Anna Augusta and Annie Augusta Sherwood

This pair of graves tells a sad story - of an aunt and niece who never met each other, but shared the same name, and both experienced untimely deaths. Anna Augusta Sherwood, born in 1844, was the daughter of farmer Abram Sherwood and his wife Susan M. Gregory. She died in 1869 at the age of 25. Annie Augusta Sherwood was the daughter of Abram and Susan's son Sylvester and his wife Sarah Elizabeth Sniffin. She was born in 1872 and died in 1893 at the age of 21. Anna and Annie are buried in the Methodist portion of the cemetery along with Abram Sherwood and Anna's sister Mary Frances, who died at the age of 11 in 1855.

Sadly, this was not the full extent of the Sherwood family's misfortune. In 1872, the Yonkers Statesman made the following report on the 25-year-old Sylvester Sherwood:

Yonkers Statesman 2 May 1872

A year later, the Statesman reported that Sherwood had once again been committed, and was "hopelessly insane." During this time Sherwood was already married to his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Sniffin, and they had one child, the ill-fated Annie Augusta, named for his deceased sister.

As the census shows, in 1880 Sherwood was back at home with his wife and their two children, Anna and Vernon, but it would not be long before the family was driven apart permanently by Sherwood's mental illness. When he was not ill, Sherwood worked as a farmer and later as a teamster.

1880 US Federal Census

In April 1886, Sherwood sued his wife Sarah Elizabeth for divorce on the grounds of her adultery with the lawyer A. J. Adams, a boarder in the Sherwoods' house. However, the local community seems not to have believed Sherwood's claims, rather attributing them to "one of his hallucinations":

Yonkers Statesman 19 April 1886

Shortly after, Adams accused Sherwood of threatening his life; the case was brought to court, but ultimately dropped. Seven years passed, during which Sherwood was again committed to and released from the Poughkeepsie Asylum. The following incident, described in the Yonkers Statesman on June 30, 1893, occurred just weeks after the death of Sherwood's daughter Annie Augusta.

A DANGEROUS LUNATIC
Sylvester Sherwood of Mt. Kisco While Insane Tries to Commit Murder.

Mount Kisco was thrown into a high state of excitement about 9 o'clock Tuesday morning by pistol shots in George Knapp's grocery store on Main street. Sylvester Sherwood, who had made repeated threats to kill Lawyer A. J. Adams, had tried to knock him on the head with a loaded whip handle, but was frustrated in the attempt, and the lawyer had fired the shots.

This was the culmination of an old feud. For the past eight or ten years Sherwood has accused Adams of having broken up his family, and has threatened a good many times to kill him. Since last Saturday he has been looking for Adams. Adams heard of this and consequently prepared for any emergency.

Tuesday morning Adams, who has his law office above the grocery, went into the store to retrieve his key. As he was going out of the door Sherwood crept up behind him. Adams heard him and told him to stop. Sherwood did not stop, and Adams pulled out his pistol, again telling Sherwood to halt or he would fire. As he did not obey, Adams fired a shot to scare him, but he did not scare. Then Adams fired another shot at Sherwood, and the bullet grazed the back of his right hand, inflicting a flesh wound.

Sherwood, who is known to be insane, was seized and held until Constable Quimby came and took him to the lock-up. Adams was allowed his liberty. When Sherwood was placed in the lock-up he raved wildly and said he would yet kill Adams.

Two years ago Sherwood's wife found it impossible to live with him, and she returned to her father, Benjamin Sniffin at North Castle in Westchester county. Sherwood has recently threatened to kill half a dozen residents of Mount Kisco against whom he has only a fancied grievance. He has been an inmate of the insane asylum six times.

Sherwood was Tuesday afternoon committed by Justice Crane to await the action of the grand jury of a commission to determine his mental condition.

Although it is clear that at this point Sherwood had been insane for many years, I have to wonder if this particular incident - in which he targeted a man he blamed for destroying his family - was precipitated by the death of his daughter (she died on May 5, and this report appeared on June 30). The reporter who wrote up the incident for the New York Herald seemed to think so:

New York Herald 28 June 1893

Shortly afterward, the 46-year-old Sherwood was committed to the Poughkeepsie Insane Asylum once again. The New York Press, in its report on the incident, provides additional details about Sherwood's life and illness. Sherwood was, they reported, "intermittently insane," and had last been released from the asylum the past fall. After his release, he had lived with his daughter Annie Augusta until her untimely death.

