The only “Sherman” street in Los Angeles that isn’t for Moses H. Sherman (see Sherman Way), Sherman Grove honors Sherman Page (1833-1918), who in 1885 opened a town here called Monte Vista – forerunner to Sunland. (Banker Felix C. Howes was his partner.) Indeed, this road was born that year as Sherman Street; in 1929, it was briefly changed to Hartranft Avenue, after local developer Marshall V. Hartranft, but locals nixed the name and it became Sherman Grove weeks later. As for Sherman Page, his pre-California life was a dramatic one. The Vermont native first moved to Wisconsin in 1858 and ran a school. There he married his assistant Eliza, but she died after giving birth to their daughter Lizzie; Lizzie herself died four years later, shortly after Page returned from the Civil War. Page then married his second wife Hattie and moved to Austin, MN to be an attorney. Elected district judge there in 1872, the pugnacious Page proved a divisive figure and made many enemies, including Austin’s police chief: in 1880, after a failed impeachment and back in private practice, Page was shot in the head by the chief’s brother. He survived – only for Hattie to contract tuberculosis. In June 1882, Page took her and their two young children to the warmer climes of Orange, CA, but Hattie died within six months. Page then went up to L.A. and busied himself with real estate ventures such as Monte Vista. He married his third wife Tiny(!), a teacher he knew from Austin, in 1884. Her death came soon after his.
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