Charles H. Sherrill Dead.
Charles H. Sherrill Dead.

CHARLES H. SHERRILL DEAD.

CAREER OF A NOTED LOBBYIST AND
"PROMOTER OF ENTERPRISES."

    Charles H. Sherrill, for many years one of the most familiar figures about the National Capitol at Washington, died very suddenly of heart disease yesterday.
    Mr. Sherrill was a native of Cuba, Allegany County, in this State, and from his early manhood, until he made Washington his home, was active in New-York politics. About 50 of his 73 years of life have been devoted in one way or another to the peculiar labors of "promoter of enterprises" and "legislative attorney."
When a young man he first identified himself with the Whig Party. Later he was identified with the wing of the Democratic Party known as the "Barnburners," and was elected Canal Commissioner of this State by the Democrats in 1856, holding office for three years. He left the Democratic Party just before the first nomination of Abraham Lincoln, and ever since that has acted with the Republican Party.
    Mr. Sherrill studied law when a young man and drifted to Albany to find a field for his peculiar talents. He left there in 1861, and ever since has made Washington his home. He removed there to be better able to look out for some coal lands in Virginia in which he had acquired an interest and through which he wished to push a railroad enterprise. He was also a contractor for the construction of the city water works. It was while at work on these schemes that he became acquainted with Messrs. C. P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Leland Stanford, the projectors of the Central Pacific Railroad. He formed a coalition with those railroad magnates, whom he has ever since represented in the necessary lobby work in Congress.
    Mr. Sherrill was also a familiar figure in this city, first as a frequenter of the lobby at the Metropolitan, then, as the lobby loungers moved up town, at the Fifth-Avenue Hotel, and latterly at the Windsor, which is the favorite lounging place of the Wall-street and railroad magnates. He was tall and spare, with snowy hair and beard, a thorough type of the gentleman of the old school. So scrupulously neat was he in his dress and so fashionable his attire in his younger days that he was known as "Fop Sherrill." Latterly he became less careful in his dress. Though of late his gait has been somewhat feeble and his eye dimmed, he yet remained an energetic, and careful guardian of his employers' interests.
    Mr. Sherrill left the Windsor Hotel in this city for Washington on Friday last, and was then complaining of suffering from what he called "fits of indigestion." At a visit here a couple of weeks ago he fell in one of the hotel reception rooms in a sort of fainting fit, which he attributed to indigestion. He was then found lying on the floor in a partially unconscious condition, and it took nearly a quarter of an hour to restore him to consciousness.
    Mr. Sherrill was a model conversationalist, and whether at a dinner party, in the lobbies of the houses of Congress, or lounging about a hotel, always delighted to have a crowd about him, whom he delighted to entertain with his never-ending fund of anecdote and small talk. Though he would talk interestingly on almost any subject on earth, not even his most intimate friend could induce him to talk about himself, his plans, or his business. When and how his successful work in behalf of his railroad friends was accomplished was very much of a mystery.
    Mr. Sherrill leaves a widow; who was a Miss Wynkoop; a son, now in Yale College, and a daughter, who is a prominent figure in New-York society. He leaves to them a very handsome fortune, invested in as secret a manner as his work among legislators was done. His body will probably be taken to Cuba, a village in the western part of this State, for burial.


Source:

Unknown, "Charles H. Sherrill Dead," The New York Times, New York, Wednesday, 5 January 1887, p. 7.


Notes:

    Richard Wynkoop, in the 1904 edition of the Wynkoop Genealogy in the United States of America, has this to say about him on page 202:

    1434. Sarah Fulton Wynkoop, (Rev. Jefferson 892, Peter 510, Judge Dirck 292, Capt. Evert 112, Cornelius 28, Evert 4, Cornelius 1,) born December 17, 1829, in New York City: died November 7, 1897, in Washington City: married, December 17, 1851, Charles Hitchcock Sherrill, born March 24, 1814, at Sandy Hill, N. Y., died January 4, 1887, Washington City, son of Darius and Mary (Day) Sherrill.
    Children of Charles H. and Sarah F. Sherrill:
1691. Mary Jennie Sherrill: born, in May, 1855, in Cuba, N. Y.: unmarried (1902).
1692. Charles Hitchcock Sherrill: b. Apl. 13, 1867, in Washington, D. C.: was graduated at Yale University, in 1889, with A.B.; in 1891, with LL.B.; and in 1892, with M.A. He is a practising lawyer, in the city of New York. Unmarried.

    Chris

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