The Hoyt family were Episcopalians, but Mrs. Charles Sherman, on going to the West, found there no church of that denomination, and accordingly attached herself to the Presbyterian Church, of which her husband was a member. Later in life she had an opportunity to return to the Episcopal Church, and remained in its communion until her death, in 1852. She was a woman of quiet and unobtrusive, but most earnest piety. In manner she was courtly and affable, and in temper calm and placid. She had, however, a strong will and great energy. These latter traits were inherited by her illustrious sons, and indeed it is to her example, precepts and untiring labors that we must largely attribute their sterling characters, and the great success which they have achieved in their widely differing life works. CHAPTER II. BOYHOOD AND CADETSHIP. WHY HE WAS NAMED TECUMSEH--HIS ADOPTION BY MR. EWING--CHARACTER IN BOYHOOD--WORK AS A SURVEYOR--APPOINTMENT TO A CADETSHIP-- FROM LANCASTER TO WEST POINT--"OLD HICKORY"--LETTERS TO HIS SWEETHEART--A YOUTHFUL PHILOSOPHER--CHARACTER AND STANDING AS A CADET. William Tecumseh Sherman was the sixth of the eleven children of Judge Charles R. Sherman, and John Sherman, the great Senator and national financier, the eighth. It is related that the distinctive family names had been exhausted upon the first five children, and when the sixth was born, perplexity arose as to how he was to be christened. William was presently adopted, but the father was not satisfied with it alone. Another must be chosen, and it must be a warrior's name; for, said the Judge, "likely enough this little chap will be a fighter." Finally Judge Sherman determined to call his baby by the name of Tecumseh, the illustrious Shawnee warrior and statesman, who had been killed in battle some seven years before. This Indian chief was well-known in that part of Ohio, and had often saved the lives of settlers there and averted bloodshed by his wise counsels and peaceful influence, and it was in fact more because of these benign features than on account of his powers in war that Judge Sherman admired him and gave his name to the boy. Our hero was born at Lancaster, Ohio, on February 8th, 1820, and was consequently nine years old when his father fell a victim to Asiatic cholera. Little is to be recorded of those early years. They were spent in the customary manner of childhood, modified in a measure by the breezy, vigorous life of the sparsely settled frontier community, and cherished tenderly by a fond father and mother. When the catastrophe of death broke the family circle, "Cump" was a merry, active, bright-eyed, red-haired boy, fonder of play than of work or study, but truthful and trustworthy beyond a doubt.