Summary Information
Simon Augustus Sherman Papers
1848-1906
- Sherman, Simon Augustus, 1824-1906
Wis Mss CF; Micro 71
0.6 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 1 reel of microfilm (35mm)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Reminiscences, diaries, and notes kept by Simon Augustus Sherman, a Portage County, Wisconsin, pioneer settler and lumberman. Included are typewritten copies of notebooks in which he recorded interviews with other pioneers, his own recollections of persons and events in the region, and meetings of pioneer societies; and excerpts copied from Portage County archives. Filed with these transcripts are a few pages of excerpts from Sherman's diaries for the years 1848-1872. The reminiscences written in 1866 describe Sherman's boyhood in Massachusetts, his experiences as a factory mechanic, and his journey to Plover, Wisconsin, where he engaged in lumber rafting on the Wisconsin River and operated a planing mill. He also includes some genealogical data and a discussion of spiritualism with descriptions of seances in which he participated in 1851.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000cf ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Simon Augustus Sherman was a carpenter and joiner by trade. Born in Westboro, Mass., in 1824, he emigrated West to Portage County, Wisconsin, as a young bachelor of 24. Settling on lands at the junction of the Plover and Wisconsin Rivers, Sherman erected a planing mill which he operated while following his carpenter trade. He built the first building north of the Fox River to be painted, plastered, and finished. The first frame house in the “Indian Lands” was also constructed by Sherman. During his lifetime he developed his own planing machine and shingle making machine and once built a model of a portable breastworks for use in the Civil War. His sons, Clarence and Eugene, both developed several inventions with the aid of their father, and obtained numerous patents. In later years Sherman's pine lands were so extensive that he was considered one of the richest men in Portage County.
Obituaries of Simon Augustus Sherman are to be found in the Stevens Point Journal for December 29, 1906 and January 5, 1907.
Scope and Content Note
The Sherman collection is divided into three parts. First of these are the typewritten copies of Sherman's notebooks. During his lifetime, he took notes on early Wisconsin history (including interviews and questionnaires) for a book which was never completed. The indexed notebooks contain information on early Wisconsin history, and biographical and autobiographical matter. Notebooks #5 and #12 are chiefly autobiographical. Numbers 6 and 27 discuss the early history of Stevens Point and of George Stevens. Notebook #9 is a Portage County history. Notebook #14 is a narrative of the Battle of Shiloh. The rest are chiefly biographical, concerning old settlers in Portage County.
The diaries, the second part of the collection, were written over a period of nearly 58 years, the last entry made on the date of the author's death, December 27, 1906. Diary #1 contains a list of household goods carried on his trip West, financial accounts, and a 1905 recapitulation of the 1848 trip by canal and team from Fitchburg, Mass. to Plover, Wis. Some genealogical material is to be found in #2. Beginning in 1861, Dairy #9, Sherman lists his real property. Changes in his property holdings can be traced through the subsequent diaries. Through the war years there is negligible mention of the Civil War, though he speaks (1861, #9) of writing to General Scott, of constructing a model portable breastworks (1864, #11), and of returning soldiers. The hiring of a substitute for war duty is described in the 1865 diary (#12). By the middle 1860's, Sherman owned something between 3000 and 4000 acres of pine lands and city lots. He became at this time one of the more prosperous citizens of the area. All of the diaries, particularly those after 1861, contain a great deal of financial information. Diary #20 (1875) contains sketches of Little Bull Dam. A visit to the New Orleans Exposition is recorded in 1895 (#36). The diary for 1897 (#38) mentions an invention of his later years, a portable house. The final diary, dated 1906 (#45) was ended on December 27, 1906. Sherman died a few minutes after making the entry for that date. Someone, evidently his wife Rachel, has made some annotations at the end of this volume.
The diaries are rather sketchy and often nearly illegible, yet they supply a great deal of material of value in a study of early Wisconsin or Portage County history. Throughout the diaries can be found original poetry, family records, financial records, and discussions of social life, politics, lawsuits, log runs, religion and spiritualism, and prices of commodities, as well as a chronological account of Sherman's business and family life.
Before the Historical Society obtained the original diaries, a sheaf of excerpts was compiled by A. H. Sanford. These typewritten excerpts are from the earlier diaries and are to be found in the box with Sherman's notebooks. A portion of these excerpts was published in the Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings in 1910.
The third part of the collection is the reminiscences written in 1866. These are available only on microfilm.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Diaries presented by H. Norton, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, June 15, 1953. Notebooks received from an unknown donor, 1910-1911. Reminiscences loaned for microfilming by Mrs. J. B. Vedder, Marshfield, Wisconsin, December 1956.
Contents List
|
Wis Mss CF
|
Notebooks on local history of Portage County and the Central Wisconsin River Valley (typewritten copies)
: Volumes 18, 24, and 25 are not in the collection.
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
1
|
Volumes 1-17, 19-23
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2
|
Volumes 26-32
|
|
|
Diaries
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
3
|
Typewritten excerpts, 1848, Oct. 8-1872, July 19
|
|
|
Box
2
Volume
1-25
|
1849, Aug. 28-1882, Dec. 31
|
|
|
Box
3
Volume
26-45
|
1883, Jan. 1- 1906, Dec 27
|
|
|
Micro 71
Reel
1
|
Reminiscences, 1866
|
|
|
