George Dallas Sherman

Who was George Dallas Sherman?

George Dallas Sherman was born in Richmond, Vermont on August 23, 1844 to Hathaway and Relief Sherman. In 1858, at the age of 14, he joined the Richmond Cornet Band and soon became its leader. He left this band in 1864 to join the 9th Vermont Infantry as a musician during the American Civil War. After the war he came to live in Winooski, where he married Mary A. Thompson and became a band teacher.

In 1878 he organized, with much coaxing from the citizens of Burlington, Sherman's Military Band, made up of musicians from the dormant Queen City Band. This band came to be well known all over the East as one of the finest touring Military Bands.

After Sherman retired from the band in 1917, the group became known as the Burlington Military Band under the exceptional directorship of Dr. Joseph Lechnyr, a renowned and influential Vermont musician. George continued to live on Sherman street until November 3, 1927. On that day, while crossing the street near his home at the corner of Sherman and Battery Street at the age of 83, he was struck by a car and died two hours later of multiple lacerations and a fractured skull.