The Upper Seven Miles of old New Fairfield, set off in 1802 and named for Roger Sherman, a hill town of farms, tobacco and small mills on the New York line that now looks out over Candlewood Lake.

Fairfield County · Record checked October 11, 2026

3,527Population2020 census1
1802Became a townset off from New Fairfield1
29The brook's nameletters in Naromiyocknowhusunkatankshunk1
40 ftGreen Ponddeep, high on a mountain spur2
1National Registerplace, still standing3

Sherman on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Sherman, Connecticut in 2026, with Sherman center, Candlewood Lake, Lake Mauweehoo and 31 numbered landmarks

2026

Sherman today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from Barnes Hill down to the shores of Candlewood Lake, every road from Briggs Hill Road to Quaker Road, Sherman, Lakeside Woods and Atchison Cove by name, and a guide of 31 numbered landmarks with the National Register district marked.4

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Sherman

Powder in the garret

During the Revolution, Alexander Stewart of the north parish of New Fairfield chaired the Committee of Safety, and he kept barrels of powder and bars of lead in the garret of his big carved house. Family tradition held that some of that lead came from the statue of King George III pulled down in New York. His boys found the powder too. Told to split wood before they could go fishing, they packed a log with it and blew the woodpile across the yard, taking three lengths of new fence along. When Danbury burned in April 1777, Stewart was ordered to send the stores to the camp at Peekskill. The men and most of the horses were gone, so he loaded every oxcart he could find and sent them up the north road over Quaker Hill.5678

The tunnel at Green Pond

Green Pond sits high on a mountain spur in the southeast of town, three-quarters of a mile long and forty feet deep, ringed by solid rock. About seventy years before 1881, William Leach blasted a tunnel through that rim and sent the water down the mountainside to his mills in the valley, where three overshot wheels, one below the other, turned a carding machine and a grist mill. Farmers south of the pond sued, and a court stopped him. Leach went to the legislature with a petition signed by great numbers of neighbors, who said there was no other mill for miles. He won a perpetual grant, and an 1881 writer said the wheels of Leach's Mills had scarcely stopped turning since.2

Toll at the Narrows

In the days of tavern and turnpike, Sherman sat on the stage road between New Milford and Poughkeepsie. The old tavern at the center was post office and hotel at once, where notices were posted, the weekly paper came in, and traveling showmen set up waxworks in the great ballroom. At the foot of Briggs Hill the road squeezed through the Narrows, a rock pass where every traveler paid a toll. A visitor from New York said the Yankees knew where to put a tollgate. Captain Elihu Stuart drove the first stage with four horses named Morris, Jack, Trotter Foot and Charlie. The last driver, Isaiah McKibbin, broke through drifts and storms and was said to have missed only one trip in many years.910

Through the years

23 moments from 1707 to today.

  1. 1707Eleven men of Fairfield ask the General Assembly for a township north of Danbury on the colony line.11
  2. 1729Proprietors acquire a 31,000-acre tract that's now New Fairfield and Sherman.1
  3. 1743Young Roger Sherman arrives from Newton, Massachusetts, and lives with his brother William, making and mending shoes.12
  4. 1751The Congregational church of the north parish is organized.13
  5. 1770About this year the first meetinghouse goes up at the center.13
  6. 1777As Danbury burns, Alexander Stewart sends the powder and lead from his garret to Peekskill by oxcart.7
  7. 1778In October, Washington and his army march down from Quaker Hill through the north end of town.14
  8. 1797Rev. Maltby Gelston is ordained. He serves the church until his death in 1856.13
  9. 1798Philo Penfield Stewart, later an inventor and a founder of Oberlin College, is born in Sherman.15
  10. 1802The Upper Seven Miles is set off from New Fairfield and named for Roger Sherman.1
  11. 1803The new town holds its first town meeting.16
  12. 1810About this year William Leach tunnels through the rock rim of Green Pond to power his mills.2
  13. 1830General muster, the regimental training day, is held in Sherman.17
  14. 1832Philo P. Stewart and Rev. John J. Shipherd conceive the college that becomes Oberlin.18
  15. 1837The Greek Revival Center Church is built. It's now the Sherman Playhouse.4
  16. 1886The Old Town Hall is built in the village center.19
  17. 1906Ruth Rogers reads her paper on Sherman's historical landmarks at the Quaker Hill Conference.20
  18. 1926The brick Sherman Library is built on the site of the Fuller Tavern.4
  19. 1928Candlewood Lake fills, after two years of work, along Sherman's southern shore.21
  20. 1929Sherman farmer Ned Anderson begins mapping and marking the Appalachian Trail's Connecticut stretch.4
  21. 1937The original building of the Sherman School opens.4
  22. 1991The Sherman Historic District is listed on the National Register.19
  23. 2001The state makes Naromiyocknowhusunkatankshunk Brook the brook's official name.1

