Bartholomew-Jennings County IN Archives Biographies.....Perry, James M. 1821 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 21, 2007, 7:18 pm Author: B. F. Bowen (1904) JAMES M. PERRY. James M. Perry, who is one of the best known citizens and most successful farmers of Bartholomew county, was born in Jennings county, Indiana, January 25, 1821. His father was Ransom Perry, who had formerly lived in Alabama and eastern Tennessee, where he taught school. He was a successful man and was at one time probate judge of Bartholomew county. He served as a captain under General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. The mother was Miss Katherine Martin before her marriage to Ransom Perry, and was of one of the prominent families of eastern Tennessee. One of her brothers was at one time governor of Tennessee, while another was a well-known member of congress. After their marriage they came to Indiana and were among the early pioneers of the state. It is in a great measure due to the many strong and heroic men and women who labored to clear the forests, break the ground and who reared their children to be honest, saving and industrious, that we have now the upright and prosperous citizenship of Indiana. In the early days, when James M. Perry was a child, opportunities were not on every side, as now, for the education and cultivation of the youth. The children had but limited time to devote to their books. It was necessary that all the members of the family work to clear the land in order that it might be tilled. In those days the prime object was food and shelter. Accumulation of property was a secondary consideration. James M. Perry did not attend school until after his family moved to Bartholomew county, when he was about ten years old. He then went to what was known as the Bonnell school house for three winters. It was a log house, with one log out and greased paper over this opening to admit light. There he learned the three R's, "readin', ritin' and 'rithmetic," which were then the essentials of an education. He would have attended school longer had his father permitted. His brothers were given more schooling, one of them being sent to the State University. It is said that his father on being taken to task for not letting him go to school longer, replied: "It would spoil him. He is too d___d smart now." James M. Perry had to begin life's struggles when a youth. He knows well the privations and troubles of the successful man who begins with nothing but his native wit and strong arms to help him make his fortune. His first effort to make money was in peddling maple sugar cakes, which he had made. He made several starts, without success, to accumulate before, to use a familiar expression, he finally "got on his feet." When not quite nineteen he was first married. His wedding presents were not numerous. His mother gave him a feather bed, his father gave him a shoulder of meat —after he had worked a day and a half for it. About this time he worked six days in the harvest field for fifty cents a day. He traded to his brother his wedding suit for another suit and ten dollars, with which he bought a cow. This was his fortune when married. He rented a farm of his father on the shares, but feeling that he was not fairly treated, he went to a farm owned by his mother-in-law, agreeing to pay cash rent. He had to sell his corn crop for twelve cents a bushel, half of which was paid in depreciated currency, and lost his horse and wagon in paying his debts and rent at the end of the year. He then went to Owen county, where he remained about a year. Returning, he was glad to rent of his father again on the shares. This he continued to do until his father sold out and moved to Missouri, when the subject bought eighty acres for twelve hundred dollars, of which he paid four hundred dollars cash. He then began raising hogs and paid the remaining eight hundred dollars within a year. It was not until this time, which was in 1845, that he felt that he might accumulate anything. He continued with great success to feed hogs until some thirty years ago. During the war he was closely associated with Dillard Ricketts, who was then president of the Jeffersonville & Indianapolis Railroad. They were in business ventures together and Mr. Perry attributes some of his success to the wise advice of Mr. Rickets. For the past thirty years he has not fed his farm products, but has sold them direct. He is usually so close an observer of the markets that it is not often that he fails to dispose of his corn and wheat at the highest prices. In fact, he often holds his products for years to get the price he feels they will eventually be worth. He has been very choice in his purchase of farms. He owns now about five thousand acres of the finest land in Bartholomew and Shelby counties, land that for productiveness and location cannot be excelled anywhere. For some of this ground he has recently paid one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre. On many of these farms are his children, who, following his early experience, rent of their father. James M. Perry has been married three times. His first marriage was to Mary Ellen McIndoo, who was then sixteen years old, while he was eighteen. Uncle Joseph Fassett, one of the pioneer preachers of the Christian church, was the minister who united them on November 15, 1839. Mrs. Mary Perry died, leaving no children, on February 1, 1844, and Mr. Perry married, on June 18, 1844, Miss Matilda Burnett, who was then sixteen years old. She became the mother of five children, and died July 29, 1858. Mr. Perry was next married to Amanda E. Glanton, daughter of Col. J. H. Glanton, May 12, 1859, and to them have been born four children. Mr. Perry's children are: Levi; Mary, now Mrs. John L. S. Jones; Kate, now Mrs. Charles Bill; Margaret, now Mrs. Albert King; J. Glanton; Ella, now Mrs. Frank Meek, of Peoria, Illinois; Dilliard Ricketts and Benjamin Irwin. Mr. Perry has for sixty-four years been a member of the Christian church. His membership during this time has been in the New Hope church, which is one of the oldest congregations of the church, Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Christian church, and other prominent ministers of the early days having preached for it. The church, a substantial brick, is located on one of the subject's farms. In the burying ground attached to it is the lot of Mr. Perry, on which is now erected one of the handsomest monuments in this section. Around these burying grounds Mr. Perry erected, at his own expense, a fine iron fence which is said to have cost four thousand dollars. He has always been very liberal to his church, and for years has regularly contributed to the support of New Hope church, he bearing at least four-tenths of the expense of the congregation. He has recently deeded to the trustees of the church a fine farm of one hundred and thirty-seven acres, situated near the church and lying in German township, the income from which farm is to be used for the maintenance of the church and graveyard. Mr. Perry has always been a temperate man and has never used tobacco. He has always been industrious; in fact, though he is now eighty-two years old, there is no one in the county who gives closer attention to the details of his business. It is largely due to his power of close observation that he has succeeded so largely in his business affairs. Unlike many of those who have accumulated fortunes, he has stayed entirely within his own business, farming. When he sells his grain he never loans his money, but at once looks for a new farm to buy. He does not go in debt, and observes three rules: first, not to go security; second, not to trade with his kin, to do this latter he says one is sure to get into trouble; third, short settlements make long friends. Frequently he has been known to wait several hours for men to complete work they were doing for him in order that he might pay them as soon as it was finished. He says he does not want to die owing any man. These three rules constitute his chief advice to friends. His fortune has been made by him alone; to none other does he owe any part, except that his efforts at creating and caring for his property have been- ably benefited by his good wife. To those whose good privilege it is to know James M. Perry, nothing delights them more than for him to come to them for a laugh and talk. He always has some good stories to tell that are new and fresh to the hearer to illustrate a point he may desire to make. His fund of anecdotes covering the period of his life is remarkable. Brought up as he was in much the same atmosphere as Abraham Lincoln, his friends feel that he might have ranked with that famous man as a storyteller. Mr. Perry served as county commissioner of Bartholomew county at two different periods, first fom [sic] 1855 to 1860, and then fom [sic] 1873 to 1875. Additional Comments: Extracted from BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY INDIANA INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA ILLUSTRATED 1904 B. F. 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