the Legislature to give their town. that name. It was so ordered by the law-making power of the State, and Barre it has been ever since.

This Jonathan Sherman was a descendant of the Rev. John Sherman, a seventeenth century immigrant, who became the progenitor of a family which has contributed many illustrious names to American history, and in various parts of the United States has aided in developing the resources of the country, and in building up and preserving its institutions.

Col. Nathaniel Sherman, the son of Jonathan, was born in Barre, Massachusetts. As an infant, he was taken to what afterward became the town of Barre, Vermont-when his father emigrated to that State that State being drawn many miles of the journey on a hand sled over trails which were impassable for teams. He grew up in Barre, received his education there and was there married to Deborah Hobart Webster, a daughter of David Webster, also of Massachusetts ancestry, and of a typical New England family.

Col. Sherman was a farmer, and also a contractor and builder on an extensive scale, who made a specialty of erecting public buildings of various kinds. The college buildings at Middlebury, Vermont, and the present State house at Montpelier are some of the more noted public buildings of New England which were erected under his direction and super

vision. Col. Sherman's family was one of the old-fashioned kind, consisting of ten sons and three daughters, all of whom-with the exception of one son who died in childhoodafterward became more or less prominently known as western pioneers.

Oren Sherman, with whom this sketch has principally to do, was the first member of this family to leave the New England home for "the west." He was born in Barre, March 5, 1816, and lived there until he was sixteen years of age. At that time, having received a fair English education, he went into the general store of Spaulding & Storrs, at Montpelier, as a clerk. He remained there four years and then returned to his native town, where he contemplated entering into a partnership with his brother, and a brother of the noted Jacob Collamer-at one time a United States Senator from Vermont-but finally abandoned the idea, and in the spring of 1836 set out for the west, traveling by way of the Erie canal to Buffalo, and by way of the lakes to Detroit. He purchased at the latter place an Indian pony, with which he started on an exploring expedition into the interior. In the course of time he arrived at the town of New Buffalo, located on the shore of Lake Michigan, about six miles. below Michigan City, where he concluded to settle and go into the merchandising business. He carried on business there for some time with a reasonable degree of success, but by

and by had his attention forcibly called to the fact that the location of the town was not such as to make it

a great trade centre. A cargo of goods which had been shipped to him from the east went ashore at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River and impressed upon him the fact that a lake-shore town without harbor facilities was not likely to become a metropolis.

In the fall of that year an older brother, accompanied by a young man, who afterwards became a very distinguished citizen of Illinois (Norman B. Judd), visited him, and together they came to Chicago. They found Chicago, at that time, a very lively little city, notwithstanding the fact that it was not what would have been called an attractive place to the mere home-seeker.

After visiting Chicago, Oren Sherman also traveled to some extent in Wisconsin, visiting among other other places a new town site that had been laid out by Archibald Clybourne and others, which was to be called Superior City. As a result of his observations, he became convinced that Chicago was to become the most important trading point among the young towns of the northwest. Taking this view of the situation, he returned to New Buffalo, sold out his business there and made preparations for a removal to Chicago. He then went east and visiting New York and Boston, purchased a large stock of good (for those days) with

which he returned to Chicago in the spring of 1837, and established a store on La Salle street, between Lake and Water streets. With one or two changes of location, he was engaged in the merchandising business for many years, and during the earlier. years of his business career in Chicago, he was also engaged largely in the pork packing business, and in buying and shipping grain. About 1840 or '41 many of his regular customers were people who came in from the country, some of them from a considerable distance, and the amount of their purchases depended to a certain extent on the readiness with which they found sale for their own products. At the date mentioned, many of these customers complained that they could not sell their pork, which was one of their most important products.

Mr. Sherman belonged to that class of men who were exceedingly anxious that Chicago should control the business of the northwest. That is to say, he believed that her merchants should not only furnish the farmers of the surrounding country with all the supplies they needed, but should be able at the same time to furnish them a market for all their surplus products and to forward these products to eastern consumers.

When, therefore, he heard from customers the complaint that they were unable to dispose of what it seemed to him should be a very marketable article, he determined to

do his part toward preventing this trade being diverted to other towns, and in a very short time had arranged, in company with his partner, Mr. Nathaniel Pitkin, to take an important part in building up the infant packing industry of Chicago.

Entering into the enterprise with a zeal and energy which were distinguishing characteristics of the man during his entire business life, he started a pork packing establishment which packed about one-half of the pork put up in Chicago during the next three years. To secure needed funds for carrying on this business on the extensive scale which they desired, Mr. Sherman and his partner found it necessary to go beyond their own resources, and they determined if possible to bring in some outside banking capital, which would be available for legitimate business purposes, at something less than the exorbitant rates of interest then demanded by the money-loaners of Chicago. They accordingly opened. negotiations with the officials of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Detroit, which resulted in a branch of that financial instutition being established in Chicago, and the putting into circulation of a large amount of money at what was then considered a very low rate of interest.

In his earliest business ventures, he demonstrated the fact that he was a man of resources and indomitable energy, with a capacity for conducting enterprises of more than ordinary

consequence. For instance, his superior tact was shown in 1838-39, when the Illinois State Bank and its various branches suspended specie payment.

The notes of the bank could be used by Chicago merchants only at ruinous discounts in the purchase of New York exchange, and the payment of obligations to eastern creditors. In this dilemma it occurred to Mr. Sherman, that by personally visiting the Illinois banks, he might be able to exchange their notes for the notes of the Indiana State Bank and its branches-which had not suspended specie payment—and then by visiting Indiana, secure the redemption of these notes in coin, or failing in this, buy New York exchange at a fair rate of discount, and thus effect an important saving in making settlements with eastern creditors. It becoming known that he was about to start on this errand with the notes held by his own firm, he was requested to take along with him in addition a considerable amount of the depreciated currency belonging to others. He was even more successful than he had anticipated being, and after exchanging his Illinois bank notes for Indiana Bank currency, he visited various towns in Indiana, where he obtained from banks and stores a considerable amount of coin-at a small premium-and the balance in New York exchange, returning to Chicago with money which could be readily used in the east.

Soon afterward one of the noted