In June 1851 the six mile (10 km) square which later became the town of Sherry was surveyed by crews working for the U.S. government.

- the streams are fed by the swamp, and are subject to very sudden rise & fall - the soil is a dark loam is well adapted for the purpose of agriculture.

the Surface is generally level & is covered with stone the stone being of a reddish color[6]In 1880 Henry Sherry and a partner named Briggs started a sawmill on Mill Creek, with a company store, which attracted workers and grew into a community.

With various partners, Sherry continued running the sawmill and added a planing mill and a factory that made barrel staves.

He was a flour miller's son who operated a sawmill there and ended up owning many sawmills in the 1880s along with the one in Sherry: Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Centralia, Auburndale, Milladore, Vesper, Marshfield, Aniwa, Kent, Mineral Lake, and Park Falls.

[10] The town (6x6 miles) of Sherry was established in 1885, taking its name from the community located within its borders.

[7] In 1906 some Presbyterians started the Northwest Collegiate Institute, a Christian secondary school, on a 500-acre farm along Mill Creek.

[8] As of 1923, the village included two general stores, a hotel, a garage, a cheese factory, and a real estate office.