Tucker County, West Virginia Biography of LEWIS H. PERRY This file 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. 534-535 Tucker LEWIS H. PERRY. The oldest industry of the town of Parsons, established when there was practically nothing to distinguish the site from the surrounding region, is the Parsons Tannery, now operated as the J. K. Mosser Company and owned by the Armour interests. It is one of the largest and best equipped plants of the kind in West Virginia. The founder of the business was Thomas B. Gould, a man of prominence in the public affairs of West Virginia and of extensive business connections. It was located in 1893, the plant being moved here from Milton, Northumber- land County, Pennsylvania. The first side of leather was turned out at the new location in July, 1894, by the present superintendent, Lewis H. Perry, who came here from Milton, Pennsylvania, and who has been in charge of the industry at Parsons for nearly thirty years. There has never been a real interruption to the continued operation of this in- dustry. Mr. Perry had been with the same plant at Milton for nearly ten years, before coming to Parsons, and when he closed the plant at Parsons temporarily at the end of the season in July, 1922, he will have spent almost forty years of his life as a tanner. The Parsons plant has a capacity of 1,500,000 pounds of finished leather every thirteen weeks. The product is heavy oak sole leather. The run every day is 700 sides, and in the course of a year an enormous aggregate of steer hides are utilized. The raw material comes from the meat packers of the West and from the packing plants of South Amer- ica as well. In point of mechanical facilities this is one of the most modern tanneries in operation today. It is electrically equipped throughout, the entire plant having been remodeled during 1921. Mr. Lewis H. Perry, the superintendent, was born in Chemung County, New York, February 5, 1860. His grand- father was also a tanner and died in the vicinity of Wirts- boro, New York. Simeon Perry, father of Lewis, was born in Connecticut, where he spent his youth and early man- hood, learned the trade of mason, and from Connecticut removed to Sullivan County, New York. He lived at Monti- cello in that county, and died there in 1866, when about forty-two years of age. He married Delila Gray, of Sullivan County, daughter of David Gray, a farmer in the Monticello community. Mrs. Simeon Perry died in 1904 at Elmira, New York, as Mrs. Lane. The children by her first mar- riage were six in number: Caroline, who married Nathan Brown and died at Corning, New York; Miss Lydia, deceased; Ida, wife of Jesse A. Mitchell, of Horseheads, New York; David K., of Elmira, New York; Lewis Horn- beck; and Edward F., of Elmira. The only one of these to have children of their own is Lewis H. Perry. Lewis H. Perry grew to manhood in Chemung County, New York, and remained there until the age of twenty- three, when he moved to Pennsylvania. He acquired a com- mon school education. He became a foreman in the Milton Tannery at Milton, Pennsylvania, and joined that industry in 1889, about the time of the great Johnstown flood. Mr. Perry had the practical supervision of the removal and in- stallation of the machinery at the new plant at Parsons. He saw the site when it was a cornfield, and when there was not a wagon bridge in all of Tucker County. The entire delta on which the plant is built was then almost a sea of mud, and there was only one store in Parsons proper. He was here when the records of the county were removed from St. George to Parsons. When he brought his wife to this community one of his first acts in order to enable her to get around was to purchase a pair of gum boots. Mr. Perry has performed a great service to Parsons as superintendent of the town's oldest industry, but has worked with other citizens in promoting matters connected with the general welfare. He has served on the city council, has been secretary of Parsons Lodge No. 39, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a past master of Pythagoras Lodge No. 128, A. F. and A. M., and is a director of the Tucker County Bank. He has also been active in repub- lican politics. His first vote in West Virginia was cast for Gordon Dayton, candidate for Congress, in 1894. He has served on the Republican County Committee at various times and is still a member. He has attended senatorial and state conventions, and he cast his first vote for president in 1884, for James G. Blaine, while at Elmira, New York. At Horseheads, New York, August 29, 1882, Mr. Perry married Josephine Chandler, who was born at Chester, New York, December 8, 1859, youngest of the six daughters of John Chandler and wife. She has four surviving sisters: Mrs. Helen Stanard, of Newark Valley, New York; Mrs. Sarah R. Jenkins, of Elmira; Mrs. Francelia Phelps, of Millport, New York; and Mrs. Harriet E. Farr, of Parsons. The only child born to Mr. and Mrs. Perry was a son, Maurice M., born May 25, 1887, at Breesport, New York. He was educated at Parsons and at Keyser, was deputy county clerk of Tucker County, bookkeeper in the office of the tannery and finally assistant to his father. He died of the influenza October 22, 1918. His wife was Georgie V. Kee, and he is survived by a son, Lewis Philipp. During the World war the Parsons tannery was operated by Mr. Perry at its full capacity, the Government taking all the products. Besides keeping the industry going he was associated with other patriotic citizens in promoting the success of the various loan drives and other campaigns.