Places to see

The numbers match the landmark guide printed on the 2026 map.

  • 3Sherman LibrarySherman Center. Brick library of 1926.Visit their website
  • 4Wimisink PreserveNear the Kent line. Named for the Wimisink brook.
  • 5Sherman Town HallSherman Center. Town offices in the village.
  • 7The Sherman SchoolSherman Center. The town's one public school.
  • 13Sherman Historic DistrictSherman Center. The old village along Route 37.
  • 19Spring Lake RoadSouth end. Where Arshile Gorky lived.
  • 22Sherman Play HouseSherman Center. The Center Church of 1837.Visit their website
  • 24Sherman Town BeachCandlewood Lake. Swimming on the western shore.
  • 27Mauweehoo Club HouseLake Mauweehoo. Clubhouse on the southern lake.
  • 28Northrop House MuseumNortheast of the center. Historical society, Roger Sherman's shop.Visit their website

On the National Register

All 1 places in Sherman on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.3

  • Sherman Historic District

    Listed 1991 · Route 37 from Old Greenswood Road northeast past Route 39 North and Sawmill Road

    Sherman's long village center, about 85 acres, mostly houses with their barns, built up mainly in the 1800s. It takes in the 1837 Greek Revival Center Church, now a playhouse, the 1886 Old Town Hall and the 1926 Colonial Revival library.19

In their words

“Immediate and unanimous approval greeted the suggestion and the little town received the name which is its pride.”

Ruth Rogers, Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, 190722

“I have seldom seen a people among whom more real comforts were enjoyed.”

Morgan Stuart, a native of Sherman, in the History of Fairfield County, 188123

“We who come after them are quite as proud of the patriot ancestors who stayed at home and milked the cows and raised the grain.”

Ruth Rogers, Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, 190724

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Sherman, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Green Pond and Leach's Mills, Internet Archive
  3. National Register of Historic Places listings in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  4. Map of Sherman, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  5. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on Alexander Stewart's stores, Internet Archive
  6. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on the Stewart boys and the powder, Internet Archive
  7. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on the oxcarts to Peekskill, Internet Archive
  8. Battle of Ridgefield (the raid on Danbury, April 1777), Wikipedia
  9. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on the old tavern, Internet Archive
  10. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on the Narrows and the stage drivers, Internet Archive
  11. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on the 1707 petition, Internet Archive
  12. History of the towns of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut, 1703-1882 (1882), on Roger Sherman, Internet Archive
  13. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the Congregational Church of Sherman, Internet Archive
  14. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on Washington's march, Internet Archive
  15. The Connecticut magazine (1906), on Philo Penfield Stewart, Internet Archive
  16. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), recollections of Morgan Stuart, Internet Archive
  17. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on Training Day, Internet Archive
  18. A History of the Congregational Churches in the United States (1894), on the founding of Oberlin, Internet Archive
  19. Sherman Historic District (Sherman, Connecticut), Wikipedia
  20. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut, by Ruth Rogers (1907), Internet Archive
  21. Candlewood Lake, Wikipedia
  22. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on the naming of the town, Internet Archive
  23. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), Morgan Stuart on the people of Sherman, Internet Archive
  24. Historical landmarks in the town of Sherman, Connecticut (1907), on the town's forefathers, Internet Archive