The station opened on 12 June 1866 as a private station for The 3rd Earl of Bandon who lived at Castle Bernard, a country house near Bandon.
Francis Bernard, 3rd Earl of Bandon (1810–1877), Irish MP for Bandon, Lord Lieutenant of Cork
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Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet (1712–1779), British Governor in New Jersey and Massachusetts
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Francis Bernard, 1st Earl of Bandon (1755–1830), Irish peer and MP for Ennis, Bandonbridge
On 12 February 1784, Bernard married Catherine Henrietta Boyle, only daughter of the 2nd Earl of Shannon.
Originally named for Oliver Partridge, one of the three purchasers of the town (along with Governor Francis Bernard), the name was officially changed to Peru in 1806, on the suggestion of the Rev. John Leland, "because it is like the Peru of South America, a mountain town, and if no gold or silver mines are under her rocks, she favors hard money and begins with a P."
Somes was requested by the Massachusetts governor, Francis Bernard, to settle there and establish mills (Shettleworth, & Vandenbergh, 2001).