George Amasa Perley Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1157-1159 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	GEORGE AMASA PERLEY is a native of the state of Wisconsin, having 
been born near the village of Marquette, in what is now known as Green 
Lake county, on the 18th of November, 1849. His father, Stephen Bartlett 
Perley, was born in North Sanbornton, Merrimac county, New Hampshire, 
and his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah E. Wells, was born in 
Bradford, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, both being of Puritan 
ancestry. The father of the subject began his independent career as a 
farmer on his own land, on which now stands the village of Clinton 
Junction, Rock county, Wisconsin, of which state he was a pioneer 
settler. The subject relates appreciatively the following incidents in 
regard to his honored father: "When I was a child my father was often 
spoken of as 'Old Ironsides,' by reason of his physical prowess and 
agility. We had a large horse weighing sixteen hundred pounds, and so 
great was its height that a young man employed by my father found it 
impossible to spring on the back of the animal from the ground. Father 
was a man of about six feet in height and at that time was fifty-five 
years of age. He stepped to the side of the horse, gave a spring and 
passed clear over the steed, with perfect ease, landing squarely on his 
feet on the opposite side. Near Schoolcraft, Michigan, in 1845, he mowed 
with a scythe forty acres of timothy hay in thirteen straight days,— an 
average of more than three acres a day. He was an accomplished vocalist, 
possessing a fine tenor voice, and he was for some time a member of a 
church choir in the city of Albany, New York, where he was at the time 
employed in a spike factory, in which were made the spikes used in the 
construction of the first railroad built in the United States." 

	M. V. B. Perley, of Georgetown, Massachusetts, has traced the 
genealogy of the Perley family, through church and military records, 
back to the middle ages and into Hungary. The coat of arms shows a 
shield embellished with a depiction of some sort of fruit, and the motto 
used in the connection is "E fructibus noscitis eos," meaning "By their 
fruits ye shall know them." Allen Perley, a native of Wales, landed at 
Charlestown, Massachusetts, July 12, 1630, and from him the direct line 
of descent to the subject is traced through Thomas, Jacob, Jacob (2d), 
John (who was killed in the war of the Revolution), Nathaniel and 
Stephen B., the last mentioned being the father of the subject of this 
review. There are today about one thousand Perley descendants in the 
United States. 

