I was ten years old the year my Grandfather died. We drove the hundred miles from our house to Albert Lea, Minnesota to attend the funeral. His funeral was the first I ever attended. I wish I had more memories of him. The adults in Albert Lea were part of the surroundings. In my mind I can picture the alligator green couch, The round leather ottoman that opened at the bottom. I can't remember the carpet, but I do remember the huge grate where the heat came up from the furnace. Grandma Sherwood sat in a rocking chair with the three tiered glass top table's by her chair. A gold tin sewing can was on the table along with quilt pieces and crochet waiting to be done. Next two Grandpa's rocking chair was a roll top desk and letters waiting to be mailed, bills waiting to be paid.
When I was a child, playing outside and throwing rocks in the lake down the street held more interest than sitting inside with the grown ups. I didn't have long interviews with my Grandparents and I only saw them 2 or 3 times a year. What I know about my Grandfather I learned long after he was buried.
Grandpa, George Hezicar Sherwood, was born in Johnson county, Illinois on June 13th, 1891 to William Benjamin Sherwood and Nancy Rebecca Ann McCready. It was his mother's second marriage. She was six years older than her second husband, and she had five sons by her first husband James Franklin Lynn who died in 1886. Great Grandma and his infant brother died when my grandpa was very young.
The first record I found with my Grandfather's name was the 1900 Census. Nine year old George is living with his widowed father in Willow Point, Wise county, Texas along with his widowed aunt Martha Ellen Sherwood Gillespie and her five children. My mom said that Her Grandpa and father traveled a lot in a covered wagon. I don't know if this is how they arrived in Texas, because mom didn't know that her dad had even lived in Texas. The children of My great grandmother's first marriage are not on this census, so they must have stayed with their Lynn family back in Illinois.
From Texas, George and his dad moved to Oklahoma. On the 2nd of June 1905, George "Sheerwood" is 13 and on the student enumeration of Blaine County, Oklahoma. There are 56 children between the ages of 6 and 21 attending school including George Kinder 15 and Neta Kinder, 8. His father married his second wife, George and Neta's mother and another widow, Martha Ann Corliss Kinder in 1907. Grandpa gained six step siblings. Grandpa didn't get any education beyond 8th grade, so this may have been his last year in school.
In the 1910 Census William "Cherwood",44; Martha, 22; George Kinder, 20; Neta, 14; and Manford 10, and George Sherwood 19 are in South Omaha, Douglas county, Nebraska. They have moved their following the cattle industry and all 4 adult males are working as meat cutters in the packing house. Grandpa worked at a packing house until his retirement, so Omaha is where his career began.
If I could talk to Grandpa Sherwood now, I'd ask him what it was like to be raised by his father? What does he remember of his mother? Did he know his half brothers? Was it exciting or frightening to move to Texas? What was it like living with his cousins? Did he get along with his stepmother and her children? Did he start working at the packing house when he was 16?
I wish I knew more about him and his parents, and thanks the internet I have been able to track his journey.
End Part 1.
