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.
