Arroyo, Puerto Rico: History
The town of Arroyo was officially founded on December 25, 1855. However, some historians believe there were previous settlements in the area even previous to the Spanish colonization. There are four different versions about the founding of the town, including that it was formed when a small group of people from the neighbor town of Guayama came to the region looking for a port to export and import merchandise. Still, in 1868, a local newspaper called La Gaceta de Puerto Rico stated that Arroyo was founded in 1852. Between 1859 and 1860, City Hall signed agreements to open streets and build a town square and a sewer system for the town.
In 1858, Samuel Morse introduced wired communication to Latin America when he established a telegraph system in Puerto Rico, then a Spanish Colony. Morse's oldest daughter Susan Walker Morse (1821–1885), would often visit her uncle Charles Pickering Walker who owned the Hacienda Concordia in the town of Guayama. During one of her visits she met and later married Edward Lind, a Danish merchant who worked in the Hacienda La Henriqueta in Arroyo. Lind purchased the Hacienda from his sister when she became a widow. Morse, who often spent his winters at the Hacienda with his daughter and son-in-law, set a two-mile telegraph line connecting his son-in-law's Hacienda to their house in Arroyo. The line was inaugurated on March 1, 1859, in a ceremony flanked by the Spanish and American flags. The first lines transmitted by Samuel Morse that day in Puerto Rico were: "Puerto Rico, beautiful jewel! When you are linked with the other jewels of the Antilles in the necklace of the world's telegraph, yours will not shine less brilliantly in the crown of your Queen!"
Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and became a territory of the United States. In 1899, the United States Department of War conducted a census of Puerto Rico finding that the population of Arroyo was 4,867.
In 1902, Puerto Rico's Legislative Assembly approved a law to consolidate certain municipalities. According to it, Arroyo would be merged with Guayama starting on July 1 of that year. However, the law was revoked in 1905 returning Arroyo to its municipal status.
In early 1999, the U.S. Congressional record documented a commendation of Arroyo, on its 100-year relationship with the U.S., noting that many citizens of Arroyo, such as Virgilio Sánchez and Raul Serrano, have fought and died in wars for the U.S.
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria's wind and rainfall triggered numerous landslides in Arroyo. The hurricane destroyed 1,550 structures in Arroyo. A bridge on PR-725 collapsed leaving 130 families trapped.