We invite you to visit our genealogy department and use our materials for your family history.
Our genealogist-on-staff, Tammy Harrington, will gladly assist you with any questions and share her vast experience in genealogy research and local history.
Became the third county seat in 1859 when moved from Rome, IN. Originally built in 1855 as a school and remodeled as a courthouseEagles Bluff Park contains an overlook that features a view of the Ohio River and the Cannelton Locks and Dam on a bluff that rises 200 feet above it.From 1819 until 1859, Rome was the second county seat of Perry County, after Troy.The small town located in the Hoosier National Forest was the home of former Indiana Governor Edgar Whitcomb, during the final years of his life.The Rosenblatt’s operated a clothing store here from 1926 until 1982. The building was constructed in 1878 and is listed in the Cannelton Historic District Book.In 1916, the School Board secured a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation for a library building, with the city agreeing to furnish the site. The Tell City Public Library, at the corner of 9th and Franklin Streets, was opened to the public in 1917.Rome was first established as Washington. The name was changed to Franklin before finally settling on Rome in 1819. From that year until 1859, Rome was the second county seat of Perry County, after Troy. The Rome Courthouse was built in 1819 to mimic the first Indiana Capitol in Corydon.Construction of the Cannelton Cotton Mill began in 1849 and was completed in 1851. Designed by Rhode Island architect Thomas Alexander Tefft and built of sandstone, the mill was once the largest industrial building in the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains. It initially employed about 400 workers, mostly women and girls, and annually produced more than 200,000 pounds of cotton batting and four million yards of cotton sheeting.Of 309 workers employed there in 1890, only 78 were men.The Cannelton Locks and Dam is a concrete fixed weir dam with two locks on the Ohio River, on the border between Indiana and Kentucky. The dam is 2 miles southeast of Cannelton, Indiana. Construction of the locks began in July 1963. The locks began operation in December 1966 and were completed April 1967. Construction on the dam started in August 1965 and the dam was completed in 1974. The structure was designed, built, and is operated by the United States Army Corps.The statue, based on the Richard Kissling statue in Altdorf, Switzerland, was dedicated in 1974. Tell City was founded by Swiss and German immigrants in 1858 and named after the Swiss folk hero.
The new “Perry County Newspaper & Yearbook Digital Archive” is live and available for everyone, anywhere to use. Consisting of as many Perry County newspapers and yearbooks from the late 1800s to 1977 (for newspapers) and 2015 (for yearbooks) as possible, these resources are now keyword searchable so information that took months to find now takes minutes. Search, crop, download, create PDFs, JPGs; the options are endless. To access this new resource, CLICK HERE.
This database and project was made possible through grants and gifts from the “Friends of the Perry County Public Library”, The Perry County Community Foundation, and the Tell City Historical Society.
This is only the beginning and we’ll be adding more documents, records, and other relevant items in the coming months and years.
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