EDWIN PERRY
Edwin Perry was born October 1, 1847, in Rockford, Winnebago county. Illinois. His father, Rufus Perry, emigrated to Jones county, Iowa, with his family, in 1855. Rufus Perry and his wife Catherine Perry, are now living in the village of Wyoming, Jones county. Edward Perry enlisted in October, 1863, in company L, of the Second Iowa Cavalry, and served until the close of the war, was discharged September 19, 1865. He participated in the battle of Tupelo, and the campaign against General Hood, in Tennessee. After the war, he went to Jones county, Iowa. In the spring of 1866, he crossed the plains to Colorado, and stopped at Denver, where he purchased a team and did general teaming one year, then went
to Cheyenne and Laramie Plains and remained one winter, hauling ties for the Union Pacific Railroad company. The following season, 1868, he worked with his team, on the railroad construction at Echo Canon, about sixty miles from Salt Lake City. He then returned to Jones county, Iowa, reaching home in October, 1868. The following year he farmed on rented land. In the spring of 1870, he came to Cass county, and rented a farm
on section 28, Union township, on which he remained and raised two crops. In the meantime he purchased forty acres on section 27, to which he removed in the fall of 1870, and upon which he now resides. He has, since that time, added one hundred and twenty acres to his farm and now has one hundred and sixty acres under good improvement. Mr. Perry was married November 15, 1868, to Margaret Guthrie, who is of Scotch descent, but
born in Connecticut, August 13, 1848. Her parents are Clement and Agnes Guthrie, natives of Scotland, now residents of Jones county, Iowa. Mr. and
Mrs. Perry have had eight children born to them--Emrie, born in November, 1869; Clement, born July,187l, and died in September 1872; Rosetta, born in December, 1872; "William, born in February, 1874, and died in August, 1874; Ira, born in August, 1875; Agnes, born in March, 1877; George, born in September, 1878, and Edwin, born in May, 1882. Mr. Perry is a man much esteemed in the township, and has served as a member of the town board eight years, one-half of that time as chairman; three or four terms as school director, also as road supervisor.
Contributed by Cheryl Siebrass from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pp. 737-738.
