Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

welfare, but for participation in civic af-
fairs whose object was the promotion of
the general good. There in Hartford, and
in their earlier places of residence, Mrs.
Sherman, who survived her husband ten
years, gave of devoted service to her
church and to all forms of well-doing in a
spirit of selflessness and kindliness that
made her beloved of all who knew her.
Freeman Collins Sherman and Marcia S.
Sherman walked the path of life in a union
of love that found its expression in mutual
helpfulness and in sharing whatever of
substance came to them with others, and
when death removed the strong arm upon
which she had leaned and that had at
times been extended to her for aid, Mrs.
Sherman continued her way alone, in-
creasing, if that were possible, the outpouring
of sympathy and cheer that had
long been her gift to all about her.
The Sherman family is of old New
England record and Cape Cod residence,
and of the generation to which Freeman
Collins Sherman belonged there were two
or three sons who followed the sea, and
another who journeyed West, where he
followed ranch life. Freeman Collins
Sherman was born in Ware, Massachusetts,
March 20, 1833, in the old Moss
parsonage. He attended school in his
birthplace and for one year pursued a
course in Boston University, as a young
man becoming interested in gas lighting
in Ware. For one year thereafter he was
connected with the same line in Newport,
Rhode Island, and subsequently, for
eleven years, in Brookline, Massachusetts,
then pursuing the same business in
Worcester, Massachusetts. From Worcester
he came to the New Haven Gas Light
Company and began twenty-five years of
service that brought him to the office of
superintendent, which he held until his re-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Conn. 11—11 161
tirement April i, 1903. Mr. Sherman was
extremely well versed in all technical mat-
ters dealing with gas supply as a public
utility, and was regarded by his associates
in this field as an expert authority. He
was one of the charter members of the
New England Association of Gas Engineers,
and a member of the Society of Gas
Lighting of New York, his ingenuity and
resourcefulness being responsible for
many forward steps in the New Haven
system. He was a Republican in political
faith, although never an office holder, and
was a member of the Congregational
Church of the Redeemer, which he joined
by letter, in 1875, also belonging to the
New Haven Congregational Church Club.
He met all of the demands of good citizenship
with a ready cooperation in
effort for the common good, and by his
fellows in business, social and fraternal
life was held in unvarying regard. He
affiliated with Athelston Lodge, Free and
Accepted Masons, of Worcester, Massa-
chusetts.
Mr. Sherman married, in Greenwich,
Massachusetts, on Thanksgiving Day,
1857, Marcia S. Douglass, born March 17,
1836, died in Hartford, December 5, 1921,
daughter of Jeremiah and Eucla (New-
ton) Douglass, her father a farmer of
Greenwich, Massachusetts, her mother
born in Paxton, that State. After the
death of her husband, which occurred in
New Haven, December 18, 191 1, Mrs.
Sherman came to Hartford, bringing her
membership to Center Church, and here
continuing her religious, charitable and
neighborly work until she sustained the
injury that resulted in her death. Mr.
and Mrs. Sherman were the parents of : i.
Charles Douglass, born in Brookline,
Massachusetts, June 4, 1867; educated in
the Polytechnic Institute of Worcester,