California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


MRS. VIRGINIA SHERMAN. An accomplished and enterprising business woman, Mrs. Virginia 
Sherman is devoting her time and energies to the management of her well improved ranch, which 
is pleasantly located near Newman, being about a mile east of the town. Of thrifty and substantial 
German stock, she was born and brought up in Clark county. Mo., a daughter of Daniel Byers. 

A native of Germany, Daniel Byers came with his parents to the United States when a child, 
and lived for a short time in Pennsylvania. At the age of nine years he was taken to Virginia, 
where he attended the common schools for a few years, and afterwards learned the potter's 
trade. Migrating to Missouri in 1852, he settled as a pioneer in Clark county, and was there 
engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death. Mr. Byers married Emma Little, a native of 
Fairfax county, Va., and they became the parents of eleven children, of whom four sons and 
three daughters grew to years of maturity. In 1879 Mrs. Byers came to California, and from 
that time until her death lived in Colusa county, making her home with one of her sons. 

The youngest child of the parental household, Virginia Byers received a good common school 
education in her native town. In 1876, in Clark county, Mo., she married Hiram F. Sherman. 
Mrs. Sherman is a clear-headed, active woman, possessing excellent judgment and great execu- 
tive ability, and since assuming her position as manager of the home estate has met with marked 
success and but few discouragements. She has quite a dairy, keeping many cows, and has eighty 
acres of her land devoted to the raising of alfalfa, which is her principal crop. Mrs. Sherman has 
had four children, namely : Milton R. ; Cecil B., deceased ; Leo D. ; and William Rey. Through- 
out the community in which she resides, Mrs. Sherman has the respect and esteem of her 
friends and neighbors, who have ever found her a kind, helpful and genial companion.