By Derek Smith and Sally Jett Holt Sherman
My real name is “Loren A. Sherman and Family, Personal Sketches and Memoranda”.
All my friends just call me “Sherman”, so that is the moniker we will use for this writing.
If you were to define me, you could label me an autobiography of an autobiography or perhaps more simply stated, a memoir of an autobiography. As we all know, definitions can often be ambiguous and misleading!
My journey had its beginning back in the early 1900’s, an undertaking by the late Loren A. Sherman family. It is then my pages were filled with Sherman family memorabilia. It is then I took my place in the family’s history. It is there I would occupy a proud spot in the Sherman library. Here in this room of learning, I made myself available to all those wishing to investigate the wonderful information, I so carefully carried within my covers.
My early years were spent at 1433 Military Street, here in Port Huron.
Loren Sherman and his wife were readers and writers of topics touching on many engaging subjects.
As such, I lived with many other intriguing publications, and fondly remember most of them to this day.
The Sherman residence was at most times overflowing with family, friends, and other interesting, influential people; those involved with the management and early growth of this Maritime Capital on the Great Lakes.
Loren Sherman was a “mover and shaker” in the early history of the City of Port Huron.
He was involved in the newspaper business here for over 40 years and would become owner and editor of the Port Huron Times, which would merge with the Daily Herald in 1910 and become the Port Huron Times Herald.
Loren Sherman was involved in many local organizations and charities and served as Chairman of the Republican Party in St Clair County from 1871-1879.
He was appointed postmaster by President Teddy Roosevelt and served in that position from 1899-1909.
He also served two terms on the Port Huron’s Board of Education.
He was a driving force behind the installation of the first telephone service in Port Huron. He in fact, made the first phone call in this city.
Loren and his wife Estella would have four children, Frederick Ward Sherman, Edith Ward Mahon, Albert Ward Sherman, and William Thomas Sherman.
In their retirement years, Loren and wife Estella travelled the world, from Alaska to Borneo to India, and all places in between. He documented those travels in the Port Huron Times Herald. The manuscripts of their long-ago, distant journeys are well written, and prove to be very fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable, especially when mirrored with today’s visits to those exotic locations.
With the Sherman’s spending many of their retirement months traveling abroad,
the queue of daily visitors to the Military Street address had grown brief. The people chatter of politics and local events had become scattered.
For the most part, I too had involuntarily retired, resting upright and silent on my middle shelf, in the library at 1433.
This silence would be broken on February 28th, 1914. It was a day of great sorrow in the Sherman household. Loren A. Sherman had passed away at the age of 69.
His funeral would be held on Tuesday, March 3rd at the house on Military. The residence would again be filled with friends and family; however, it would be remembered as a sad, somber day, a day where laughter and merriment were replaced with tears and condolences.
The passing of one of the areas great business pioneers was a dark day in the history of Port Huron, a city to which he had contributed decades of his time, effort, and considerable expertise.
In the years following Loren’s passing, the residence never recaptured the moments of its early 1900’s. I spent most of my time reminiscing about things past, and wishing that some of those happy and active moments would return. They never did.
Estella occupied her later years attending various social events in Port Huron, and assisting with the local charities, with which she had been actively involved.
It is to these groups she delivered the occasional talk, detailing her and Loren’s worldly travels to exotic and interesting destinations.
I remember Estella as an excellent public speaker, her stories, and conversations full of the smallest of details, thoughts, and emotions; words which she was able to expertly phrase and deliver so eloquently.
On August 22nd, 1924, Estella Ward Sherman would pass.
It is only then, that Sherman realized his time in that wonderful house on 1433 Military Street had also become victim to the past.
He found himself suddenly and unexpectedly at a dark place in his life. It was a feeling he had never experienced before.
Alone and in a state of grieving, his nights had become sleepless and restless. Sherman’s thoughts were now occupied with constant worry. Each passing day came delivered more uncertainty about his future.
Would his life and the biography of L. A. Sherman and family end here?
Perhaps part 2 of “The Life and Times of a Book Called Sherman” will shed some light on that uncertainty.
