CHAPTER VI.
Election in 1847—Cemetery laid out—Election in 1848—Completion of the Canal—Effect on Peru—Diversion of Trade to La Salle—Establishment of the "Peru Telegraph"—Erection of the first Grain Ware House—Great Freshet.
At an election held on the 5th April, 1847, Churchill Coffing, Wm. Chumasero, Geo. W. Gilson, Joseph P. Turner and Daniel O. Sullivan were elected Trustees. Whole number of votes 63. This Board elected Wm. Chumasero, President; S. W. Raymond, Clerk; James Elliott, Street Commissioner; H. S. Beebe, Treasurer; Geo. Low, Assessor; David Perry, Collector; Joseph P. Turner, Fire Warden; and H. W. Baker, Clerk. Soon after, Raymond resigned and E. S. Holbrook was elected in his place.
The Cemetery, one mile north of the town, was purchased and laid out by this Board.
At an election held in April, 1848, Erasmus Winslow, P. M. Kilduff, I. C. Day, John Morris and S. N. Maze were elected Trustees. Whole number of votes 128. This Board elected Erasmus Winslow, President; David Perry, Clerk; James Elliott, Collector; H. W. Baker, Street Commissioner; F. S. Day, Treasurer; J. P. Thompson, Constable; and Dennis Dunnavan, Fire Warden. Thompson was subsequently elected Street Commissioner, in place of Baker who failed to qualify, and Fire Warden in place of Dunnavan who was removed.
The completion of the Canal, in the Spring of this year, forms an era in the history of the town, and indeed of the State. Its effect upon the town, however, was not so marked and immediate as upon the sister town of La Salle, which then, for the first time, attracted general public attention, and became a formidable rival to her older sister. Upon the latter its favorable effects were more apparent in the course of the two or three following years, when the increased prosperity of the country reacted upon it. The travel, which had always centered at Peru, was mainly diverted to La Salle. Although the waters of the Canal and River were united at Peru, it was soon found, that in consequence of the Steamboat and Canal Boat Basin being at La Salle, the practical junction was there. The forwarding business, after a long and ineffectual struggle on the part of Peru to retain it, finally settled at that point.
In October Holbrook and Underhill established a weekly paper, called the "Peru Telegraph."
The first substantial Stone Ware House built in the town was erected this year, directly upon the river bank, by T. D. Brewster, Esq.
The Spring of 1849 was remarkable for the greatest flood known since the settlement of the country. There had been heavy rains in the month of January which raised the river out of its banks, overflowing all the bottoms. The weather changed to cold suddenly and froze the waters, in many places from bluff to bluff, into a broad crystalline Lake. Such was the case on the bottom above the town, which was covered with a sheet of ice for nearly six miles, to Utica. This mass of intercepted water, together with all the country drained by the head branches of the river, was afterwards covered with a heavy mass of snow. About the first of March the weather again suddenly became warm, and heavy rains set in, which soon loosened the accumulations of snow and ice. Every creek and run contributed a flood, and every ravine and slough a torrent to the swelling river, which on the 9th of March was twenty-five feet, or more, above low water. Its sudden rise loosened the heavy masses of ice spread over the bottoms above, without breaking them up. One of these came down, miles in extent, entirely filling the space between the bluffs, and crushed everything in its course. Trees, indicating a growth of centuries, were as reeds in its path, producing no check to its resistless and majestic motion. The Ware House, heretofore mentioned as being built by Mr. Brewster, then occupied by Brewster and Beebe, was crushed like an egg shell. It was nearly filled with wheat, flour and merchandise, a portion of which had been hastily removed, and a portion was destroyed. The waters soon subsided and the river became very low before the close of navigation in the fall. This was the greatest freshet which has taken place since the settlement of the country by the Whites, but the Indians related to the early settlers accounts of still higher waters. They have asserted that the present site of Ottawa has been submerged within the memory of those now living. Shabone, an Indian well known in Northern Illinois, is reported to have said that he has passed over it in a canoe. In 1844, the great freshet occurred in the Mississippi, raising the waters in the lower part of the Ill. still higher than they afterwards were in 1849. This was not the case with the upper portion of the river. An idea is current in this part of the country, that great freshets recur, continuing throughout the greater portion of the summer, once in seven years. This notion is justified by the recurrence of protracted freshets in 1830, 1837, 1844, 1851 and 1858. Mr. Meginness, in his "Otzinachson" or "History of the West Branch of the Susquehanna," mentions that the same impression prevailed in that region concerning freshets, only that theirs recurred once in fourteen years.