	George A. Perley received an academic education in the Wesleyan 
Methodist Seminary, at Wasioja. Minnesota, the greater portion of this 
discipline having been secured after he had attained manhood. Having 
been previously in the employ of an experienced English editor and 
appreciating the handicap entailed by ignorance, he devoted a few years 
to arduous study and found thereby a new world of thought and a wider 
sphere of existence arid action. He gave up his studies, however, in the 
spring of 1876, having succumbed to a vigorous attack of "western 
fever." In April of that year he arrived at the conclusion that the life 
of the farmer was the most independent of all, if the fortunate 
individual could own his own farm and be free from debt. He made a 
prompt decision one evening, and the next morning started on foot for 
the nearest railway station, that of Dodge Center, Minnesota, whence he 
started for the great territory of Dakota. After reaching Worthington, 
Minnesota, he went farther inland on foot, and by securing an occasional 
ride with freighters' teams, finally reached what is now Moody county, 
the locality being then seventy miles distant from any railroad, while 
there were only three white families settled at Flandreau at the time. 
He took up a homestead and a tree claim, and has developed the property 
into one of the best farms in this section of the state, while he also 
owns an additional eighty acres of school land, which he purchased a 
number of years later, his homestead being located in Grovena township 
and four miles southeast of the thriving city of Flandreau. Of his life 
and labors here we can not do better than to quote the words of our 
subject himself: "Here I have tried to live as independently as 
possible, even to the part played in the field of politics. In the early 
days a political nomination was equivalent to an election, and party 
managers carried offices in their vest-pockets. Public improvements were 
extravagantly forwarded by shouldering bonded indebtedness on those as 
yet unborn. These principles I considered radically wrong, and I joined 
with others in bringing about a reformatory movement through the 
organization of the Populist party, which finally became defunct, 
through the compromising work of a few who were willing to sacrifice 
principle for the sake of the possibility of securing office at the 
hands of fusion. During the Civil war the prices of labor and all kinds 
of commodities were very much above the usual level, and after the close 
of the great conflict a reaction naturally ensued. At this time, for the 
conservation of their own interests, an organized effort was advocated 
among the farmers and resulted in the establishing of the Patrons of 
Husbandry and the Grange. 'Pay as you go, and buy less' was the title of 
my first paper read before a local assembly of one of these 
organizations, and by following the plan I thus advocated it has been 
possible for me to keep on safe ground ever since. I had not been long a 
resident of the territory before we organized a Farmers' Alliance, while 
later we organized a citizens' constitutional association, having in 
view the interests of statehood. In this connection we voiced our 
sentiments at Canton, on the occasion of the first general meeting for 
the consideration of the matter of securing admission to the Union. In 
the last of the territorial days we had a Moody county legislative 
association, the same having been projected mainly for the purpose of 
making an organized effort against the everlasting bonding system which 
townsite proprietors were so inconsistently using at that time, 
prejudicial to the best interests of the people. In September, 1889, I 
was assigned work as local observer in connection with the United States 
signal service, and have ever since held this position. I have been 
secretary of the Farmers' Mutual Fire and Lightning Insurance Company of 
Moody county from the time of its inception, in 1889, and also hold a 
similar position in the Co-operative Grain Elevator Company. In 1903 a 
farmers' telephone system has been installed, the lines covering a 
distance of twenty-six miles, and this service, owned and controlled by 
the farmers, meets with marked appreciation and affords facilities of 
great convenience and practical value, effectively supplementing the 
rural free mail delivery and standing in marked contrast to the 
advantages we enjoyed in the pioneer days." 

	In politics Mr. Perley maintains an independent attitude, and 
while he has a deep reverence for the spiritual verities he is an avowed 
agnostic, showing in this regard the courage of his convictions, as does 
he in all other relations of life. His family attend the Methodist 
Episcopal church and contribute to its support. Of his life and labors 
Mr. Perley has further spoken as follows: "As a young man I decided to 
try to do something as a teacher in the public schools and to thus make 
the world better for my having existence. The continual strife for a 
position and the dependent nature of the profession inclined me to adopt 
the noble vocation of farming, since in that I could tell the truth and 
ask no favors. I found an open field that needed working, in both 
politics and finance, and have occasionally endeavored to lift some of 
the burdens resting on the people. There is a grand opportunity for 
labor on both sumptuary and religious questions affecting the human 
welfare, but the task looks so hopeless that one hesitates to devote his 
energies to work along these lines. As labor becomes more irksome ~ 
shall use my poetic genius in the field of song. At present I will close 
with this inspiration as a finale good to sing over the grave of this 
portion of the great American desert of my boyhood: 

	This old desert of a plain,
	With its many fields of grain,
	With its horses, hogs and cattle yet unsold, 
	Causes me to sing the strain,
	While in plenty falls the rain,
	we are happy with our grasses, grain and gold. 

	On the 20th of July, 1880, in the city of Sioux Falls, this state, 
Mr. Perley was united in marriage to Miss Emma Rebecah Irish, who was 
born and reared in Dodge county, Minnesota, and who was for a number of 
terms a successful teacher in the public schools of Woodbury county, 
Iowa, holding a first-grade certificate, and who is a sister of the 
noted orator, Hon. John B. Irish, of Downieville, California. The first 
American ancestor of the Irish family came to this country from Wales, 
and he was for a time in the employ of Miles Standish, whose name is so 
well known in history and story. Mr. and Mrs. Perley have two children, 
namely: A daughter, Iva Chrysoma, born July 14, 1881, who is in her 
third year at the State University at Vermillion. The son, Stephen 
Elton, who was born March 12, 1883, has ended his first year's study at 
the Brookings Agricultural College.