Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worchester County vol2
Author: Ellery Bicknell Crane Call Number: F72.W9C8vol.2
This book contains a history of Worchester County Massachusetts. Volume 2 of 2.
Bibliographic Information: Crane, Ellery Bicknell. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worchester County vol.2. The Lewis Publishing Company. New York. 1907.

JOSIAH PERRY. The student of biography will readily discern the influence of heredity in shaping the career and moulding the character of the gentleman whose name introduces these memoirs. Among the earliest of the English settlers who fled the mother country because of religious persecution was Ezra Perry, who was born in England in 1625 and was located, as the records show, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, as early as 1644. He married, February 12, 1651, Elizabeth Burgess. Of their children:
Benjamin Perry, born February 15, 1670, married, in 1693, Dinah Swift. They lived latterly in Stoughton. One of their children, Abner Perry, born March 10, 1703, married, May 12, 1726, Joanna Gibbs. They lived for a time at Sandwich, subsequently at Plymouth, and latterly in Stoughton. To them was born, December 19, 1735, in the place last named: Josiah Perry, whose grandson and namesake is the immediate subject of these memoirs. Loyalty to King George marked the career of this cighteenth century Josiah Perry, the records revealing him as among the English colonial troops during the French and Indian war, serving as a corporal, and in 1757 stationed at Fort Cumberland. He married, April 21, 1763, Mary Hartshorn, and just prior to the inception of the war of the revolution, early in 1775, settled on a large tract of land on the Massachusetts-Connecticut line, at and near the present town of Dudley, Massachusetts. This Josiah Perry also rendered some service in the Patriot army during the revolutionary war, and among his collateral relatives who subsequently attained distinction in the service of the nation was Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of the "Battle of Lake Erie," commonly known as "Perry's Victory," in the war of 1812. Josiah Perry cleared and cultivated a large tract of land, being one of the very successful and leading agriculturists of southern Worcester county. Of his children, Joseph Hartshorn Perry was born in Thompson, Connecticut, (now Dudley, Massachusetts), on the farm of his father, which lay then partly in Thompson and partly in Dudley--September 5, 1789. He assisted in the cultivation of the homestead farm until 1815. In the latter year he went to Uxbridge, Massachusetts, where he invested a part of his savings in stock of the Rivulet Manufacturing Company, entering into the employment of the concern, whereby he mastered woolen manufacture in all of its details. The plant was unsuccessfully operated, and upon being closed down, young Perry went to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and there found employment n a woolen mill for one year. In the fall of 1825 he returned to his native place, and in partnership association with Danforth Upham, Abner Wyman and Richard Perry, purchased from an older brother, Eliphaz, a few acres of land, including a water privilege. A dam was built, a mill erected, and the manufacture of satinets begun under the firm name of Joseph H. Perry & Company. Fire destroyed the plant in 1857, but new and larger structures were built and work resumed with a larger force and better equipment within the same year. Throughout the life of Joseph H. Perry the business established by him maintained the reputation of being one of the significantly valuable industries of the community.
He married, February 17, 1820, Mary Taft, daughter of Samuel Taft, for many years a prominent resident of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, and descended from a common ancestor with the late Judge Alphonso Taft, whose son, William H. Taft, is now secretary of war. Seven children were born of this union. Mr. Perry died September 5, 1864, then lacking but seven days of being seventy-four years of age. He had maintained remarkable vigor of mind and body up to the very moment of his decease. His demise was caused by an apoplectic stroke. His wife survived him twenty-one years, dying at the advanced age of ninety-one years. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Perry, a son, George W. Perry, was a Union soldier in the civil war, a corporal in Company G, Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He died in 1862, at Warrenton, Virginia, of typhoid fever contracted through exposure incident to the service.
Josiah Perry, youngest of the children of Joseph H. and Mary (Taft) Perry, was born March 14, 1832, in Dudley, and educated in local schools, including that of Mr. Roberts and the Nichols Academy. His early manhood was spent in his father's employ, and under these most favorable auspices he learned thoroughly the business in which he has ever since been engaged. Upon the decease of Mr. Joseph H. Perry, his sons, Charles H. and Josiah Perry--bought the interests of the other heirs and of the junior partner, Charles Carpenter, continuing the business under the name of Joseph H. Perry's Sons. The new firm shortly after its formation substituted the manufacture of cassimeres and suitings for that of satinets. Upon the decease of Charles Perry, January 31, 1868, Josiah Perry became sole proprietor by purchasing the interests of his brother's heirs. In the conduct of this important industry Mr. Perry has been uniformly successful, save during a period some years ago of general business prostration, when he made an assignment for the benefit of his creditors with whom a compromise was effected by the payment of twenty-five cents on the dollar, and he resumed business legally free from indebtedness. It is a sufficient commentary on his business integrity that when he had re-established his manufacturing interests upon a paying basis, and was in a position so to do, he paid the creditors who had released him from obligation dollar for dollar of his indebtedness to them. Mr. Perry was one of the original stockholders and directors of the First National Bank of Webster, and its vice-president from its organization up to 1901, since which time he has been president of that institution. He is also director and treasurer of the Merritt Woolen Company of Dudley. Mr. Perry affiliates politically with the Republican party. In 1879 he represented his district in the state legislature, serving with characteristic efficiency in the manufacturers' committee. He served Dudley as a member of the board of selectmen, and in 1900 was one of the members of the electoral college, who voted for Major William McKinley for president of the United States. Mr. Perry has been a member of the Congregational Church since 1858 and has served as a member of the church committee.
On January 1, 1862, Mr. Perry married Martha J. Elliott, of Thompson, who was born there in 1840, and died in Dudley, October 2, 1904. Their children were: Mary Josephine, born February 22, 1863, became the wife of Eben G. Parsons, of Webster, June 14, 1888, and their children were: Grace, Josiah Perry, Josephine, Mary and Marjorie Elliott Parsons. Fannie L., born April 8, 1865, died August 4, 1865; and Anna Larned, born October 2, 1869, resides at home. 196