Thomas Ewing Sherman
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Fr. Thomas Ewing Sherman, S.J. (October 12, 1856 – April 29, 1933) was an American lawyer, educator, and Catholic priest. He was the fourth child and second son of William Tecumseh Sherman and his wife Eleanor Boyle ("Ellen") Sherman, née Ewing.
Tom Sherman, as he was commonly known, was named after his maternal grandfather, Senator and Cabinet Secretary Thomas Ewing. Tom Sherman was born in San Francisco, California, while his father worked there as a bank executive. His mother, Ellen, was of Irish ancestry on her mother's side and devoutly Catholic. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Tom's father rose to become the second highest ranking general in the United States Army. When his superior, Ulysses S. Grant, became President of the United States, William Tecumseh Sherman was appointed commanding general of the army.
General Sherman intended his favorite son Tom to become a lawyer who would manage the family affairs. Tom Sherman graduated from Georgetown University at the age of 18 and received a graduate degree two years later from Yale. He trained as a lawyer in St. Louis, Missouri and received a law degree from Washington University, but in 1878 he decided to join the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and was ordained a priest the following year. This delighted his devout mother but distressed General Sherman, who refused to attend Tom's ordination.
Father Sherman taught philosophy at Saint Louis University. He presided over General Sherman's funeral mass in 1891 and served as an army chaplain during the Spanish-American War of 1898. He was in demand as a public lecturer and frequently spoke against anti-Catholic prejudice in the United States. While in his mid-fifties, he began experiencing mental problems and long bouts of clinical depression. He left the Jesuit community and lived in various places in Europe and the United States before settling in Santa Barbara, California. In poor health, after 1931 he lived with his wealthy niece Eleanor Sherman Fitch in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he died at the age of 76. He had renewed his Jesuit vows shortly before his death.
Curiously, Father Sherman is buried next to Father John Salter, the nephew of Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, at the Jesuit cemetery in Grand Coteau. This is coincidental, as Father Salter was the next priest of the local Jesuit community to be buried there.
