Edwin Alonzo Sherman Biography


	This biography appears on pages 482-489 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				EDWIN ALONZO SHERMAN. 

	The history of Edwin Alonzo Sherman is not merely the record of 
business successfully conducted, for in the midst of an active life he 
has found time to cooperate in many movements that have had to do with 
the material upbuilding anti the intellectual and more] progress of the 
city in which he makes his home. Life has always meant to him 
opportunity, and enterprise, determination and progressiveness have 
with him, as with many others, spelled success.  

	Mr. Sherman is a native of Massachusetts, his birth having 
occurred at Wayland, Middlesex county. on the 19th of June, 1844, his 
parents being Calvin and Lucy P. (Parmenter) Sherman, of English and 
French ancestry respectively. The paternal immigrant ancestor was John 
Sherman, who came to the United States in 1630 and was one of the first 
professors of Harvard University. He was the father of twenty-one 
children. 

	Reared in his native town, Edwin A. Sherman passed through 
consecutive grades in the public schools until graduated from the 
Wayland high school when sixteen years of age. He afterward spent four 
years in farming and after reaching man's estate he left home and went 
to Boston, where he secured a position as clerk in an oil commission 
house. His fidelity and capability are manifested in the feet that 
after two years he was admitted to a partnership under the firm style 
of Capen, Sherman & Company, but failing health caused him to retire 
from the firm four years later, and, thinking to benefit by a change of 
climate, he made his way to the northwest. During the succeeding winter 
he engaged in teaching school near Sioux City, Iowa, and in June, 1873, 
he removed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he has since made his 
home. With the history of the city he has since been closely identified 
and his forty years' connection therewith has been a period of notable 
growth and upbuilding to the city. Soon after his arrival here he 
purchased a half interest in the Sioux Falls Independent, a weekly 
republican paper, then published by C. W. McDonald. He devoted a year 
and a half to journalism and then sold his interest in the paper to T. 
J. White. He was superintendent of schools of Minnehaha county from 
1874 until 1876, and while filling that position organized most of the 
school districts in the county. His efforts in behalf of education were 
far-reaching and beneficial and the impetus which he gave to the cause 
of public instruction is felt today. Eventually he turned his attention 
to the real-estate business, in which he has since operated and along 
this and kindred lines he has contributed in large measure to the 
improvement and development of the city. In 1873 he erected the first 
brick building in Sioux Falls, the third building on Phillips avenue 
south of the Edminson-Jameson block. In 1877 be purchased what is now 
the Cascade milling property, comprising five acres of ground, and 
became associated with Isaac Emerson and J. G. Botsford in the building 
of the stone dam and the Cascade mill. Later Mr. Botsford sold his 
interest to George B. Wheeler. In 1887 the scope of the business was 
extended to include the purchase and operation of the electric light 
plant, and in that year the Cascade Milling Company was incorporated 
with a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This business 
has been continued uninterruptedly and is one of the foremost 
productive industries not only of Sioux Falls but of the southeastern 
section of the state.

	In every connection Mr. Sherman has proved himself to be a man of 
sound judgment and unfaltering enterprise and at all times his labors 
have been of a character that has contributed to public progress as 
well as to individual success. He has built a number of business blocks 
anti fine residences in Sioux Falls. In 1878 he erected a stone 
building on the southeast corner of Main avenue and Ninth street and 
also erected all of the buildings east to the alley on Ninth street, as 
well as many of the buildings south on Main avenue. In 1883 Mr. Sherman 
erected the building which v as occupied as the post office until May 
18, 1895. The Cascade block was erected by him and also the Union Trust 
Company block. He platted what is known as Sherman's addition to Sioux 
Falls and thereon erected a commodious, substantial and attractive 
residence. At all times he teas recognized the possibilities of the 
city and utilized his opportunities for promoting its growth and 
development, and his labors have been far-reaching effective and 
beneficial. In 1886 he was instrumental in organizing the Minnehaha 
National Bank, of which he became the first president, continuing in 
the office for two years.  In 1887 he organized the Union Trust Company 
and, resigning from the presidency of the former institution, 
concentrated his efforts upon the management of the latter, which soon 
afterward transferred its banking business to the Union National Bank, 
of which he also became the president. In 1887 he became associated 
with John M. Spicer, of Willmar, and undertook the building of the 
Willmar & Sioux Falls Railroad under the direction of James J. Hill, of 
the Great Northern Railroad Company. Together Mr. Sherman and Mr. 
Spicer located, named and platted all the towns along the line for a 
distance of one hundred and forty-nine miles. Mr. Sherman is a most 
resourceful man, who throughout his business career has recognized and 
improved opportunities which others have passed heedlessly by. 
Moreover, he has the ability to coordinate forces and to bring into a 
unified whole seemingly diverse interests.

