James S. Sherman
Former Vice President of the United States
Education
- Bachelor of Arts degree - Hamilton College at Whitestown Seminary
Overview
James Schoolcraft Sherman was an American politician who was a United States representative from New York from 1887 to 1891 and 1893 to 1909, and the 27th vice president of the United States under President William Howard Taft from 1909 until his death in 1912. He was a member of the interrelated Baldwin, Hoar, and Sherman families, prominent lawyers and politicians of New England and New York.
Although not a high-powered administrator, he made a natural congressional committee chairman, and his genial personality eased the workings of the House, so that he was known as 'Sunny Jim'. He was the first vice president to fly in a plane (1911), and also the first to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game.
Sherman was the seventh and most recent vice president to have died in office.
Early Life
James Schoolcraft Sherman October 24, 1855 in Utica, New York, the son of Richard Updike Sherman and Mary Frances Sherman. According to Facts on File, "Sherman was of the ninth generation of descendants from Henry Sherman, a line also connected to Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union general during the Civil War". He was educated at Whitestown Seminary, then attended Hamilton College, from which he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1878. [a] At Hamilton, he was noted for his skills in oratory and debate.
After graduation, he remained at Hamilton for a year to study law, then continued his studies at the Utica office of Beardsley, Cookingham and Burdick, which included his brother in law Henry J. Cookingham as a partner. He was admitted to the bar in 1880, and practiced with Cookingham in the firm of Cookingham & Martin. Sherman was also president of the Utica Trust & Deposit Co. and the New Hartford Canning Company. Sherman became active in politics as a Republican and was elected chairman of the party in Oneida County. He became mayor of Utica at age twenty-nine. In 1881, he married Carrie Babcock of East Orange, New Jersey, and they had three sons; Sherrill B. Sherman, Richard Updyke Sherman, and Thomas Moore Sherman.
Career
- United States - Former Vice President