Produced by Barbara Kosker, Adrian Mastronardi and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
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 colored 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 H. S. BEEBE,
Chairman, and J. B. JUDSON, Secretary, and voted to take the preliminary
steps for organizing the town as a borough under the general
Incorporation Act. At a census taken the same month there were found to
be within the limits proposed to be embraced in the Borough, to wit: The
South half of Section 16, the South East quarter of Section 17, and all
that part of Section 20 lying North of the river--about one square mile.
Males over 21 years of age 175
Females and minors 251
---
Total 426
On the 15th of December an election was held to decide upon such
organization with the following result.
For organization 40
Against organization 1
On the same day an election was held for Trustees which resulted in the
election of M. Mott, F. Lebeau, C. H. Charles, Z. LEWIS and O. C.
Motley. The Board elected Z. Lewis, President; T. D. Brewster, Clerk; Z.
Lewis, jr. Constable; and James Myers, Assessor. On the 1st of April
1839, O. C. Motley resigned and H. P. Woodworth was elected in his
place. D. J. Townsend was afterwards appointed Street Commissioner.
The first religious meeting assembled in the locality was held in the
early part of this year, in a log shanty, in the western part of the
town. This meeting was attended by about a dozen young reprobates who
concerted, that if the preacher should confine himself to what they
should judge to be the "appropriate sphere of his duties," should preach
piety and righteousness in the abstract without making any particular
application thereof, or rebuking any particular practice cherished by
these self constituted censors, and should abstain from all offensive
personal or local allusions, the most decorous propriety was to be
observed. But if, on the contrary, he should see fit to indulge in any
reproof of evil practices which they were conscious the community had
credit for, whether justly or not, the indignity was to be instantly
resented. In pursuance of this concert they repaired to the place of
worship, each provided with a tobacco pipe well filled, and a match.
During the preliminary exercises and a portion of the sermon the most
respectful attention and devout bearing were manifested; but when the
preacher unfortunately indulged in illusions, believed by these censors
to be intended to have a direct local application, a rap on the bench
was made as a signal by the leader, and instantly twelve matches were
struck and twelve pipes lighted. No smile was seen and no word was
spoken; but twelve sedate and imperturbable smokers tugged vigorously at
their pipes. The room was soon filled with the smoke and aroma; and
after a few attempts at rebuke, ejaculated between stifled spasms of
coughing, the preacher incontinently left; but not without making a
stand at the door, where a few comparatively pure respirations were
obtained, and hurling back some rather unchristian anathemas upon the
graceless and sacrilegious scamps, whose scandalous conduct had so
unceremoniously put him to flight, and upon the people by whom they were
tolerated. Of course, "the better part of community" set the seal of
their disapprobation upon such disreputable and disorderly proceedings.