Samuel Sherwood. ca 1833. (painting at the Delaware County Historical Association)

Excerpt from the Centennial History of Delaware County, 1797 - 1897,  edited by David Murray, LL.D. Biographies of other men who lived a part of their life in Delaware County New York including Colonel John Harper (friend of Indian Chief Joseph Brant); Ebenezer Foote (who served on the staff of George Washington during the Revolutionary War); General Henry Leavenworth; William B. Ogden (first mayor of Chicago); and Jay Gould (railroad magnate) are also included.

HON. SAMUEL SHERWOOD.* (* This sketch is prepared by Samuel Sherwood of New York City).
 

Samuel Sherwood was born in Charlotte county (now Washington county) in this State, April 24, 1779. His father had come from Connecticut to settle in that thinly populated region near Lake George, and on the breaking out of the Revolution became an officer of the volunteer troops. In 1780 occurred the invasion of that region by the British and Indians under Colonel Carleton, who ravaged the whole district and burned many of the houses of the Whigs. Mr. Sherwood's father's house was burned at that time; the mother taking her two children, his brother and himself on horseback barely escaped the Indians. A few years after the war his father moved to Cayuga county; there Mr. Sherwood received a good education at the local schools and was without doubt a precocious scholar, for at the age of sixteen he began the study of the law in the office of Judge Walter Wood of Aurora.. Before he was twenty he had accumulated some landed property in Cayuga county. He entered the law office of Conrad E. Elmendorf of Kingston, where he remained until November 1799, when he went to Delaware county. Before he was eighteen he had tried suits before justices, and before he was twenty bad tried causes against many of the eminent lawyers in Ulster and Delaware, such as Smith Thompson and Garret VanNess.

When Mr. Sherwood went to Delaware county he had formed a partnership with Mr. Elmendorf and did business in the latter's name until his admission in Delaware Common Pleas, February, Court, 1800
He was married in 1800 to Miss Deborah Hawkins and commenced housekeeping at Delhi next winter. There were several of this marriage, the late Mrs. Herman D. Gould being the eldest.

In 1804 he established his house and law office at Sherwood's bridge (then called Leal's bridge) about a mile south of Delhi, where be had acquired considerable land. This house together with the adjacent farm and wooded hill were retained by him during his life and bequeathed to his grandson and namesake, in whose possession they now are. Woodland House, so called by its builder, is one of the oldest houses in the township. It is situated on somewhat rising ground overlooking the Delaware river. The architecture is Ionic in style, the woodwork of the porch being somewhat elaborate considering the period of its construction. Mr. Sherwood in selecting a building site had been somewhat of the opinion that a village or settlement was likely to spring up in the neighborhood on account of the junction of the Little Delaware with the larger stream, and in the early part of the century this seemed likely for just above the bridge were established a tannery, a grist will and other industries. Mr. Sherwood was interested in many of these business enterprises.

In politics he was originally a Federalist. On going to Delaware county he was appointed paymaster in Colonel Butler's regiment of local militia and later was appointed to take the census in Delaware county in 1800.

In a memorandum made in 1850 he says: "My determination to make Delaware county my residence had its origin in the local politics of the day. The Federalists of Delaware and Ulster counties were anxious to persuade me to break a lance with Erastus Root, some six or seven years my senior and then established as the leader of the Democracy of the county. We entered the lists in opposition to each other and rose and fell with the ebb tide of our respective parties. With the accession of George Clinton to the gubernatorial chair of state in 1801 the Federalists lost power in the state, and it was only during the war of 1812 that they again obtained a temporary ascendancy after the dissolution of the party, 1819 to 1822. The portion of the party uniting with DeWitt Clinton came into power with him in 1825 and held this power till his death in 1828. Delaware county, 1798, was largely anti-Federal or Democratic, never giving less than four or five hundred Democratic majority of votes under regular organization, and it became part of the tactics of the day for the minority to divide and conquer, and as every year presented some 'ism' it generally happened that the Federalists were able to throw away their vote on some unobjectionable Democrat rather than going to the polls with a certainty of defeat. In this warfare, which was always unpleasant, we often succeeded in controlling the supervision of the county and in subduing the tyrannies and injustices of our opponents."

In 1812 Mr. Sherwood was elected to Congress as a Federalist. The Federalists, as is well known, were opposed to the war of 1812 and presumably he was in sympathy with his party on that issue, but later he gave his support to the war measures proposed by the administration of President Madison.

