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1929 Manville Dutcher (John) Sherman


Born: Jan. 19, 1929 in Afton, Chenango County, NY

Died: Apr. 29, 1995 in Marana, Pima County, Arizona.

Baptised: Dec. 23, 1936 at Saint Paul's Church, Hancock, NY.
Baptised by Father John Rausch.
Baptismal sponsors: August Johnson and Mrs. Michael Neenan.

Buried: Cremation

His father was 1888 Schuyler Van Rensselaer Sherman

His mother was 1899 Bessie Ann Dutcher


Manville's name was changed to "John Augustine Sherman" when he was
baptized a Catholic in 1936.

He was known to most people as "Junior" in his early years, as his
father (Schuyler) was mostly known by his second name, "Manville".  
After moving to Montana, he was known only as "John", not "Junior".

The photo at upper right was taken about 1955 in Great Bend, PA.
The photo at center right was taken about 1952, in New Jersey.
The photo at bottom right was taken about 1948 or 1949; I am not 
sure of the location.  The car is a 1942 "blackout" Studebaker.

He was married March 4, 1950 to 1929 Irma Dorothy Livingston.
They had eight children together, and divorced about 1970. 

Irma has said that they moved 13 times in the first two years of their 
marriage.  Their shortest stay in one location was only two weeks.  They
lived briefly in various places in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
and in Asheville, North Carolina, before returning to New York State.
In 1954 they lived for a few months with Irma's brother Ken and
his family on River Road in Sidney, NY.  My cousin Tom Livingston 
was six then and remembers it well.

In August 1958 John and Irma, with five children including a baby, 
packed all their possessions into a 4 x 8 plywood box trailer, pulled 
by a 1941 Plymouth, and moved to Phoenix, Arizona.  Here they remained 
for only about one month, arriving in August, where the entire family 
found Phoenix to be just too hot.  Way too hot.  I remember it well.

They then moved to Missoula, Montana and remained in the Missoula
area until their divorce about 1970.  They lived for a few months
at the Palm Olive Motel at 835 East Broadway in Missoula, then
moved to a rented house owned by a man named "Plummer" in Lolo,
Montana (about 10 miles south of Missoula).  From there they moved, 
now with six children, into a 12 x 60 trailer house that they had 
purchased and located in a trailer park behind the Lolo church.  

In 1961 they purchased the house located at 1203 Cooper Street in 
Missoula, Montana where they remained until 1970.

John was remarried to Kathleen Lumley (sp.) about 1970.
John and Kathy had one son, Mark Aaron Sherman, last known to
be living near Priest River, Idaho.  John and Kathy had mostly
lived in Oldtown, Idaho, just across the river from Newport, WA.

John was a master mechanic; he worked as a heavy equipment mechanic 
and welder most of his life.  In the early and mid 1950's he worked 
for a John Deere dealership in Binghamton and worked on equipment on
farms in the Binghamton area, while living in Great Bend, PA.  Later
in Montana he worked for "Treasure State Equipment Company" in Missoula
Montana, which was a dealer for the International Harvester Company.
He often travelled to remote logging camps in the mountains of Western
Montana, also to construction sites in the Misoula area, during the
time of the construction of the interstate highway system, Interstate
I-90 specifically. 

In the late 1960's he built an airplane from a kit and earned his 
pilot's license in it.

He built and raced a 1954 Mercury stock car at the Missoula
race track on Miller Creek road outside Missoula during the 1960's.  

John died in 1995 of massive complications from cancer.
He had been a heavy smoker for most of his life.

Info from Register of Births, Afton Town Clerk's office, Afton NY,
Book #3 page 20, for "Manville Dutcher Sherman".  Parents listed as
Schuyler Manville Sherman, age 41 and Bessie Dutcher Sherman, age 29.  

The car shown at bottom right was confirmed as a 1942 Studebaker;
my cousin Charlie Woodruff writes:

Hey Cuz,

A Studebaker expert confirmed that it is a 1942.  He said it looks 
like a "black out" model, which means it was built after the attack 
on Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941) and before all civilian car production 
was halted in February of 1942.  To conserve important materials like 
copper for the war effort, "black out" models sported painted trim 
instead of chrome.

Charlie