Upshur County, West Virginia Biography of ARTHUR K. PERRY

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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.