"Old Perry Centre"

The first settler in what is now Perry Township was Josiah Purdy, who in 1836 built a log cabin near an Indian trail. In 1841 the first township meeting was held at the home of Joseph Roberts. In 1987 the year of the Michigan Sesquicentennial, that site was the Slocum farm on Miller Road. A coffee pot and tea kettle were used for the ballot boxes. James Titus was granted the first land abstract and built the first log cabin in "Old Perry Centre." In 1850 William Laing opened the town's first store and post office. The town was a stagecoach stop on the Owosso-Mason line. By 1880, the settlement of about three hundred inhabitants had a hotel, Methodist, Baptist and Congregational churches, two flour mills, a sawmill, several stores and a school. In 1877 the Chicago-Port Huron Railroad line was built about three quarters of a mile north of Perry [Center]. Isaac Gale, developer of Morrice Village and vice-president of the railroad, promoted a railroad sidetrack and depot for Morrice, but not for Perry [Center]. Taking matters into their own hands, Perry residents bought the materials and built their own sidetrack and depot in one weekend. With that accomplished, they moved the Methodist church and some of their dwellings closer to the sidetrack and established the current location of Perry. In 1913 a fire started when a spark from the railroad jumped to the grain elevator located next to the tracks and ignited the grain. Perry's business section, which was destroyed by the fire, has since been rebuilt and expanded.