In 1814 Mr. Sherwood, whose first wife had died in 1810, was married to Miss Laura Bostwick and they spent the following winter in Washington. This was the year following the burning of the public buildings in Washington by the British troops; the war was still in progress, the outlook gloomy; nevertheless there were the usual ceremonial receptions at the White House. Mrs. Sherwood's letters written at the time give an interesting picture of the manners and customs of the period, and an entertaining description of the appearance of Mrs. Dolly Madison, the President's wife.
Mr. Sherwood, after serving his term in Congress, was not again a candidate for public office and later in life became a. Democrat.

His law practice in Delaware county continued until 1830. Among those associated with him as law partners or students may be mentioned Amasa Parker, (father of the late Robert Parker of Delhi,) Judge Amasa J. Parker of Albany, Nelson Wheeler and Franklin Sherwood Kinney.

In the early days of the century he was generally pitted against General Root in legal as well as political matters. Some old papers in a libel suit entitled "Root vs. Sherwood" are still in existence and illustrate the conditions of politics about 1808. Root claimed that Sherwood had libelled him by publishing a political poster stating that he (Root) was an adherent of Aaron Burr, and charging Root with complicity in Burr's schemes in the west and urging the electors to "beware of Burrites." Root succeeded in getting one hundred dollars damages.

In the trial of James Graham for the murder of Cameron and McGillivrae the accused asked to have Erastus Root and Samuel Sherwood appointed his counsel. But Street, the District Attorney, had already secured Sherwood for the prosecution. The latter in a private letter describes the trial as a most impressive one. Great crowds of people were present. Even many ladies, among others the wife of the presiding judge, Ambrose Spencer.

About 1830 Mr. Sherwood moved to Now York and established a successful legal practice, which he continued until about 1855, prominent in general practice his specialty perhaps was the management of real estate cases, ejectment suits and the like. He was also distinguished as a Chancery lawyer. In early life he had been in active practice against Aaron Burr. In the Anti-rent trials in Delhi he appeared for the prosecution at the request of Mr. VanBuren, the Attorney General.

Although engaged in business in New York he retained a deep interest in Delhi. He had been associated with most of the enterprises of the early period of the history of the village; he was interested in the establishment of the Academy and was one of the founders of St. John's Episcopal Church.

His home, Woodland House, has sheltered four generations of his family as well as many visitors.

In appearance Mr. Sherwood was above the middle height, strongly built, with dark complexion, marked features. He was a man of few words but energetic and forcible. He died in 1862. Four of Mr. Sherwood's children survived him: Mrs. H. D. Gould, John Sherwood, Robert H. Sherwood and Mrs. D. Colden Murray. All these are now dead.

John Sherwood was born in Delhi in 1820, was educated at the. Delaware Academy and Now York private schools and was graduated at Yale College in 1839. He studied law and practiced with his father. At one time he made a specialty of the law concerning trade marks and had been engaged in important cases concerning steamships and marine insurance. He was interested in historical literature and was especially conversant with the military history of the country.

He married in 1851 Miss Mary Elizabeth Wilson, daughter of General James Wilson of Keene, New Hampshire. One of their sons, Samuel Sherwood, is the owner of the old Sherwood place and spends a good deal of his time in Delhi. Another son, Arthur Murray Sherwood, is of the banking firm of Tower & Sherwood, Wall Street, New York. Mrs. Arthur M. Sherwood was Miss Rosina Emmet.
 
Robert H. Sherwood, son of the late Samuel Sherwood, had been a lawyer. He died the year after his father's death, in 1868. He married in 1852 Miss Mary Neal, daughter of John Neal of Maine. She survives him as do two daughters, Mrs. Picking, wife of Captain Picking, United States Navy, and Mrs. J. Wilson Patterson of Baltimore.

Mrs. Herman D. Gould was the eldest daughter of the late Samuel Sherwood and was born in this county in 1800. She married Herman D. Gould, a prominent business man of Delhi village. He was a merchant and for some time president of the bank and Representative in Congress. They lived in the large and attractive house at the lower end of the village now owned and occupied by the Messrs. Bell.

Mr. and Mrs. Gould had four sons: Sherwood D., S. Augustus, Herman and Charles. S. Augustus Gould is the only survivor of the four. He married Miss Weston and is now a resident of Chicago. Herman Gould had been prominent in railroad work and was a resident of Illinois at the time of his death. He left a widow and three children, the Misses Ruth and Katharine Gould and Edward L. Gould.

Further information on the Sherwood Family is available in the Letters and Journals of Samuel and Laura Sherwood (1813 - 1823), edited by John Crocker, Delhi, NY, 1967,  available in the Delaware County Historical Association Archives and Milne Library, State University of New York College at Oneonta.

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