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Peru
Town Historian:
- Ronald & Carol Allen
- PO Box 142
- Peru, NY 12972
- Telephone: (518) 643-2745 X113
email: perutownhistorian@charter.net
A Brief History of Peru, New York
by Ron Allen, Peru Town Historian
Nestled between the Adirondack Mountains and Lake Champlain, the Town of
Peru was formed from Plattsburgh and Willsborough on Dec. 28, 1792. A part
of it was annexed back to Willsborough in 1799 and the towns of Ausable and
Black Brook were taken off in 1839. Its present boundaries are the towns of
Saranac, Schuyler Falls and Plattsburgh on the north, the towns of Ausable
and Black Brook on the south, Lake Champlain on the east and the town of
Black Brook on the west. The area of the town is approximately seventy-nine
square miles. Some of the early settlers thought that the mountains
surrounding the town resembled those of Peru, South America. Hence, the
origin of the town's name. The earliest concentration of settlers was in an
area called the "Union", a Quaker settlement in the vicinity of the present
Keese Homestead and Quaker Cemetery on what is now Union Road. These early
Quaker settlers or "Friends" as they preferred to be called, were mainly
farmers and came from Dutchess County, N.Y. and previously, England. Some
of the family names of those pioneer settlers still abound in the town
today: Allen, Arnold, Baker, Elmore, Everett, Hay(s), Keese and Thew, to
mention a few.
John Cochran has the honor of being the founder of the present site of Peru
Village about the year 1795. He built a house and a grist-mill on the banks
of the Little Ausable River. Harvesting abundant timber became Peru's first
industry and resulted in several saw-mills being built along the river. A.
Mason & Sons lumber mill, located in the heart of the village, flourished
for nearly a century, from 1883 to 1972. The mill was the town's largest
employer for most of those years. Now, the empty stone Heyworth/Mason
building is the only surviving remnant of that once busy mill site. As the
lands were cleared of timber the area's rich, fertile soil gave rise to
agriculture which persists to this day in the form of dairy farms and
several apple orchards. Iron making also played a major role in the
economic development of early Peru with the discovery of high quality iron
ore in the Arnold Hill area in 1810.
As the population of Peru grew from a small handful of settlers in 1792 to
1,923 in 1810 and 2,710 by 1820, other settlements within Peru's boundaries
came into being. Goshen, Lapham's Mills or Bartonville, Peasleeville, Port
Jackson, later Valcour and Peru Landing all contributed to the town's
growth. The bustling Lake Champlain ports of Peru Landing and Port Jackson
led to railroads and stations built at Valcour, Lapham's Mills and Peru
Village. Churches, schools, businesses and ever expanding industries all
increased in number throughout the township.
Peru has an exceptionally rich past in the form of military history. Its
Lake Champlain shores saw much activity during the French and Indian War
period. The lake was the main north-south corridor for war parties of
Native Americans and French and British armies. Benedict Arnold's most
important Revolutionary War naval engagement with the British at the Battle
of Valcour Oct. 11, 1776 took place within the town. The War of 1812
brought forth the Peru militia under the leadership of Capt. David Cochran.
They fired the first shots in the victorious and decisive Battle of
Plattsburgh in Sept., 1814. The opening of Plattsburgh Air Force Base in
1955 brought thousands of military personnel to the area. The majority of
those personnel resided within the Peru Central School District. The school
district grew from 800 students to over 3,000 necessitating the building of
four new schools.
The present population of Peru is 6,370 according to the 2000 census. Long
gone are most of the timber and iron related industries and the many mills
that once lined the banks of Peru's rivers. Fires have taken their toll on
many buildings in the center of the village. It is now a relatively quiet
semi-rural residential area surrounded by thousands of acres of apple
orchards and dairy farms.
Further information re: Peru's history may be obtained from Hurd's History
of Clinton and Franklin Counties; Lincoln Sunderland's 3 vol. History of
Peru; and, the Town of Peru website: http://www.perutown.com
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