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  THE

  HISTORY OF PERU,




  BY HENRY S. BEEBE.




  PERU, ILLS.
  J.F. LINTON, PRINTER AND PUBLISHER.
  1858.




ERRATA.


On page 7, it is mentioned, incidentally to the main fact--that H. P.
Woodworth received 528 votes for the Legislature--that he was elected.
This is an error. He was defeated, notwithstanding the large and almost
unanimous vote he received in Peru.

On mature reflection the writer concludes that he will mitigate his
statement concerning the "breadth" of that cake of ice described on page
39. For "length and breadth" the reader will please substitute
"extent"--this is positively all the abatement that can be made.

On line 5, page 64, the word "upon" and on line 17, page 77, the word,
"but" have intruded themselves very mysteriously. Please to consider
them as omitted.

With these emendations he commits his first-born to the waters of public
approval or condemnation, begging for it all the indulgence which
conscious incapacity can justly claim.




INTRODUCTORY.


It can hardly be said that a town of a population of three thousand six
hundred and fifty-two souls, dating back but about twenty years to its
first rude tenement and solitary family, can have any history. The
events of any public interest are so few, and their importance so small,
that no reasonable hope can be entertained that their recital will be
any thing but a matter of indifference to others than the present or
former residents, or those connected with them by ties of consanguinity,
or having an interest in its advancement and prosperity. It is true that
at some future time, the record may be useful to the historian, if it
should be so fortunate as to survive. The statistics have been collected
with care and considerable labor, and are believed to be correct and
reliable. Beyond this the writer claims no merit for the work. The
anecdotes and events related, not strictly statistical, have all
transpired under his personal observation and knowledge, during a
residence dating back to the embryo town.

Most persons who have had the temerity to undertake the relation of
cotemporary events, and to speak of cotemporary actors, have received
more kicks than coppers for their pains. How far the writer will escape
their general fate remains to be seen. Knowing the dangerous ground
whereon he was treading, he has endeavored to confine himself to the
simple relation of undisputed facts, abstaining from all comments and
speculation thereon. He has not set himself up as a public censor or a
public eulogist. It is not to be supposed that he has been without
partisan and prejudiced views of public questions. These he has
endeavored to suppress and to "render unto Caesar the things which are
Caesars." Nor has he undertaken to draw a rose  picture for the
benefit of Eastern Capitalists, or those seeking a home in the west--to
throw bait to Gudgeons.--In fact, it will be admitted, that his picture
is of the soberest and dullest kind of grey. Would that it could be here
and there touched with lighter and more cheerful hues; but truth is
inexorable, and demands the strictest loyalty from those who worship at
her shrine.

The people of Peru may be a little curious to know why a person, whose
pursuits in life have been hitherto very far removed from those of a
writer for the public eye, should have undertaken a task for which
previous practice and experience have so little qualified him. He begs
to assure them that it was entirely an accident--no literary ambition
prompted him at all. To be sure he had heard that

  "'Tis pleasant sure to see one's name in print,
  And a book's a book although there's nothing in't,"

but that was not it. Having a little leisure, he had undertaken to
gather and condense some statistics of the town for the publisher of a
Directory of La Salle County. Having commenced the task he became
interested therein, and extended his researches and remarks to a length
quite too formidable for their original purpose. But he resolved not to
hide his light under a bushel--hence the present infliction which he
hopes will be borne with commendable fortitude.




HISTORY OF PERU.




CHAPTER I.

      Situation of the City--Its early Settlement and Settlers--
      Passage of the Internal Improvement Act and Commencement of
      work on the Central Rail Road--Election of H. P. Woodworth
      to the Legislature--Election for Organization under the
      Borough Act--First Census--First Election of Trustees--First
      Religious Meeting.


The City of Peru is situated in the Westerly part of La Salle County,
Illinois, on the Northern bank of the Illinois River, at the head of
Navigation, and at the Junction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal.
Distance from Chicago 100 miles, and from Saint Louis 230. The territory
embraced within the corporated limits, is Sec. 16 and 17, and all those
fractional parts of 20 and 21, which lie north of the river, Town 33,
Range 1, East of the Third Principal Meridian, comprising an area of
1462 Acres.

The settlement of the site occupied by this City was commenced in the
Spring of 1836, shortly after the passage of the act incorporating the
Illinois and Michigan Central, which was to terminate at or near the
mouth of the Little Vermilion, on land owned by the State. It was
probably the most eligible site on lands owned by individuals. The
Southwest quarter of Sec. 16 was laid out and sold by the School
Commissioners in 1834, and called Peru. Ninawa Addition, located on the
South East quarter of Sec. 17, and the North East fractional part of 20,
upon which the most business part of Peru is at present situated, was
owned originally by Lyman D. Brewster, who died in the fall of 1835. It
was plated and recorded in 1836, by Theron D. Brewster, at present a
leading and influential citizen.

In 1835 the only residents of that portion of territory now occupied by
the cities of Peru and La Salle were Lyman D. Brewster, his nephew T. D.
BREWSTER, JOHN HAYS and family, PELTIAH and CALVIN BREWSTER, SAMUEL
LAPSLEY and BURTON AYRES. In the Spring of 1835, the first building--a
store--was erected in Peru by ULYSSES SPAULDING and H. L. KINNEY, late
of Central American notoriety. On the 4th July 1836, the first shovel
full of earth was excavated upon the Canal. No considerable population
was attracted to the town until 1837. Among the people who made this
place their home in that and the following years, were WM. RICHARDSON,
J. P. JUDSON, S. LISLE SMITH and his brother DOCTOR SMITH, FLETCHER
WEBSTER, DANIEL TOWNSEND, P. HALL, JAMES MULFORD, JAMES MYERS, WM. and
CHAS. DRESSER, HARVEY WOOD, N. B. BULLOCK, JESSE PUGSLEY, EZRA MCKINZIE,
NATHANIEL and ISAAC ABRAHAM, J. P. THOMPSON, JOHN HOFFMAN, C. H.
CHARLES, ASA MANN, LUCIUS RUMRILL, CORNELIUS CAHILL, CORNELIUS COKELEY,
DAVID DANA, ZIMRI LEWIS, DANIEL MCGIN, S. W. RAYMOND, GEO. B. MARTIN,
WM. H. DAVIS, GEO. W. HOLLEY, GEO. LOW, M. MOTT, F. LEBEAU, A. HYATT,
WARD B. BURNETT, O. C. MOTLEY, WM. PAUL, H. P. WOODWORTH, H. S. BEEBE,
HARVEY LEONARD, &c.

At the Session of the Legislature of 1836, the Internal Improvement act
was passed, incorporating the Central Rail Road, which was subsequently
located upon the same general route as is followed by the present
Illinois Central Rail Road, crossing the river at Peru. Operations were
commenced on both sides of the river in 1838. During this season very
extensive improvements were made, large accessions of population took
place, and the settlement began to assume the appearance of a town. In
1839 the whole country was on the top wave of prosperity. Large forces
were employed upon both the Canal and Rail Road--numerous other works
being contemplated, all terminating at Peru, of course--and the
disbursements were large. The town shared the general prosperity. In
this year H. P. WOODWORTH was elected [Transcriber's Note: Error, he was
defeated, see Errata.] to the Legislature from La Salle County, which
then embraced the present territory of Kendall and Grundy, receiving in
Peru 528 votes, being the largest vote ever polled in the precinct,
before or since.

On the 6th of December 1838 the inhabitants assembled at the tavern of
ZIMRI LEWIS, and organised a meeting by the appointment of