Sherk, Lincoln (1896-1970 )

Abraham Lincoln Sherk II was born in what was then Stockton Township (present-day East Camden), New Jersey, on August 29, 1896, the son of Emma Katherine Light and Dr. Henry Huber Sherk, a physician and ophthalmologist. Lincoln was named after his uncle (his father's youngest brother).

Lincoln Sherk graduated from Camden's original High School, the Camden Manual Training and High School on Haddon Avenue at Newton Avenue, in 1916. His father had passed away the previous year. After serving in the United States Naval Reserve during World War I, he received his bachelor's degree from Bucknell University in 1920, and completed his medical studies at Jefferson medical College in Philadelphia in 1923. He interned at Kensington Lying-in Hospital in Philadelphia, Trenton State Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey, and the Hospital P.E. Church from 1923 to 1926, and was a resident physician at Trenton State Hospital in 1926. He subsequently returned to Camden and established a general practice. In 1928 he helped found the Third National Bank in Camden.

Dr. Sherk married Mary Pauline Schenck in 1926, and together they had three children: Mary Ann, Henry Huber, and A. Lincoln Sherk III. By 1947, Sherk and his family had moved to 106 Browning Road in Merchantville, New Jersey. He was a member of the Camden County Medical Society, the Camden City Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.

An October 15, 1960, article by David Newlands in the Camden Currier-Post stated that the Sherks had been collecting natural history—plants, fossils and minerals gathered during their travels—for "more than 30 years" (i.e. since about the time that they were married or shortly thereafter):

"In their basement they have designed and built a museum containing fossils, seashells and rare minerals from all parts of the world. There doesn't seem to be room enough for all the many things they have to display... Large drawers contain many minerals, each one marked with identification as to their name and the source... The mineral collection is one of the Sherks' prized possessions. As members of the Delaware Valley Mineralogical Society, they have developed a rare and beautiful collection of many kinds of minerals... They are both interested in minerals and belong to many earth science organizations."

Lincoln Sherk passed away on January 4, 1970. He appears to have used only handwritten (not pre-printed, personalized) labels.