Three Mile Creek, later named Perry, began in 1853 when the William Plummer Tippetts family and Lorenzo and May Perry arrived in the Three Mile Creek Valley. They were soon joined by William Walker, Thomas C. Young, Alex Perry, and Robert Henderson and their families. Earlier, the land had been claimed by Orrin Porter Rockwell and served as an important campsite for Indians and pioneers passing through. In 1860, Ashael Thorne and Hyrum Tippetts built a saw mill at the mouth of the canyon, and other mills in the area included a shingle mill and a molasses mill. A cooperative store was founded in 1865 with Henry Perry as president. The Union Pacific Railroad was built here in 1869. Elizabeth Osborne was the first recorded teacher, and school was held in her home before the first log school building was built in 1863, where community meetings and dances were also held. The Three Mile Creek Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in 1854 with Gustavus Adolphus Perry as Presiding Elder. The Three Mile Creek Ward was organized on August 19, 1877, with Orrin Alonzo Perry as Bishop and his wife Jane as Relief Society President. In 1898, the settlement's name was officially changed to Perry in honor of Bishop Perry.