Herman, Martin Christian

Life Span
to
Dickinson Connection
Class of 1862; Trustees, 1877-1878
    Full name
    Martin Christian Herman
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Spouses
    1
    No. of Children
    4
    Family
    Martin Herman (father), Elizabeth Wolford (mother), David Benjamin Herman (brother), Josie Adair (wife, 1873)
    Education
    Dickinson (Carlisle College)
    Occupation
    Attorney or Judge
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Government
    State judge
    Slaveholding in 1860
    0
    Occupation in 1860
    Student
    Residence in 1860
    Marital status in 1860
    Single

    Martin Christian Herman (Dickinson Chronicles)

    Scholarship
    Martin Herman was born on February 14, 1841 on the farm his German immigrant great-grandfather had cleared in 1771 near New Kingston, Pennsylvania.  He was one of the six children of Martin and Elizabeth Wolford Herman.  He prepared for college at the York County Academy under George Ruby and entered the class of 1862 at Dickinson College in September 1858.  His brother, David Herman, was a member of the class of 1865. While at the College, Martin was a member of Phi Kappa Psi and active in the Belles Lettres Society, for whom he was chosen to deliver the 76th anniversary oration in 1862; he also received the Silver Junior Prize Medal for oratory the year before.  He graduated with his class and entered the study of law with William Miller of Carlisle. 

    Herman was called to the Cumberland County bar in January 1864 and opened a practice in Carlisle.  While still in his thirties, he was elected as the president judge of the Ninth Judicial District of Pennsylvania taking office in January 1874 and serving till 1884.  After this he continued his lucrative practice in Carlisle.

    Martin Herman married Josie Adair of Carlisle on June 5, 1873 and the couple had four children.  He also served a term on the board of trustees of Dickinson from 1877 to 1878.  In late 1895 he suffered a stroke while in court and died at home in Carlisle after a lingering illness on January 18, 1896.  He was fifty-five years old.
    John Osborne and James W. Gerencser, eds., “Martin Christian Herman,” Dickinson Chronicles, http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/h/ed_hermanMC.htm.
    How to Cite This Page: "Herman, Martin Christian," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/5882.