The History of Peru, NY

Historian office hours at the Town Hall are every Monday from 10AM to 4PM,
or by appointment.
The Historian Office is located downstairs at the Peru Town Hall.

Upcoming Events:

America250 Commemoration Plans Town of Peru (Official site of the Battle of Valcour Island)

April 27 – 4:30 pm to 5:45 pm – Official raising of America250 banner followed by a tour of historian’s office and light snacks.

May 16th – 17th - Babbie Farm Opening Weekend – Battle of Valcour Exhibit

May 16th – 10 am to 3 pm - History Day at the Champlain mall. Visit with historians at the Town of Peru table and share your stories.

May 21st, 6 pm – Lecture, Peru Free Library - The Battle of Valcour Island – before, during and after. With Reenactor and Historian Craig Russell. Hear the story of the most important naval battle of the Revolutionary War – fought on our lake on October 11, 1776.

June 13, Lapham’s Mills walking tour with Bob McGee – 10 am to noon. Rediscover the history of this small hamlet once called Bartonville where the railroad ran and mills flourished. Parking at the Sports center on Lapham’s Mills Rd.

June 24th, 6 pm – Lecture, Peru Free Library. Peru’s Revolutionary War Veterans and the founding of the Town with Military historian Thaddeus Booth-Trudo and Town of Peru historian Helen Nerska.

June 28 10 am to 2 pm. Peru Market, Heyworth/Mason Park.  History table. Talk with local historians and share your stories

July 5, Valcour Island tours - Peru Dock, sponsored by the Clinton County Historical Association. $30 per person.  Call 518-561-0340 for reservations

July 11, Crab Island tours - Peru Dock, sponsored by the Clinton County Historical Association. $35 per person. Call 518-561-0340 for reservations.

July 18, Peaseleeville walking Tour - 10am to noon. Details to follow.

July 26, 10 am to 2 pm, Peru Market, Heyworth/Mason Park. History table. Talk with local historians and share your stories. 

August 2, Valcour Island tours - Peru Dock, sponsored by the Clinton County Historical Association. $30 per person. Call 518-561-0340 for reservations.

August 8, Crab Island tour out of Peru Dock, sponsored by the Clinton County Historical Association. $35 per person. Call 518-561-0340 for reservations.

August 15th 1-3 pm, Lyons School House - An ice cream social at the school with exhibits telling the Battle of Valcour Island, reenactors as docents in the school house replicating how students learned history in the 1800’s.

Aug 30, 10 am to 2 pm, Peru Market, Heyworth/Mason Park. History table. Talk with local historians and share your stories. 

September 19 – Applefest!!!

Sept 20, 10 am to 2 pm, Peru Market, Heyworth/Mason Park. History table. Talk with local historians and share your stories. 

September 26, 10 am - Noon. Old Peru Cemetery Tour – with tales of the Revolutionary War Veterans buried there.

October 10th - Peru Dock - formal installation of interpretive panels and flagpole donated by the Town of Peru

October 11th - Plattsburgh City Beach - Reenactment of the Battle of Valcour

Oct 18, 10 am to 2 pm, Peru Market, Heyworth/Mason Park. History table. Talk with local historians and share your stories. 

December – Tractor Parade with America250 theme

Peru Gazette - articles on Peru's early history, the Battle of Valcour Island, Veteran founders of Peru, America250 events

For more information contact: Helen Nerska, 513-582-7246 

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Peru is a town in the eastern part of Clinton County, NY, just south of Plattsburgh, NY.

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, NY 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 had 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 with 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 6,998 according to the 2010 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.