	A record of Mr. Sherman would be incomplete and unsatisfactory 
were there failure to make reference to his public service outside the 
strict path of business. His fellow townsmen, appreciating his worth 
and ability, have frequently called him to office and would have 
conferred upon him many other official honors had he not declined. He 
was elected treasurer of the territory for the term 1877-8 and on his 
retirement from that position was elected auditor for a two years' 
term. Again in 1881 the latter office was offered him but he declined. 
He was elected one of the first trustees of Sioux Falls after its 
incorporation as a village and he has done much effective work in 
behalf of public education as a member of the school board. He was one 
of the first city commissioners, having been elected in 1908, and in 
1910 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature. 
His political allegiance has always been given to the republican party 
and he has ever kept well informed on the questions of the day, 
supporting his position by intelligent argument and bringing to bear as 
a test of his political position the sound judgment of a practical 
business man. No more tangible evidence of Mr. Sherman's public spirit 
can be given than the feet that he donated to the city Sherman Park. In 
November, 1910, he gave to Sioux Falls fifty-three acres through which 
the Sioux river flows. One-half is hilly woodland and one-half high 
upland and since the gift was made the tract has been continuously used 
for park purposes under the direction of the city officials. It was 
appropriately named Sherman Park and Mr. Sherman has had charge of the 
development of the roads, bridges and buildings. The park is visited by 
citizens generally, also by people from the entire southeastern part of 
the state and from adjoining sections of Iowa and Minnesota, many 
coming from long distances to enjoy the woods, the picnic grounds and 
natural beauties of the place. During 1914 the attendance in July and 
August was estimated to be between four and five thousand each Sunday. 
The park furnishes boating, bathing, tennis and other sports and each 
year the facilities for these will be extended and improved. The 
uplands are laid out in walks, adorned with beautiful shade trees and 
the tract today has the appearance of a well developed park. Admission 
is free and the park is reached by street car line. The Minnehaha 
Country Club has been located on adjoining grounds and fine buildings 
have been there erected. 

	Mr. Sherman has been married twice. On the 15th of September, 
1873, he wedded Miss Florence L. Cowdrey, of Melrose, Massachusetts, 
who passed away February 1, 1890, leaving two daughters, Jessie L. and 
Mabel F., the former a graduate of Wellesley College. On the 9th of 
June, 1892, Mr. Sherman wedded Katharine Elwell, of London, England, 
and they have a son, Philip F. 

	Mr. Sherman is an active member of the Commercial Club, of which 
he has been the president. The family occupy a prominent social 
position and their home is the abode of warm-hearted hospitality. In 
all the relations of life, public and private, Mr. Sherman has won the 
regard, confidence and goodwill of his fellow townsmen and of all with 
whom he has become associated. With him "life is real, life is 
earnest," and he has found in the faithful performance of each day's 
duties strength and courage for those of the ensuing day. Each step in 
his career has been a forward one, bringing him a broader outlook and 
wider opportunities, and long since be has reached a position where 
public opinion accounts him one of the valued, representative and 
foremost citizens of Sioux Falls. 

	That Mr. Sherman deeply ponders grave and important problems of 
the day is indicated in an article which he wrote and submitted to 
Everybody's Magazine in response to a general invitation from the 
editor for letters on the liquor traffic. Over ten thousand were 
received and Mr. Sherman was awarded one of the prizes. His article was 
as follows: 

	"As a prelude to this article it is proper to say that the writer 
is and has been for forty one years a resident of Sioux Falls, South 
Dakota, coming into the then territory from a New England state in 
quest of health, and with a desire to become identified with the 
business interests of a new country and to benefit thereby. In both of 
these quests he has been successful, so that at the age of seventy 
years he is in the full enjoyment of health and possessed of all the 
vigor that characterized his earlier manhood. He has also acquired a 
competence sufficient at least to keep the wolf from the door, and 
enable him as a lover of nature to spend his time in a way best suited 
to his tastes and temperament. 

	"The first question submitted is 'What do you know of the effects 
of rum selling and rum drinking ?'  

	"It is understood that this is intended to apply to all alcoholic 
drinks, the word rum being used for short. This question admits of only 
a one-sided answer. The writer has never seen the least particle of 
good resulting from the sale of rum. He challenges anyone to produce 
any evidence to show that any individual or community, the state or the 
nation, or humanity in general, have been made better or happier, or 
elevated in the scale of existence by the use of rum. The evidence is 
all the other way and the facts that might be related even during the 
writer's knowledge of the demoralizing the degrading, and the ruinous 
effects of rum selling and rum drinking, could not be brought within 
the space allotted for a magazine article. 