Not all of Sherwood's commitments to the asylum were involuntary. On January 4, 1889, the Mount Kisco Recorder reported that Sherwood had been feeling "rather low-spirited, and thought it would be best to take another course of treatment during the winter months" at the Poughkeepsie Asylum. If we can trust this short statement as an accurate record of Sherwood's mental state, it seems possible that he was suffering from what today would be called bipolar disorder.

During this time Sherwood's parents, Abram and Susan, were still alive and living on Sarles Street. They died in 1901 and 1910, respectively.

Hudson River State Hospital (source)

The 1900, 1910, 1915, and 1920 censuses all record Sylvester Sherwood living in the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane in Poughkeepsie (pictured above). He died in 1921 at the age of 74. Unfortunately, the multiple reports on Sylvester Sherwood that appeared in local newspapers throughout the late 19th century don't give us much of an idea what he was like when he was not insane. The reporters, understandably, were more interested in the juicy story of "a dangerous lunatic" confronting a local lawyer than they were in understanding Sherwood's suffering. The brief mention of Annie Augusta's recent death in the New York Herald is the closest we get to empathy on the part of the press. From a modern standpoint, it's hard not to feel sympathy for a man who obviously suffered greatly - not only from his illness, but the ignorance of his community and the limitations of 19th-century psychiatry.

There is even less to indicate what Sherwood's family must have been going through at the time. Being the wife of a "lunatic" could not have been easy for Sarah Sniffin Sherwood, who was virtually a single mother throughout much of her son and daughter's childhoods. By 1900, with her husband committed more or less permanently, she had moved in with her brother Enoch Sniffin and his wife Caroline in North Castle. She died somewhat before 1913.

I can only speculate as to what Sherwood's children would have felt about their father's illness, but based on the fact that he was living with her at the time of her death, it would seem that Sherwood had at least something of a solid relationship with his daughter Annie Augusta, and that perhaps, at the age of 21, she had assumed responsibility for her father's care. It certainly seems likely that Sherwood was devastated by her death and plausible that his grief contributed to his mental instability in the weeks afterward.

As for Sherwood's son Vernon, it's impossible to know what relationship he had with his father, or if his own children, Frances (born 1910) and Vernon Donald (born 1916), ever met their grandfather. Vernon had moved to White Plains by 1900 and ultimately settled there with his wife Georgia, working as a motorman and a mechanic for a trolley company. Vernon Sherwood was a sergeant in World War II and died in 2006.

1. Abram Sherwood (1812-1901) m. Susan M. Gregory (1824-1910) in 1840
1. Anna Augusta Sherwood (1844-1869) 
2. Mary Frances Sherwood (1845-1855)
3. Sylvester G. Sherwood (1847-1921) m. Sarah E. Sniffin (1848-)
1. Annie Augusta Sherwood (1872-1893)
2. Vernon Sherwood (1877-) m. Georgia (1880-)
1. Frances Sherwood (1910-)
2. Vernon Donald Sherwood (1916-2006)

Matilda K. Sands Sherwood

Detail of the gate of the Sands family plot

In one of my early posts, I wrote that Gilbert Marten, who died in 1854 at the age of 90, was probably the oldest person buried in the cemetery. I may have been wrong. Matilda K. Sands Sherwood, who died at the age of 92, was older, according to the transcription of the cemetery conducted in 1914. The transcription gives Matilda's birthdate as March 3, 1810 and her date of death as December 17, 1902. However, different censuses suggest different years of birth for Matilda, ranging from 1817 to 1827. For several decades, she seems to have gotten younger by the year.

Women buried in the Episcopal Cemetery died on average 2.7 years later than men. By my calculations, life expectancy for women in the cemetery was slightly but consistently greater for women - the opposite of the national trend throughout the nineteenth century. So it would be appropriate (but not necessary) for Matilda to be two years older than Marten, who is probably the longest-lived man in the cemetery.

I have to rely on the 1914 transcription for Matilda's dates of birth and death because I have not yet identified her stone. I know where the Sherwood plot is - it's located directly behind the Sands plot in the Methodist section of the cemetery. I haven't seen Matilda's stone, though, and I have a sneaking suspicion it's this one.

Grave of Matilda Sands and Daniel Sherwood?

Matilda's husband was Daniel W. Sherwood, a minister who was born in Connecticut in 1820 and ordained in the Patterson Baptist Church in 1844 or 1845. They had one son (whom I know of), Joseph, born in 1846. In 1850, the family lived in East Fishkill, New York. Matilda's age was given as 33, which would place her year of birth around 1817.

1850 US Federal Census

In 1860, the Sherwoods were living in Saugerties, New York. In one decade, Matilda had aged only five years, going from 33 to 38. This meant that in 1860 she was younger than her husband, while in 1850 she had been older.

