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©This website and contents, copyright, 2004, by John Lynch |
The Town |
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Sherwood is a fading town in the Crow Creek Valley about ten miles from the University of the South in Sewanee. In 1930 there were more than 1,700 inhabitants. Now there are fewer than 500 people living there. The town gets its name from C.D. Sherwood lieutenant governor of Minnesota 1864-1866. He came through the valley as a Northern private during the Civil War. Waring McCrady, in a 1984 article in the Franklin County Historical Review, speculates that Private Sherwood may have observed the town of Anderson, six miles further south:
Governor Sherwood established his small town in 1875, hoping that his colony would prosper because of its natural resources and potential as a resort. His dreams were not realized, however, and he eventually left the town which still bears his name. Until the early 1890s the tanning bark industry was one of the main sources of income for the struggling town. My grandfather, John Dillon Lynch, was engaged in that business. The most prosperous days for the town were supported by the production of lime. Gilbert R. Adkins, in a 1988 article in the Franklin County Historical Review, says that a Mr. Webster set up one of the first lime kilns before 1880 near the site of the current post office. Adkins notes that Byron Gager, a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, came to Sherwood from Sandusky Ohio in 1892 to organize the Gager Lime Manufacturing Company. Byron Gager died in 1926 and, according to Adkins, the company began a slow decline, which continued until it closed in September 1949. The declining economic fortunes of Sherwood were made more bearable through the spiritual and material support of another institution, Epiphany Mission. Sister Lucy, herself a native of Crow Creek, continues the long tradition of ministry to the community. Father George W. Jones, came to Sherwood around 1929. He served the Mission and community until his death in 1952. His struggle to provide spiritual and material sustenance for the valley's inhabitants was recorded in a series of "Booklets," which he wrote during his time in Sherwood. The text of his writing was collected in a book, Candles in the Dark Boreen.
On November 25, 2003, I visited the Sherwood Cemetary behind the old Gager Lime Plant. I was standing at the gravesite of some of Lynch ancestors. It was a brisk, beautiful fall day. At 2:30 the sun was already sinking close to the mountain on the west side of the valley. I looked down at the ruins of the old plant, which looked like the remains of an ancient civilization. A train rolling down from the Cowan tunnel blew its horn. Some distant crows cawed a reply. The train answered the crows and the sound echoed off the limestone hillsides like the notes of a giant organ in a grand, open cathedral. The sound reverberated for several seconds and the engineer gave the horn another blast. I marveled at the interplay of valley quiet and the echo of rumbling train. As the train rolled on toward Anderson, the valley grew quiet. No cars were travelling state highway 56. No crows were calling. There would be no 3:00 school bell. The demise of Sherwood is more evident today than it was in 1984 when Waring McCrady closed his article.
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