Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Sherrill, IA

Sherrill in Dubuque County was named for two brothers, Adam and Isaac Sherrill, and was originally called Sherrill's Mound (or Mount) because the town sits at the base of a prominent hill.

In 1856, Austrian immigrant Peter Fries built a large stone inn at Sherrill's main crossroads; the inn survives today, restored as the Black Horse Inn, and Fries became the town's first postmaster when its post office opened in 1858.

Outlaw Jesse James and his gang were reported to have stayed at Fries's inn in Sherrill before their famous 1876 raid on Northfield, Minnesota.

Sherrill was one of ten Dubuque County 'Beer Towns' incorporated in 1933 — it incorporated on June 29, 1933, so that its taverns could legally serve beer under an interpretation of Iowa law that beer licenses could only go to premises inside incorporated places.

Sherrill drew large numbers of German immigrants in the 19th century, and four German congregations founded there — SS. Peter and Paul Catholic, St. Matthew Lutheran, and German Methodist and German Evangelical churches — remain active.

Sherrill is known for Breitbach's Country Dining, a restaurant opened in 1852 under a federal permit issued by U.S. President Millard Fillmore.

Sherrill counted 189 residents in the 2020 census, living in 77 households — its population actually grew between 2000 and 2020.

Sherrill packs its 189 residents into just 0.13 square miles, a density of about 1,428 people per square mile that is unusually high for a small Iowa town.