Paw Paw also became well-known for its local orchards and fruit packing houses. The Morgan News reported in 1894 "Paw Paw at the present time is more beautiful than in any former time of her history. The streets are superb, plank pavements elegant and her street lights refulgent." The streets were lit by oil lamps until 1926 when the Paw Paw Electric Company was awarded the franchise to bring electricity to the town. The first public school in Paw Paw started in the early 1870s in a building erected on the grounds of the tannery, but was washed away in the flood of 1877.
