When Jacob Thomas Sherman was born on 27 January 1856, in Beaver Township, Columbia, Pennsylvania, United States, his father, Peter Sherman, was 46 and his mother, Elizabeth Swank, was 38. He married Malinda Elizabeth Swank about 1883, in Columbia, Pennsylvania, United States. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 7 daughters. He lived in Beaver, Pennsylvania, United States in 1910. He died on 14 December 1937, in Bloomsburg, Columbia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the age of 81, and was buried in Columbia, Pennsylvania, United States.