Denison University - Adytum Yearbook (Granville, OH)

Page 9 text:

So A tvtts fvimh of ipniann r a jfrtfullg ipJiirat? ti}xs hook

Page 8 text:

HENRY A. SHERWIN

Page 10 text:

Henry Alden Sherwin Among the men who have achieved conspicuous distinction in the commercial, financial and industrial world, a foremost place must be given to Mr. Henry A. Sherwin, one of Ohio ' s most successful business men and one of the prominent manufac- turers of the world. Mr. Sherwin was born September 27, 1842, in a remote village of the Green Mountain State, at Baltimore, Vt. His parents were representatives of the Old New England Families of Puritan ancestry — thrifty, frugal and of high moral character. The atmosphere of his early boyhood ' s days was the kind in which self-reliance, steadiness of purpose and sterling character grow. He was an only child and was compelled to develop his growing life in the companionship of his parents, more than of playmates. Reverence for holy things, the constant faith in a Heaven- ly Father, the sacredness of the Word of God as daily taught by father and mother, laid the foundation of that moral earn- estness which has ennobled all the after years. His secular education, preparatory to his life work, was limited to the ad- vantages of the neighborhood school, which he attended until he was fifteen years of age, when the school books were laid aside and his business career began. His first position was that of errand-boy and clerk m a gen- eral store and from the beginning his service was character- ized by a persistency and an energy which clearly expressed his determination to get on. In 1 860 he came to Ohio and for a time was employed as a clerk in a drygoods store at a meager salary. His careful ob- servance of detail brought him rapid promotion and he soon be- came head-bookkeeper. He left this position and became an associate in a wholesale grocery concern. Failing, however, to find this business wholly congenial, in 1866 he engaged in the sale of paints, colors and varnishes. Here he found his oppor- tunity. The business rapidly grew. In 1870 he formed a partnership with Mr. E. P. Williams and plans were developed for manufacturing. From this time forward, the advance and widening of the interests were constant until the firm name of Sherwin-Williams Co. is known the world around. Mr. Sherwin has from the beginning been a careful student of minutest details. He has had an abiding faith that truth and honesty were a business man ' s most valuable asset. He laid down as a foundation policy that only the best products that could be made should leave his establishment. His idea of high quality has been persistently maintained throughout the years. Upon this he has builded his splendid successes. 4