Upshur County, West Virginia Biography of ARTHUR K. 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. 453-454 Upshur ARTHUR K. PERRY, president of the Merchants and Miners Bank of Junior and for a number of years active in the civic and business affairs of that community, in the line of public service performed his best work as a specialist with both the State and Federal Departments of Agriculture as an inspector for the protection of forests and orchards. Mr. Perry was born in Meade District of Upshur County, West Virginia, October 24, 1869. His grandfather, Elias Perry, came from Erie County, New York, and established his home on French Creek in Upshur County, where he spent the rest of his life as a farmer and where he was laid to rest in the community cemetery. His children were Hubbard, John, Edwin, Elias, Wilbur, Fannie, who mar- ried John Love, and Mrs. Marshall Gould. Hubbard Perry, father of the banker, was a native of Upshur County, and was one of the early volunteers for the service of the Union in the Civil war. He was in Com- pany E, of the Fourth Regiment of Virginia Cavalry, and while in the service nearly all the war period and in many arduous campaigns he was never wounded or captured. He was a private soldier, and among other battles he was with Sheridan at Cedar Creek. After the war he returned to the farm and pursued the routine of country life until his death in 1877, at the age of forty-nine. When he went to the polls he cast his vote as a republican, and he was a worshipper in the Presbyterian Church. Hubbard Perry married Harriet Phillips, daughter of Edwin and Sophro- nia (Young) Phillips. The Youngs were an old Massa- chusetts family that settled in Lewis County, Virginia, in that portion now Upshur County. The ancestry of this branch of the family rnns back to an Englishman who was a man of letters and "wrote for the King," probably meaning that he was secretary to King George the first. Among his children was Henry Young, who lived in Eng- land during the latter years of George the second, while Holland and England were at war with France. While in a boat along the coast he was seized and pressed into the English Navy, and for seven years performed his duties with the Royal Navy and finally landed at Martha's Vine- yard, Massachusetts. An educated man, a teacher, he pre- pared three times to return to England, but something prevented his going each time, so that providence seemed to have designed to make him an American. He married Lydia Boss. Their oldest son, Robert Young, was born at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and had two broth- ers, William and Freeman, and four sisters, Anna, Cynthia, Elizabeth and Margaret. Robert Young married Lydia Gould. Their children were Paschal, Ann, Anson, Gilbert, Festus, Loyal, Louisa, Sophronia and freeman. The daugh- ter Sophronia was born November 17, 1812, and on April 22, 1830, was married to Edwin Phillips in Upshur County, where they lived out their lives. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Phillips were: Harriet, who became the wife of Hubbard Perry; Abizer; Josephine, who married Adolphus Brooks; Beecher, Marion, Aletha, Wallace, Linn, and May, who became the wife of William O. Phillips. The children of Hubbard Perry and wife are: Emma, wife of George Talbott and a resident of Elkins; Lucy, who married Jonathan Hathaway, of Buckhannon; Marion, who died in infancy; Orr, of Elkins; Edwin E., of Macedonia, Ohio; Delia, a resident of Pittsburg; Arthur Kirke, the banker; and Grace, who died as Mrs. John Finley. Arthur K. Perry lived in the community where he was born until he was eighteen. He made good use of his advantages in the local schools at that time. After a course in the U. B. Academy at Buekhannon, where he took a business training, he engaged in a private business career until he attended lecture courses in the West Vir- ginia University at Morgantown for special work in agri- culture and horticulture. After finishing the course he was appointed state orchard inspector, and performed the duties of that position for one year in Berkeley County. For another year he did inspection work in the forests of the state against the chestnut-blight. He was then called to the federal Department of Agriculture as an inspector specially detailed to look out for the white pine blister rust. He was in this work from 1916 to 1920, inclusive, and through the forest areas of West Virginia, New Jer- sey, North Carolina and New York. This is one of the most destructive pests ravaging the American forests, and the origin of the rust was placed to Germany, being im- ported to America on young trees. It affects the five- leafed species of pine. Mr. Perry after leaving the service of the Federal Gov- ernment was with the Gage Coal & Coke Company at Junior until the mines of that company closed. He was made superintendent of the State Game Farm in 1922. This farm is in process of development at French Creek, and has been put aside as a preserve for the propagation of game birds, particularly the Chinese ring-neck pheasant. The farm comprises seventy-five acres, and is the property of the chief state game warden, Mr. Brooks, who has set it aside to the state for experimental purposes. Mr. Perry's duties there are in the summer season. He per- sonally owns a tract of land adjacent to the Game Farm, and this and other lands will eventually comprise a State Game Refuge under the care of the commonwealth, where no hunting or fishing will be permitted. As a citizen Mr. Perry has served as recorder and also as mayor of Junior. He was one of the leaders in organ- izing a bank for the community, and in 1917 the Mer- chants and Miners Bank was launched, with him as one of the first vice presidents and directors. Since January, 1922, he has been president of the bank. Mr. Perry is a Master Mason, a Presbyterian, and has been a steadfast republican, casting his first vote for Benjamin Harrison in 1892, and his voting in National elections has been regu- lar except in 1912, when he voted for Roosevelt. At Junior, October 10, 1900, Mr. Perry married Miss Frances Row, daughter of Andrew J. Row, and grand- daughter of Benjamin Row. The other children of Ben- jamin Row were: Mary, wife of Emuel Viquesney; Julia, who married Andrew Williams; and Polly, who became the wife of Samuel Latham. Andrew J. Row was born in Page County, Virginia, but spent the greater part of his life in West Virginia, where he was a farmer, miller and merchant. He died in 1905, at the age of seventy-one. His first wife was Delilah Williams, and their children were Alva; Benjamin; Mary, who married Granville Brady; Virginia, who became Mrs. Columbus Thorn; Celia, who married Clarence Wilson; Rosa, who is Mrs. Washington Arbogast, of Junior; and Margaret, who died as the wife of Adam Thornhill. Mary K. Fitzgerald, second wife of Andrew J. Bow, died in 1915, at the age of seventy-seven. Her children were Lillie Bell, wife of S. S. Bolton and now deceased; Frances Amanda, wife of A. K. Perry; and Icie, wife of Frank Shomo, of Junior. Mrs. Perry was born October 10, 1876.