Sherman was born June 9, 1887 to Albert G. and Emma Nagel at Forman, North Dakota. His father was not a Seventh-day Adventist when the parents were married, while the mother was raised one. Her parents were Solomon and Sarah Covey. They lived near Coopersville, Michigan, and were members of the Wright Seventh-day Adventist Church. She was the fifteenth of sixteen children. Emma recalls well the family attending the first Seventh-day Adventist camp meeting which was held on the farm of Elihu Root, September 1 to 7, 1868.
Her older sister, Margaret, attended medical school at Ann Arbor, Michigan and received her M. D. degree. She was later employed by the Battle Creek Sanitarium and took Emma with her to study at Battle Creek College. Emma also worked at the Sanitarium to help pay her way.
It was while Emma taught school that she met Albert G. Nagel and they were married in October of 1883. The young couple moved to Forman, North Dakota, a small town of 400. Here was born to them 5 # sons and one daughter. Sherman’s mother had been praying all those years that her husband would move to a place where the children could attend a Christian school. The Lord led them to Milton, Oregon where Sherman, Brother Lee and sister Iva attended Walla Walla College. In 1904 a camp meeting was held in a grove near Milton. Ellen White was present at that meeting and Sherman’s father was baptized. What a day of rejoicing for the family!
Sherman and Lee became restless and decided to go to Union College the next school year. It was here that Sherman met Mary Hanson, the cook. Also Elder Luther Warren came to Union college and encouraged a group of the young folks to go with him to California to engage in pioneer gospel ministry. It was just at the time when Mrs. E. G. White was encouraging Elder John A. Burden to purchase the Loma Linda Hotel between Redlands and Riverside, California and open up a hospital.
On October 4, 1906 Sherman with 34 other students enrolled in the first class of Loma Linda College of Evangelists. It was during that school year that Dr. A. C. Selmon came back from China with an earnest appeal enlisted volunteers to make that needy country their life work. Sherman responded to the call. Mary Hanson came out from Iowa and they were married on June 22, 1908. Sherman finished his course and was working in the young people’s department of the area. He had just quit his job in Southern California and had gone to look for work in Oregon when startling news reached them.
Grandfather Nagel was resting in a comfortable chair Sabbath afternoon reading the last REVIEW AND HERALD when his eyes caught something on the back page which interested him very much. “Mother, “he called. “Look! It says Sherman and Mary are going as missionaries to China. “When Sherman received the message from his mother, he was as surprised as they were. A few days later the official call came from the Mission Board of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists informing them that they were booked to sail in about a month from the date on the letter. Mary was pregnant, expecting the baby in two more months. How could they go? But their first child was born prematurely on October 16, 1909.
Sherman and Mary with 17 other missionaries were on board the S. S. Monteagle sailing out the Golden Gate bound for Shanghai, China. On November 14, Dr. Harry Miller was at the wharf to welcome them. Soon they were in language classes and feeling quite at home. Elder J. N. Anderson came up from Hong Kong and pled that some of the new recruits be sent to South China. Sherman was one who was chosen and their next move in China was to do evangelistic work in Hong Kong. Their daughter, Florence Ione, was born in Macao on October 16, 1910. Elder J. P. Anderson, who was a schoolmate of theirs from Union College, had just entered the Hakka field of Kwangtung Province at Waichow on the East River North West of Canton. John begged Sherman and Mary to join him there and this was to be their field of labor for the next 14 years. It was in Waichow that the first two missionary homes were built from that special offering of $ 100,000.00 which was raised in the Sabbath Schools of America.
In 1920 Elder Anderson was transferred to the Swatow Mission and Sherman became the mission director for the next six years. Furlough time came and their son, Sherman Jr., was born in Burbank,
California on May 26, 1915. Elder and Mrs. A.J. Wearner joined them at Waichow on their return. Quoting from the Division Outlook of December, 1920, Sherman reports, “During these years since J.P. Anderson settled in Waichow we have seen the work of present truth grow until 10 of the 15 districts have been entered. There is a force of nearly 40 national workers and a membership of 730.“ In the Hakka country there were no other ways of transportation than by river boat, walking, or by horseback.
It would take many months to cover a visit to all the churches. Mary and children had to stay home alone much of the time for the Wearner family moved to North China. So, one day Mary said, “I and the children are going with you on the next trip,” which was the beginning of a new method of reaching the faraway churches. It would take books to write the experiences of those itinerating trips. From the book “REALLY TRULIES,” by Mrs. I.H. Evans tells some stories about the Nagal travels.
“From 1922 to 1926 the Nagel family lived under very strenuous circumstances. There was war in the area for most of the time and it made it almost impossible to travel for fear of the bandits or the soldiers. The compound in Waichow was just outside the great high city wall. In no man’s land and for months at a time it was surrounded by armies Hundreds of villages would flee to the Nagel basement for safety when the battles would take place. Cannon balls went through bed posts and mirrors, etc. Florence andSherman sat in the basement and studied their correspondence lessons by the light of a kerosene lantern. When Dr. Sun Yet Sen’s troops finally conquered Waichow, Sherman went to the magistrate’s headquarters to meet and congratulate General Chang Kai Shek and have a picture taken with him. This picture, carried inside his United States passport, made it possible for him to carry on the mission program and helped him many times to obtain passes from the fighting factions and much-needed supplies were brought up from Hong Kongto keep the hospital running and caring for the school. During one battle they had just one sack of wheat left, enough food for two days. They had milk from two water buffalos and one was shot during a siege and died. Many were the providential protections from heavenly angels during those days.” Sherman wrote the book, AT HOME WITH the HAKKAS of South China and many articles for our church papers. He authored books, WITHOUT EXCUSE, 25 EXCUSES ANSWERED, CYRUS THE PERSIAN, AH SIN, (A book on China) and numerous pamphlets on topics compiled from the Spirit of Prophecy both for the nationals and the church members at home.
In 1926 he was transferred to the Swatow Mission and remained there until 1929. Upon returning to America to attend the General Conference Session, he was asked to be pastor of the beautiful Central Church of Seventh-day Adventists in San Francisco so the children could attend Pacific Union College. Both followed in their parent’s footsteps and spent their lives in foreign mission service, Sherman Jr. as physician I Africa and Florence back to the Far East.
There was a dark spot in Sherman’s career when he dropped out of the organized work in 1933 and he and Mary were separated. But we are also very thankful to God that the Holy Spirit worked upon his heart and twenty years later he was rebaptized and remarried to Mary. Together they spent the rest of their lives in working at the White Memorial Hospital and Loma Linda Hospital in the nursing departments until their retirement.
Sherman’s whole ambition was to redeem the years he had lost. He died on July 8, 1968 at 81 years of age, a loyal soldier waiting his Master’s return. He always said, the happiest years of his life were the ones spent in China.