The first settlers came to this area in 1815. Major Walker built a grist mill, and a log structure served as both a school and a religious meeting place for three different denominations. Settlers cleared land and built log cabins, and among the early families were the Buford, Rikard, Rubley, Andress, Smith, Biggs, Mosley, Chandler, Dees, Jackson, Nettles, Colgin, Helton, Roley, Daughette, Floyd, Falkenberry, Mason, and Lewis families. Several stores stood on the hill above the town in a place known only as Buford's, named for one of the store owners. In 1900, when the railroad came through, the store owners decided to move their three or four store buildings down the hill to the tracks with teams of oxen, and the buildings resumed business there and were still in use in 2008. A proper name was then needed for the rail stop, and Peterman was chosen in honor of Addison Peterman, a long-time railroad employee and agent at the Repton, Alabama depot. Peterman became a thriving community with stores, cotton gins, warehouses, drug stores, doctor and dentist offices, and a successful farm supplier and fertilizer manufacture. The depot became the center of interest in the community, and meeting the trains for the daily paper from Montgomery and to see who was arriving or departing became a favorite pastime.