of no little influence in his section 
of the Empire state. He was a member of the New York legislature in 
1873-4, as a representative of the Binghamton district; was a staunch 
abolitionist during the crucial epoch leading up to the war of the 
Rebellion, and supported the Republican party from the time of its 
organization until his death. He was of English and French extraction, 
and his ancestors were numbered among the early settlers near Greene, 
Chenango county. New York. The paternal grandmother of the subject bore 
the maiden name of Budlong, and her family resided near Utica, New York. 
The maternal ancestors, the Jefords, came to Chenango county, New York, 
from Connecticut and were of English and Irish lineage. 

	The subject was a farmer's boy, and it was with extraordinary 
difficulty and under discouraging circumstances that he obtained an 
ordinary common-school education. He was reared on a rough and stony 
farm, near Binghamton, New York, and the work of cultivating the land 
was more than ordinarily arduous. The land was new and he aided in 
reclaiming quite a portion of the farm from the native forest. His 
parents were poor and the members of the family had to work-hard and 
live closely in order to make ends meet. Thus the early educational 
advantages afforded our subject were very limited, but his alert 
mentality and his appreciation of the values of life early quickened his 
ambition to action, his first fixed purpose being to prepare himself for 
the profession of law. His parents were very devout in their religious 
life and it was their earnest wish that he should enter the ministry, 
and it was by reason of their insistency in this regard that he left the 
high school at Binghamton and came to the west to carve out his own 
fortunes. Through his personal efforts he had paid the expenses of 
carrying forward his studies in the high school through the tenth grade. 
In 1879 he came west, and when he first crossed the Mississippi river 
his cash capital was represented in the sum of ten cents. He taught in 
the district schools on the Illinois side of the river for two years, 
and in the. meanwhile borrowed technical books of A. R. McCoy, of 
Clinton, Iowa, just across the river, and devoted his evenings and other 
leisure moments to the reading of law, while his vacations were likewise 
devoted to this work. He continued to live in Whiteside county, 
Illinois, and in Clinton, Iowa, at intervals, until June, 1881, when he 
was admitted to the bar of Iowa, in the city mentioned. In the following 
month he secured admission to the Minnesota bar, at Luverne, while he 
became a member of the bar of Codington county, Dakota, in 1882. He came 
to Watertown, this county, in July, 1881, and on the 7th of the 
following month took up his residence in the village of Clark, where he 
has ever since maintained his home and been actively and successfully 
engaged in the practice of his chosen profession. He has been employed 
by the county in most of its important litigations, including the 
prosecution of Christ Christianson, who was convicted of murder and 
sentenced to the penitentiary for life, this being the only murder trial 
ever held in the county. Mr. Sherwood has been signally prospered in his 
efforts and the tangible results are seen in his valuable property 
interests. He is the owner of a well-improved farm of twelve hundred 
acres and also of considerable other real estate, including his 
attractive home in Clark. He has one of the .best libraries in this 
section of the state, the same being valued at twenty-five hundred 
dollars. 

	Mr. Sherwood has been active in public affairs from the time of 
taking up his residence here. He served from 1882 until 1887 as register 
of deeds of the county, and was a member of the constitutional 
conventions, in Sioux Falls, in 1883 and 1889, while he was a delegate 
to the national Republican convention which nominated McKinley for the 
presidency in 1896. He was state senator from the twenty-ninth 
senatorial district of South Dakota in the first state senate convened, 
and was temporary and permanent chairman of the first Republican state 
convention held after the admission of South Dakota into the Union and 
chairman of the Republican state convention held at Sioux Falls, May 23, 
1900, the largest convention ever held in the state. He has been a 
delegate from his county to every state convention of his party, with 
one exception, served for nearly a decade as chairman of the county 
central committee and is at the present time a member of the Republican 
state central committee. He has been intimately identified with the. 
industrial, political and civic development of Clark county, having been 
thus associated with its interests from the time of its organization, 
while his was the distinction of being elected its first register of 
deeds. Mr. Sherwood has been affiliated with the Masonic fraternity 
since 1883, being a member of the lodge and chapter in Clark and the 
commandery of Knights Templar in Watertown. He was initiated in the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1884, and is a member of the lodge 
in Clark. He is also identified with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern 
Woodmen of America, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern 
Brotherhood of America, while in 1902 he became a member of the 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Watertown. Both he and his 
wife were reared in the faith of the Baptist church, but they now attend 
and give support to the Methodist Episcopal church. 

	On the 10th of February, 1885, at C1ark, this state, was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sherwood to Miss Nellie C. Fountain, a 
daughter of George H. and Dollie A. Fountain, who were pioneers in 
Nashua, Iowa, whence they later removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota; and 
from that city to Clark, South Dakota, in 1879, being among the first to 
settle in the vicinity of this now thriving city, the site being 
unmarked by a single building at the time of their arrival, while their 
nearest neighbors were six miles distant. Of the four children born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood we enter brief record, the date of birth being 
given in each respective connection, and the three living still remain 
at the parental home: George F., May 5, 1887; Harry A., September 15, 
1888, died December 1, 1892; Mary Carlton, June 3, 1892; and Dollie 
Viola, July 2, 1897.