	"The writer has seen scores of men led to their ruin through a 
taste for rum, cultivated and strengthened by its public sale. It is a 
vampire that sucks the strength and life blood of its victim until he 
becomes powerless to shake it off. His mind becomes distorted, his body 
a physical wreck, all sense of moral obligation gone, until at last he 
fills a felon's cell or sinks into a drunkard's grave, often hastening 
the end by his own suicidal hand. 

	"Scores and hundreds of homes in this city have been darkened, 
the joy and happiness of home life destroyed, the family subjected to 
poverty and the children going ragged and hungry, because the head of 
the family--once a man but now bereft of all manhood--spends his time 
and his substance in the rum shops. Many a home of that kind in this 
city is today, and more have been in the past, sustained by the hard 
earned wages of the wife and mother, who still cherishes in her heart 
the faith and devotion and love of womanhood.

	"The worst feature of the traffic is that the city by a majority 
vote each year, countenances and permits the sale, and by exacting a 
high license fee virtually becomes a partner in the business. 

	"During two years of official service as a member of the city 
council in this city, and a year following this as one of the city 
commissioners under the new form of city government, the writer came in 
closer touch with the misery connected with it all than ever before. 
The cries of the many unfortunates from the city lock-up, writhing in 
the agonies of delirium, still ring in his cars. Every morning the 
victims of arrest were herded into the city justice office and fined. 
If the poor devils had any money it was taken to pay the fine. If not, 
they were sent to the county jail to be incarcerated for a certain 
number of days. The wife and family in the meantime, if the offender 
had one, and most of these unfortunates had, was struggling in poverty 
at home. The city had provided the temptation by permitting and 
encouraging the sale of liquor in these places where the victim's 
appetite led him, had received part of the profits from the sale, and 
then when he had fallen had dragged him into court and stripped him of 
his last dollar, or behind dungeon bars deprived him of his time which 
should have gone for the support of his family. 

	"The injustice and the inhumanity of it all was forced upon the 
writer's mind, and this added to the many heart-rending appeals for 
assistance from suffering wives and mothers, led him to resolve that so 
far as lay within his power the best efforts of his remaining days 
would be devoted to remedying this accursed evil. 

	"The blighting effects of the rum traffic are undoubtedly the 
same wherever its sale is permitted. The writer is firmly of the 
opinion, so far as his own city is concerned, that the general 
intelligence and thrift of its people is also equal to any city of like 
size. It has, in fact, many superior advantages which invite a 
residence here. It is because the writer loves it and has been 
identified with its growth from a frontier post to a city of twenty 
thousand . people, that he wants to see the only stain upon it, the 
curse and the blight of rum removed. 

	"The second question is, 'What do you think is the right way to 
settle the question?' There are many ways by which the removal of the 
curse of rum may be hastened. In the writer's opinion the surest and 
best way is through a strong, healthy public sentiment. We have seen 
the folly in this state of attempting to enact laws at the top that 
cannot be enforced at the bottom. This is like building a house with a 
poor foundation--the structure will totter and fall. Under the present 
local option laws in this state, each city and town is permitted to 
choose for itself between good and evil. Each community on this 
question is made a free moral agent. This course is in harmony with the 
Divine plan concerning man. The blight following an evil choice 
demonstrates the wisdom of a better course, and the right will 
eventually prevail as sure as there is a God in heaven. The progress 
may be slow, just as the evolution of man has been slow, but it is sure 
to come. 

	"The curse of slavery would undoubtedly have been eradicated long 
ago through peaceful means under the stress of public opinion. The 
south rebelled against the march of public sentiment and war was the 
result that put an end to the curse, but at what a cost to human life. 
The curse of rum is a far greater evil and far more costly to human 
life than was the curse of slavery. The victims of rum sleep in every 
cemetery in the land. They include forty per cent of the inmates of our 
insane asylums. 

	"The writer can see a vast improvement in public sentiment 
concerning the rum traffic during the past few years. Each year adds to 
the column of towns that have had the mask removed from their eyes. 
They have thrown off the shackles of rum that bound them and have 
started on the upward march of improvement. Each one by its example and 
the never failing good results that follow release from such thraldom, 
adds to the dry list at the next year's election. There must be a 
healthy majority to accomplish the best results. If the vote at first 
is carried by a small majority to the dry column, the wets will use 
every intrigue possible, moving the powers of earth and hell to win it 
back again. They sometimes succeed but it is only a short-lived 
victory. 

