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The Yankees got one of Miles O. Sherrill’s legs, but not his gusto for rebuilding post-Civil War North Carolina.

Most of his life was spent in Catawba County and Raleigh. But his last years were in Greensboro, where his son-in-law owned a photographic studio that, after it moved to High Point, became a major force in the furniture industry.

After the war, Sherrill was elected Catawba clerk of court and later he was chosen for the county’s seats in the state House and Senate. He stayed in Raleigh after being named state librarian in 1899.

Finding the library poorly organized, the untrained librarian installed the Dewey Decimal System. He also acquired old letters, wills and artifacts that the library previously lacked.

Being a veteran and the author of a book, “A Soldier’s Story,” Sherrill upgraded the Civil War historical collection, another thing his predecessors had mostly ignored.

He lamented that other states took more interest in their Civil War past than North Carolinians, whose fighters he called, immodestly, the “greatest citizen soldiery the world has ever witnessed.”

With his wooden leg replacing the one lost during a Virginia battle, legislator Sherrill hobbled to the second- floor House and Senate chambers in the state Capitol. Later, he climbed to the top of the Capitol to the library. He lived on Blount Street across from the governor’s mansion.

Sherrill retired in 1916 in declining health and moved to 210 S. Mendenhall St., in Greensboro.

Rusty Sherrill believes Miles wanted to be near his daughter, Bessie Sherrill Alderman. Her husband, Sidney Alderman, started Alderman’s Studio here in 1896.

Rusty Sherrill began his Miles Sherrill research after his own retirement as chief district court judge in Wake County. He knew something about his great-grandfather’s Raleigh years, but little about his time in Greensboro.

Rusty Sherrill contacted a friend, Bill Phillips of High Point, renowned for knowing everyone in state politics and business by just hanging around. He had long ago worked for Alderman’s Studio.

Phillips summoned members of the Sherrill and Alderman families in Guilford County, some of whom kinsman Rusty Sherrill didn’t know.

They had dinner a few weeks ago at the O. Henry Hotel, then went to Green Hill Cemetery.

Miles Sherrill died in 1919 at age 78 and is buried there with Bessie and Sid Alderman and other family members.

“This was the first time I had visited my great-grandfather’s grave,” Rusty Sherrill says.

Earlier, when he began his research, “It hit me,” he says, “that it’s amazing for someone to do what he had done, including raising seven children after losing a leg.”

Rusty Sherrill also stopped at Miles Sherrill’s house, which still stands in what is now College Hill Historic District. It’s near where Sid and Bessie Alderman lived on West Market Street in a now demolished house across from Greensboro College.

After Miles Sherrill’s death, Sid and Bessie moved the studio to High Point. Today, the Alderman Co. resembles a movie soundstage with temporary rooms filled with furniture manufacturers have sent to be photographed for ads and catalogs.

Not too long ago, the studio used antique Dusseldorf cameras from Sid Alderman’s era. Greensboro businessman Gene Johnston now owns the business.

Another Alderman kinsman taught at Greensboro College, but Edwin Alderman, namesake for Alderman School here, apparently isn’t related. The Sherrills in Greensboro also owned for many decades M.G. Newell & Co., a manufacturing business founded in 1885 and still in business here.

“I was just overwhelmed about gathering all this information,” Rusty Sherrill says, “and meeting all these relatives I hadn’t met before.”

Contact Jim Schlosser at 601-9879 or beale1@clearwire.net