Logan County, West Virginia Biography of THOMAS N. PERRY This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 423-424 Logan THOMAS N. PERRY. The Buffalo Creek Valley of Logan County is one of the most recent scenes of the great indus- trial development in this part of the state. Maps pub- lished a dozen years ago revealed nothing of this develop- ment, neither railroad nor mining centers. The Perry family established themselves in this isolated environment years ago, when farming and grazing were the only re- sources except the money that could be made in clearing off the timber from the hillsides. Thomas Perry is a native, and one of the few older residents with the foresight and vision to estimate the probable development of the valley. While doing the routine work of a farmer he was busy in- vesting his surplus capital and mortgaging his future earn- ings by buying land, until he had become one of the most extensive individual landholders in the valley. Naturally when the railroad came and with the development that has made the valley an almost continuous mining camp, he has become wealthy, and his wealth was earned not only by his good judgment but by the influence he has turned to pro- mote the very developments that he long anticipated. Mr. Perry was born on Buffalo Creek, on the site of the present Latrobe, January 18, 1869, son of Rhodes Ballard and Mabala (Mullins) Perry, both representing old families in this section of the state. The grandfather, James D. Perry, was born in Monroe County, West Virginia, August 14, 1809, and in early days he was a flatboatman engaged in the traffic down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. Subsequently he established the place near the mouth of Huff Creek and Guyandotte River where his son Rhodes was born, but later James moved into the Buffalo Valley and opened a farm on the site of the Village of Stowe. All these places are now covered by heavy coal operations, but at that time no thought was given to taking out the coal from underground, and there was only one profitable indus- try aside from farming and stock raising, the logging of heavy poplar timber, said to be the finest in the world. James D. Perry at one time owned land for five miles up and down Buffalo Creek, this tract being later acquired by W. W. McDonald. He used the land chiefly for farming and cattle raising. James D. Perry died August 5, 1885. His wife, Margaret Perry, was born July 15, 1815, and died in 1892, and they were both buried at Stowe. They were members of the Methodist Church. Rhodes B. Perry was born on the Guyandotte River, where Mallory Mine No. 2, is now located, January 27, 1842, and until two years ago, when he moved to Barboursville, his home was always in the Buffalo Creek Valley. During his boyhood school advantages were maintained very irregularly, but in spite of these handicaps he managed to get a good education in the fundamentals, and has always been a reader and student of history and politics. In 1861 he went into the Union army in a cavalry regiment, and he had three honorable discharges. He was at the battle of Cross- keys, in the fight of Chapmanville in Logan County, and in many of the great battles of Virginia. The nearest he came to being wounded was in one engagement where his boot- heel was shot off and he was once thrown by an outlaw horse. At ChapmanviIIe he was taken prisoner, but was soon released. Soon after the close of his military service, on December 7, 1865, he married Manilla Mullins. They traveled life's highway together for over half a century. She died February 21, 1920. She was born on Coal River in Logan County, April 12, 1847, daughter of Andrew J. Mullins. Her father was born January 19, 1820, and died November 12, 1904, and was a brother of Milton Mullins, who recently died in Logan County, when nearly 100 years old. The home where Rhodes Perry lived for half a century was on the Buffalo, at the mouth of Cartwright's Creek. He served as a member of the school board while there. In 1918, after selling his land to the coal company, he moved to Barboursville, and is now retired. He is a republican and a member of the Methodist Church. His six children were: James J., born March 3, 1867, now living at Martha, West Virginia; Thomas N.; John W., born June 18, 1871, a resident of Accoville in Logan County; Leanza F., born June 22, 1874, and died June 23, 1910, was the wife of Anthony Cook, their home being on part of the old Perry estate near Latrobe; Laura H., born April 27, 1877, died June 27, 1888; and Albert Ross, born June 26, 1880, a resi- dent of Barboursville. Thomas N. Perry acquired his early education in a log schoolhouse on the site of the present Lundale. His home and his work until he was thirty years of age were at the place of his parents. He helped cut away the timber from the hills, hauling it down and rafting it over the waters of the Guyandotte. From his logging enterprise he bought and paid for a farm of 180 acres above Latrobe. This farm he subsequently gave to his sister. He then bought 440 acres above Robinette, his brother J. J. living on that place. Thomas Perry acquired his present farm in 1891. His home is on this farm, located about a mile from the station of Accoville, up the right fork of the Buffalo. His farm comprises 339 acres and was bought from John Riffe. This by no means comprises all his land holdings, since from time to time he has invested until his property possessions extend along the valley for a distance of seven miles. While much of this land has become exceedingly valuable on account of the coal, Mr. Perry has always maintained an activity in farming and cattle raising. He is vice president of the Merchants and Miners Bank of Man, and a large stockholder in the Guyan Valley Bank at Logan and the Bank of Logan. June 10, 1899, he married Emma I. Toler, daughter of Patterson Toler. She was born at Oceana in Wyoming County, West Virginia, June 3, 1878, and died December 16, 1920. Six children survive her: Alva Wirt, now an employe of the State Compensation Board of Charleston, Fred Mason, Denny Creed, Alice Ruth, Mack and Luther N. Mr. Perry in polities is a republican.