The Peru Public Library has 92 oral history interviews available for use by local patrons, researchers, and students. The interviews range from the Cherry Mine Disaster to the Illinois-Mississippi Canal to teaching in the 1900’s. Taped and transcribed during 1975 and 1976 as part of a local history project supported by the Starved Rock Library System (Ottawa, Illinois), the interviews were given to Peru Public Library by the Starved Rock Library in 1993.
In 2013-14, the tapes and transcriptions were digitized under a grant given to the Peru Library from the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board. Circulating copies of the interviews are available for two-week loans from the Peru Public Library. A set is also housed in our Local History & Genealogy Collection. And the transcripts are available as pdf’s at the following links. Please note, not all the tapes were transcribed and not all the transcriptions have the original tape.
- Albrecht, Henry & Harriet – Family operated well-drilling
- Allen, Mary – Soapmaking
- Ambrose, Joe – Early years in Austria and DePue
- Anderson, Mary – Life in Princeton
- Arendell, Lester – History of Coal Mining in Toluca, IL
- Bartlett, Watson – Trip to Yakima
- Battin, Charles – Description of Indian artifacts
- Beatty, Lester – Farm life in LaMoille
- Bender, Michael – Personalities & business in Spring Valley
- Bieser, William – Life on a farm and farming
- Brady, Gladys – Sandwich fair
- Bryant, Edward – Autobiography & the Illinois-Mississippi Canal
- Bryant, Minnie – Childhood in Spring Valley
- Carus, Alwin – Zinc, Hegeler & Mattiesen
- Castle, Latham – Career in Law
- Clay, Floyd – Working on a riverboat
- Confrey, Burton – People & places in LaSalle
- Curtis, Ora – 27 years teaching in Lostant
- Divan, Louis – Life in Toluca
- Donna, Peter – Cherry Mine disaster & coal mining
- Dunlap, Jessie – Marseilles Daily Press, 1921-1966
- Fisher, Hart – Interurban line
- Fletcher, Vera – History of Bureau County
- Flint, Irvin – Strip mining in Bureau County
- Foster, Rosa – Reminiscences from a 91-year-old
- Fry, Donnabell – Teaching in Princeton
- Gardner, Teresa – Growing up on a farm near Arlington, Illinois
- Gerding, Arthur – Recalling the Illinois-Michigan Canal
- Gunn, Carol – Living in LaSalle
- Gutting, Leo – Working at the Panama Canal, 1914-1918
- Hamill, John – Justice of the Peace in Sandwich
- Harrison, Lonzo – DePue Police Officer
- Harrison, Melissa – Memories of early DePue, Illinois
- Heaton, Cecil – People and places in Walnut Township, Bureau County Illinois
- Hedrich, John – Illinois-Mississippi Canal
- Helmer, John – DePue, Illinois zinc industry
- Herr, Fred – Farm life in Clarion Township, Bureau County
- Housby, James – State parks in LaSalle County
- Housby, James – LaSalle trades and labor council
- Housby, James – Early transportation, business, and recreations
- Ill, Dorothy – Illinois-Mississippi Canal: its construction
- Johnson, Anna – School days in Princeton, Illinois 1913-1975
- Johnson, Inez – Teacher’s life
- Jordan, John – Ottawa Childhood
- Kaiser, William – Effects of the depression
- Kellier, Ruth – 1911 Overland poem
- Kern, Stanley – Interurban line
- Kleinmaier, Anne – History of the Easter Seal treatment center of LaSalle
- Koyak, Mary – Cherry Mine disaster and life in Spring Valley
- Kruger, William – DePue & the Kruger family
- Lang, Ruth – History of Zearing, Illinois (Bureau County)
- Looft, Christie – Life of Christie Looft
- Lyons, William – Teaching in the 1920s