The Year Of 1837

The year of 1837 is one of the most memorable in the history of this city. The Wabash and Erie canal was completed ready for traffic to Peru in July of this year, and industries at once began to spring into existance. East of the town, a dam in the Wabash and a feeder to the canal, was completed. Extensive mills that were being built went into opperation in the fall. We learn from the files of the Peru Forester, a newspaper which was established in the spring of 1837, by Samuel Pike, that the population of the county was estimated to be 4000 whites and between eight and nine hundred Indians. Peru then contained one hundred good buildings mostly frame, seven drygoods and one grocery store, three taverns, one cabinet maker, one tinner, one saddler, one tailor, one lawyer, three physicians, two blacksmiths, two shoemakers, one chairmaker, two bricklayers, four milliners, eight carpenters and joiners, three churches, a college, a newspaper and about 500 inhabitants.