Robert S. Perry, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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As being peculiarly adapted for the important trust which he holds and enjoying in the highest
degree the public confidence, Robert S. Perry, New Iberia, judge of the court of appeals of the
Third Louisiana circuit, is well known.  He is a native of Lafayette parish, born December 5,
1884.  He is a son of Robert and Ezemely (Booth).  Perry Robert Perry Sr. was a native of
Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent.  When a boy he removed to Kentucky with his parents,,
where he received his education.  When nineteen years of age he came to Louisiana, where he
married and spent the remainder of his life.  Judge Robert S. Perry received the best education
the schools of Louisiana afforded, and subsequently graduated from the Kentucky Military
institute, at the age of nineteen years.  After completing his literary education he entered
the law school at the University of Louisville, where he took a course of lectures, and
afterward entered a law office in Anderson, Tex., where he pursued the study of law for about a
year.  At the expiration of this time he was admitted to the bar in that place.  He never
practiced there, however, and returned shortly afterward to Vermillion parish, where he
remained until the war broke out.  Since that time, with the exception of the four years of the
war and the time he has held official positions, he has given his attention exclusively to his
profession.  In 1866 he removed to St. Martin parish and from thence, in 1871, to Iberia.  When
Louisiana cast her fortune with the seceding states, Judge Perry enlisted ass private in
Company C, of the Eighth Louisiana regiment, and in August of the same year was made first
lieutenant.  He served during the whole war in the Army of Northern Virginia.  November 7,
1863, he was captured at Rappahannock, and held a prisoner at Johnson island for nineteen
months, where he was at the close of the war.  After the war Judge Perry resumed his practice.
In 1879 he was elected a member of the state senate, and served until 1884.  During the time of
his service he was active in all measures that came before that body for consideration.  He
introduced the first bill providing for the regulation of railroads in Louisiana.  In 1888 he
was elected by the legislature judge of the court of appeals of the Third circuit of Louisiana.
Judge Perry is a thoroughly progressive gentleman and a man of ability.  He is identified with
all matters pertaining to the advancement of New Iberia.  Judge Perry has twice married; first,
in 1870, Miss Bertha Gary, of St. Martinsville, who died in 1878, having become the mother of
three children-one son and two daughters.  On January 1, 1883, he married Miss Camille
Vedrines, of New. Iberia.  She died the October succeeding their marriage.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 493-494.  Published by the
Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.