	"One brewer in this city advertises that every man has a right to 
choose for himself what he shall eat or what he shall drink. While a 
man may have that right, yet under no circumstances has he any right 
either as an individual or as a corporate body of individuals to put 
the cup that destroys to his neighbor's lips.

	"The great business interests of the country, the railway 
corporations and even the secretary of our great navy, have come to 
realize the feet that men enrolled in their service cannot be relied 
upon so long as they indulge their thirst for rum. Its use by the 
employee of these great interests is now prohibited. Every employer of 
labor has the right to say that he will not employ men who take that 
into their systems which unfits them for trustworthy service, and often 
endangers human life. 

	"The writer has visited many towns and cities in the west where 
the dry movement has prevailed and the result is something marvelous. 
Business has improved, good order prevails and the jails that before 
were crowded are now nearly empty. 

	"It was the writer's privilege three years ago, as a members of 
the South Dakota legislature, to assist in the passage of a bill 
introduced by a colleague from Minnehaha county, which provided for the 
closing of saloons at 9:00 p. m., instead of at eleven o'clock as 
formerly Under the old law more liquor was sold and more drunkenness 
created between 9:00 and 11:00 p. m. than any other hours of the day. 
The bill was strenuously fought by the liquor interests and dire 
disaster predicted if it prevailed. The result has been a betterment in 
every respect. Drunkenness as formerly seen on the streets on account 
of men staggering home from late carousals, has been eliminated. Public 
sentiment not only sustains the measure but it is probable that a 
further amputation will be made by the next legislature, controlled as 
it will be by a majority of progressive republicans. 

	"With this exterminating process continued throughout the country 
in the same proportion as it has been during the past five years, and 
within the next ten years the monster rum will fill an unholy grave. 
God grant the time may speedily come and that the writer may live to 
see the day. We shall them look back and wonder why we ever permitted 
it to exist, just as the white race in the south today from the 
advanced stage of its present prosperity looks back with regret that 
slavery was so long permitted to exist. 

	"Another way by which the curse of rum may be hastened to its end 
is to give the right of franchise to women. Why is it that the rum 
interests are so bitterly opposing this movement? Because they know 
that if woman comes into her right and exercises her right that a large 
majority of them will vote right and that the death knell of the rum 
traffic is sounded. As proof of this, over one thousand saloons were 
sent into oblivion at the spring elections in Illinois, aided by the 
votes of women. 

	Your readers may be interested to know why Sioux Falls as a city 
has so long continued and upheld the rum traffic. There are many 
reasons, the most potent of which is that polities has played an 
important part in the game. Politics and rum have been closely allied 
in the past and have played into each other's hands, the one seeking 
votes and the other seeking protection for tire traffic. The saloons 
have been the devil's workshop in manufacturing votes for ambitious 
politicians. The great majority of thinking men in this state can no 
longer be held in place to support political office seekers that ally 
themselves with the rum interests. The successful party in the near 
future will be one based on temperance. 

	"If it transpires in this or any other state now under local 
option rule, that any community persists in maintaining within its 
limits practices both pernicious to the public good and against the 
voice of a large majority of the residents of the county in which such 
community exists, and who are injured by such practices, then it may 
become necessary to make the county the controlling unit on these 
matters. 

	"Another factor in keeping the traffic alive has been the 
commercial interests. Men in business, good business men, and good 
citizens generally, have feared the effect that closing the saloons 
might have on their business. Not one of these gentlemen would, if he 
could avoid it, permit the location of a saloon next to his own place 
of business, because of the damaging effects and the disgusting 
features that follow the close proximity of the business of rum 
selling.  

	"Men also argue that closing the saloons will leave a large 
number of buildings vacant and so injure the town. Also that losing the 
license money would increase the rate of taxation. All of these 
objections are being made untenable by the experience of towns that 
have gone dry. Business is mot injured but improved. The vacant 
buildings are soon filled by other and more respectable lines of 
business. The reduction in the cost of policing the city, the greater 
taxes secured by new and better business, more than compensates for any 
loss in license fees. Even if there were a temporary loss of revenue 
while the change was being made, it would be very small and not worthy 
of consideration against the greater benefit resulting from having a 
clean town. 

	"When these business men who now hold the balance of power on 
this question, will look at this matter in the light of a moral 
obligation not only to their families but to others, and especially to 
the young men and women from the surrounding country that are now 
filling our colleges, they will then give their vote and their 
influence toward removing the stigma and the temptations that attach to 
the business of rum selling. 

	"The responsibility in this matter is great. Every life 
sacrificed to the monster rum, every crime committed by its disciples, 
only adds another nail to its coffin. The responsibility for each overt 
act must be laid at the door of every man who by his vote encourages 
and sustains the traffic."