For many people biography is one of the most interesting and valuable features of any county or state history. For that reason this record of the background and early life of one of Marion County's pioneers, Rowland William Perry, who entered the county just following the Civil War, is being submitted by Louise Perry Bird.
Rowland William Perry was born in Darmstadt, Germany, to an English father who had left his native country to finish his education in Heidelberg where he met and married a German girl. When Rowland was one year of age, his parents set sail for America. Coming into port at New Orleans they continued up the Mississippi River, then up the Missouri and the Osage to settle in Benton County, Missouri. Christian L. Perry, a schoolteacher by profession, taught in the Academy at Warsaw and maintained a farm also. As Rowland grew old enough, he assumed a large share of the responsibility on the farm until the Civil War broke out.
In December 1861 he went to Springfield and enlisted in a Company of Missouri Volunteers and was soon thereafter sworn into the Confederate Army. His Company left Springfield on February 12, according to the diary he kept during the war. As he states: "On the 14th we were attacked by the enemy and had to keep up our line of march. We never stopped to rest day or night till we reached Sugar Creek in Arkansas on the 17th. They marched and fought through North Arkansas and Eastern Tennessee, then down through Mississippi and into Louisiana."
On September 21,1864 he records the events of the day of his marriage to Mollie (Mary) Robertson: "The Watkins family furnished me a very fine suit of clothes to be married in as I had nothing but soldier clothes. I shall never forget Mr. Watkins and his family. We dressed and went to Uncle Jessee's about an hour by sun. The people who were invited soon came. At dusk Parson Vaughn, a Baptist minister, the man who is to marry us, and Mr. Watkins came in. And at candle lighting, Mary H. Robertson and myself were joined in Holy Matrimony for life. Also Miss Jane Robertson and J. W. Smith." Miss Jane was a daughter of "Uncle Jesse" and Mary's cousin. He states that after the ceremony they went in to a very good supper ... Remember, this was during Sherman's famous "March to the Sea." He had mentioned hearing of the fall of Atlanta sometime before. He had also told previously of some of the fine fruits, peaches, melons, etc., they were enjoying in these good homes. Could the hand of the Lord have been protecting some of the more righteous during those days of devastation and destruction?
The writer of this paper, in company with her son Richard, spent about ten days in the fall of 1963 doing research on the Robertson and other ancestral family names ... Ross and Weaver ... in six counties of Mississippi and Alabama, where we found hundreds of entries of land and property records for these people. One interesting record was of R. W. Perry buying land from his father-in-law, 80 acres which he sold in October 1868 after having moved to Benton County, Missouri, where his father and mother were still living. I neglected to mention that the place of their marriage was known as Spring Hill in Marengo County, Alabama. From numerous land transactions it appears that Jesse Robertson was a man of considerable property and "The Old Robertson Mill Place" near Spring Hill was well-known in those times.
Rowland William Perry and Mary Helm Robertson Perry had two children, Louis and Annie, born at Poplar Springs. After six years away from home, without seeing his father, mother, nor any other member of his family, he must have been homesick indeed! So in the early part of 1868 they boarded a steamer and sailed up the Mississippi River to Missouri. They had heard rumors that there might be pirates aboard the ship and cautiously prepared for such an eventuality as being robbed. The bright idea came to them that Mary's hair was a place that pirates would never likely think to search. She had a full set of long dark hair which she wore in a bun on top of her head. They rolled their money in a tight roll and wound it snugly into her hair, which carried it safely through for them.
A farmer by occupation, Rowland was anxious to acquire land of his own so when he heard that there was land for homesteading in Marion County, Arkansas, he bade his parents another farewell. This must have been difficult as he had a deep and abiding love for them, as well as his wife and children, but he must look to the future and provide for the rising generation. He met this challenge with all his heart and soul during the 30 or more years to follow. Clearing land of trees, stumps, underbrush and sprouts, with the crude tools at his command, was not an easy task; neither was splitting rails to fence it. They lived in a one-room log house for a short time while he was getting the land under cultivation. He homesteaded 80 acres and bought 80 acres on Georges Creek and continued to buy adjoining property until he had a farm of 306 acres. He wasn't long in getting a more comfortable home built and turning the log room into a chicken coop. As I understand, this home is still standing and occupied today -- more than 100 years old. He soon had a great variety of livestock around him besides growing a variety of small grains, corn and cotton. Small grains were cut with an old-fashioned cradle and the cotton was picked by hand.
His ambitions extended beyond just developing the land into a good farm. He soon had a fruit orchard of wide variety growing and later planted a second orchard. His love of beauty prompted him to plant flower beds and grass around his home. A few excerpts from a poem written about him for a family reunion in 1953 best describes his surroundings and the untiring efforts he put into creating a place of beauty and delight.
"A shining example was this man of God
Who wrested a living from the stubborn sod,
With incessant toil from dawn 'til dark
Among the rock-ribbed mountains called Ozark.
The orchards he planted were a child's delight,
In blossom or fruit time made a gorgeous sight.
He planted Bridal Wreath and Asters, too,
Peonies and Roses of many a hue.
Lilacs and Iris in this garden were found,
Even a carpet of Ivy upon the ground.
The sweet perfume of the Honeysuckle vine
With its clinging tendrils ... our hearts did entwine
There was the Burning Bush red, the Hollyhocks tall,
Even Chrysanthemums late in the fall.
All seasons combined to give happy thought
Regarding the beauty his hands had wrought."
Amid these surroundings and a vegetable garden that was a work of art, the way he laid it out and built a paling fence around it, his nine children grew to become honorable, upright citizens. They had two more sons, John and George, and four more daughters, Louisa, Agnes, Zouella and Eddie; however, Louisa and Eddie died in their teens, which was a great sorrow to him and all the family.
His son George said of him "I doubt if any man was ever more industrious than he." We have evidence that his enthusiasm and interest extended beyond the circle of his own family because George records in his own "Life History" the following: "My father served 24 years on local school boards, and also served as County and Probate Judge of Marion County."
Much research has been done in the Archives, Parish Registers, Military Records, Monumental Inscriptions and other records in England and Germany regarding the ancestry of Rowland W. Perry. We find that he receives his name, Rowland, from his ancestral family of this name. His great-grandmother, Isabelle Rowland, was the daughter of Captain John Rowland (Gentleman) of Leicester, England. Three of the Perry line also served in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars; Lieutenant Henry Perry, grandfather; Captain John Philip, great-grandfather (both in the Royal Regiment of Malta); and Captain Philip, second great-grandfather, in the Leicester Militia and Dragoons. (These are from the military records of Leicester, England.)
Another great-grandfather, Johannes Ludwig Schultz, was a Hollander Lieutenant in the Battalion of the Prince. His father, Christian Louis Perry, seems to be the only one for several generations who was not engaged in this kind of service. He was given the opportunity for an excellent education attending school in Edinburg, Scotland; Paris, France; and Heidelberg, Germany. Tradition says that he could read, write and speak seven languages fluently. His younger sons received higher education but Rowland's formal education was curtailed by the Civil War and the fact that he was on the frontier in his early life. However, he did become quite a self-educated man. He died at the age of 62 in 1904 and was laid to rest in the Georges Creek Cemetery. Mary H. Robertson Perry died in 1922 and is buried beside him, although she died in Gorman, Texas.
Reprinted with permission from History of Marion County edited by Earl Berry, copyright 1977.