1860 US Federal Census

In 1870, the Sherwoods were living in Northfield, Staten Island, with two new family members: Joseph's wife Adelia and their child Jesse, who had been born that May. Joseph was working as an apothecary. A notable error in the 1870 census is that Jesse is listed as a girl, when he was in fact a boy, as indicated by all subsequent censuses.

For the second time, Matilda had only aged five years in a decade - going from 38 to 43.

1870 US Federal Census

The next decade was particularly rough on Daniel and Matilda, as it aged them each by about twenty years. Either that or the Sherwoods were becoming more comfortable in revealing their actual ages. Matilda, who had been 43 in 1870, was 61 in 1880. The couple lived in Farmers Mill, Putnam County, New York, with their servant Cordelia Light.

1880 US Federal Census

Meanwhile, Joseph and Adelia Sherwood were still living in Staten Island. They had suffered the loss of their one-year-old son Clayton in 1875, and buried him in the cemetery. The couple's surviving children were Jessie and Edith.

1880 US Federal Census

Daniel Sherwood died in the house of his son in Shandaken, New York, in 1898; his obituary stated that he was "about 80 years old." In 1900, Matilda was living with her son's family in Shandaken. Her age is given as 88 and her birth year as 1812.

1900 US Federal Census

Matilda died on December 17, 1902. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, she left her son Joseph $5,000 in real estate and $10,000 in personal estate.

Ages of Matilda Sherwood

Out of curiosity, I made this little chart to see how Matilda "aged" over the years. As you can see, her estimated birth year - based on the age she gave to the census enumerator - gets steadily later between 1850 and 1870. In 1880, her estimated birth year drops down to 1819 - still two years later than the census of 1850 would suggest. Matilda's year of birth is given outright in the census of 1900 as 1812. This is the closest to the year (1810) given in the transcription, and probably the closest to the truth.

By 1910, Joseph and Adelia were back in Staten Island and were living alone. His occupation was given simply as "own income." I'm guessing that meant that he and Adelia still had plenty of his inheritance left to live on.

Joseph and Adelia's son Jesse married Inez Doyle in 1896. In 1900, they were living in Manhattan with their children, Thelma and Daniel, and Jesse was working as a bookkeeper. They had lost one child.

1900 US Federal Census

By 1910, Jesse and Inez had moved to West Pittston, Pennsylvania. This census reveals that Jesse's son Daniel's middle name was Merritt. Jessie also had a younger son named after his brother Clayton who died in 1875. Inez was now said to be the mother of five children, three of whom were living. Jesse was a clerk in a "DLYW Office." His sister Edith Sherwood Smith and her husband Frank lived with them.

1910 US Federal Census

In 1920, Jesse's mother Adelia had moved in with them, presumably after Joseph had died. Jesse's son Daniel Merritt Sherwood, age 20, was now known simply as Merritt, bringing the Merritt Count up to six. Jesse was working as a clerk for a steam railroad company, as was his 22-year-old daughter Thelma. Son Merritt was working as a wagon driver for an "Express Co.," and Edith Smith was a seamstress.

1920 US Federal Census

Jesse died sometime in the 1920s. In 1930, Inez was living with her son Daniel Merritt Sherwood, who was divorced, and daughter Thelma Sherwood Keller in Douglas, California. Thelma had two sons. Daniel worked as a salesman in a bakery.

1930 US Federal Census

To return to Matilda K. Sands: I wonder whether she was a daughter of Merritt Sands and Elizabeth Kirby. They have four children buried in the cemetery, all of whom were born between 1810 and 1820. There is also an Abram Sands buried in the cemetery who was born in 1812 and died in 1901; could he be a son of Merritt and Elizabeth? More investigation will be needed to find out.

1. Daniel W. Sherwood (1820-1898) m. Matilda K. Sands (1810?-1902)
1. Joseph L. Sherwood (1846-) m. Adelia F. (1852-1920) in 1868
1. Jessie M. Sherwood (1870-) m. Inez Doyle (1872-1957) in 1896
1. Thelma Sherwood (1897-) m. Eugene Keller
1. Eugene C. Keller (1922-)
2. Winfield Doyle Keller (1926-2002)
2. Daniel Merritt Sherwood (1899-1952)
3. Clayton Sherwood (1903-) m. Nan (1907-)
1. Sherie Sherwood (1930-)
2. Edith M. Sherwood (1873-) m. Frank Smith (1871-)
3. Clayton E. Sherwood (1875-1876)