John D. Sherwood (November 24, 1818 – April 30, 1891) was an American author.

Early life

Sherwood was born in

Fishkill, New York Fishkill is a village within the town of Fishkill in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The village is in the eastern part of the town of Fishkill on U.S. Route 9. It is north of Interstate 84. NY 52 is the main street. It is part of the ...

, on November 24, 1818. He was a son of Ruth ( DuBois) Sherwood and Thomas Sherwood.

Career

Immediately after graduating from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1839, he began the study of law in

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsi ...

, in the office of Judge Ruggles. He also studied for a short time in the

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

before going abroad in August, 1841, for upwards of two years of foreign travel. In 1844 he completed his legal studies in New York City, in the office of the Hon. Samuel Sherwood, and in 1845 he was admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

. For six years he was in partnership with George Y. Gilbert, in New York City; and in 1851 he associated with himself his brother and continued in that relation with abundant success until 1865, when serious and long-continued ill-health obliged him to retire. In December, 1861, he received a Colonel's commission as aide on the staff of Gen.

James S. Wadsworth James Samuel Wadsworth (October 30, 1807 – May 8, 1864) was a philanthropist, politician, and a Union general in the American Civil War. He was mortally wounded in battle during the Battle of the Wilderness of 1864. Early years Wadswor ...

, and in that capacity served in the

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confedera ...

. His later years were spent in Englewood, N. J., and were principally devoted to literary pursuits. His best known production is a ''Comic History of the United States'', published in 1870 under the pseudonym Harry Scratchley.

Personal life

He married, on October 29, 1863, Emmeline Catherine ( Dunn) Zimmerman, of Toronto, who survived him with four children. The former wife of Samuel Zimmerman, she was the daughter of Charles and Polly Dunn. A son, John Howard Sherwood, graduated Yale in 1890. Sherwood died in Englewood, from pneumonia, on April 30, 1891, in his 73rd year. He had suffered from paralysis for many years before his death.

References

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:sherwood, john d 1818 births 1891 deaths People from Fishkill, New York Yale College alumni Harvard Law School alumni New York (state) lawyers Union Army colonels American male writers 19th-century American lawyers