He was born in Vermont in about 1815, educated at Middlebury College, and later was a tutor at the University of Alabama.
He taught at Alabama, and served as sometimes librarian, with Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard and Basil Manly Sr. Sherman was a co-founder of Howard College in Marion, Alabama (now Samford University of Birmingham, Alabama).
As president, he delivered an address to students at Howard College that was published in 1850.
[1] Sherman later was founder of a preparatory school in Georgia.
As the sectional tensions heightened, and secession loomed, Sherman moved his family to Wisconsin, where he had a second career as an educator.