Peru (Vermont)

Peru
Methodist Church from 1848
Location in Vermont
Peru
Basic data
Foundation :	October 12, 1761
State :	United States
State :	Vermont
County :	Bennington County
Coordinates :	43 ° 17 ′  N , 72 ° 56 ′  W Coordinates: 43 ° 17 ′  N , 72 ° 56 ′  W
Time zone :	Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents :	375 (as of 2010)
Population density :	3.9 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	96.7 km 2  (approx. 37 mi 2 ) of which 96.4 km 2  (approx. 37 mi 2 ) is land
Height :	616 m
Postal code :	05152
Area code :	+1 802
FIPS :	50-55000
GNIS ID :	01462172
Website :	peruvt.org

Peru is a town in Bennington County of the state of Vermont in the United States with 375 inhabitants (according to the 2010 census).

geography

Geographical location

Peru is located in the northeast of Bennington County, in the wooded southeastern foothills of the Green Mountains . To the south of the town is the Bromley Mountain ski area on the slopes of Promley Mountain, 987 m high . The highest point in the hilly area, however, is the 1042 m high Peru Peak . There are several smaller lakes in the area of ​​the town and several smaller rivers drain the area mostly in a southeast direction. They flow into the West River .

Neighboring communities

All distances are given as straight lines between the official coordinates of the places from the 2010 census.

• North: Shrewsbury , 19 miles
• Northeast: Ludlow , 15 mi
• East: Londonderry , 4.3 mi
• Southeast: Jamaica , 10.9 mi
• South: Winhall , 8.5 km
• Southwest: Manchester , 9 miles
• West: Dorset , 10 miles
• Northwest: Danby , 11.5 miles

climate

The mean average temperature in Peru is between -7.2 ° C (19 ° Fahrenheit ) in January and 20.6 ° C (69 ° Fahrenheit) in July. This means that the place is around 10 degrees cooler than the long-term average in the USA. At over five and a half meters, the snowfalls between October and May are almost twice as high as the average snow depth in the USA, the daily sunshine duration is at the lower end of the range in the USA.

history

The settlement was proclaimed on October 12, 1761 as part of the New Hampshire Grants under the name Bromley , but was not settled until 1773. The number of new settlers remained very small; Bromley was considered a less fertile area. In the spring of 1803 four families lived in the town. On March 1, 1803, the first city assembly was called; The first church services and regular school lessons were held in two private houses until 1807, when the first school house was completed. By the fall of 1803 there were fourteen families in the county.

The fact that the then Bromley had become known as a barren settlement made a name change seem helpful to the residents. They chose the name "Peru", which for them was associated with the South American riches, and officially renamed the town on February 3, 1804. In fact, there has been a greater influx of settlers since the name change.

The first schoolhouse to eliminate the need for private lessons was inaugurated in 1807. It was also used for church services in the small community. In 1814 a pass road to the neighboring town of Manchester was built so that the typhus epidemic, which was rampant that year , could reach the settlement. There were so many sick and dead people “that not enough people were available for care”. Later outbreaks of fever (1822 and twice in the 1850s), however, were limited to one family at a time.

Also in 1814 the construction of the parish hall began, which from the completion in 1816 was used for the city meetings as well as for the church services and thus relieved the school building. A first church building was started by the Methodists in 1831 and completed in 1848.

Around 1840 the population reached its highest level with around 600 people and then slowly decreased again. Since the railroad lines that ran through the country from the mid-1840s onwards did not reach the remote place, there was no industrialization or an increase in agricultural products. Neither the American Civil War, the World Wars, nor the economic reviews affected the small town. To this day, the residents live primarily from agriculture and forestry. A nature reserve, which includes the forests in the southwest of the town, provides additional income from tourism.

The originally Methodist Church is now used by the United Church of Christ .

Population development

Census Results - Town of Peru, Vermont
year	1700	1710	1720	1730	1740	1750	1760	1770	1780	1790
Residents										71
year	1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890
Residents	130	239	314	455	578	567	543	500	556	445
year	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990
Residents	373	242	216	156	142	197	194	243	312	324
year	2000	2010	2020	2030	2040	2050	2060	2070	2080	2090
Residents	416	375

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

The place is connected to the adjacent communities by Vermont Route 11. Vermont Route 11 also opens up the ski area. Otherwise the settlement areas of the town are accessed by simple roads.

Public facilities

There is no hospital of its own in Peru. The closest competent hospital is Southwestern Medical Center in Bennington .

education

Along with Danby, Dorset, Manchester, Langrove, Londonderry, Mt. Tabor, Pawlet, Peru, Rupert, Sunderland, Weston and Winhall, Peru belongs to the Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union . There is no school of its own in Peru. School children from Peru attend schools in Manchester.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

• John Milton Bigelow (1804–1878), physician and botanist

literature

• Zadock Thompson: History of Vermont, natural, civil and statistical, in three parts . 3rd volume. Chauncey Goodrich, Burlington 1842, p. 138 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Abby Maria Hemmenway: The Vermont historical Gazetteer, Volume 2 . Burlington 1870, p. 206 pp . For history up to 1848.

Web links

Commons : Peru, Vermont  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Homepage of the community
• Parish entry on Vermont state website
• Entry on VirtualVermont (English) ( Memento from May 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
• Bromley Mountain Resort website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peru in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System , accessed September 9, 2013
2. ↑ Population data from the 2010 US Census in the American Factfinder
3. ↑ Promley Mountain on Peakery.com , accessed July 4, 2017
4. ↑ Peru Peak on Peakery.com , accessed on July 4, 2017
5. ↑ Coordinates of the locations of the Census Authority 2010
6. ↑ Climate data and school information for Peru at www.City-Data.com (English)
7. ^ Zadock Thompson: History of Vermont, natural, civil and statistical, in three parts . Chauncey Goodrich, Burlington 1842, p. Volume III, p 34 . (According to Hemmenway, Volume II "sometime between December 1803 and February 1804")
8. ↑ Hemenway II
9. ↑ Population 1790–2010 according to the census results
10. ^ Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union , accessed July 4