Moses Hazeltine Sherman (December 3, 1853 – September 9, 1932) was an American land developer who built the Phoenix Street Railway in Phoenix, Arizona and streetcar systems that would become the core of the Los Angeles Railway and part of the Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, California, and owned and developed property in areas such as the westside of Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood, California. He also served on the Los Angeles Water Board. He was also known as M. H. Sherman and General M. H. Sherman. Early life Moses Sherman was born in West Rupert, Vermont, on December 3, 1853. He obtained a teaching certificate at the Oswego Normal School (now SUNY Oswego) in Oswego, New York. He began as a teacher in Salem, New York and Wisconsin. He was then appointed principal of the Hamilton, New York Grade School for the 1873-74 term. Because of ill health, in 1874 he departed for the west and the Arizona Territory. Arizona – Early Accomplishments In 1873 territorial governor Anson P.K. Safford offered Sherman a teaching post at the public school in Prescott. Here, Sherman initiated the first graded school in Arizona, teaching there from 1874 to 1876. In 1876, a new two-story school opened with Sherman as principal. He was selected to represent Arizona at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and returned to Arizona with his sister Lucy, who we also a teacher, and who met and married Eli P. Clark, then serving at the Arizona territorial auditor. Clark would become one of Sherman's closest business associates. John C. Frémont, then governor of the Arizona Territory appointed Sherman State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1879, where, as superintendent, he created the territorial school laws. In 1882, after Congress had appropriated land to support public education, Sherman selected the lands which helped to provide for the future University of Arizona. He earned the title, "General" after his 1883 appointment as Adjutant-General of the Territory of Arizona, in which position he served two terms. He would use the honorific "General" for the rest of his life. During these years, he was also involved in business affairs. Over time, he invested in property in Prescott and built a hotel, The Sherman House. He also acquired shares in mines, grazing lands and cattle and, as Prescott and Arizona grew rapidly, he made a good deal of money from his enterprises.