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Early Settlers Personal
History
1. Sue
Marion Deaton
2.
316 South Arkansas Ave.
3.
Retired
4.
Housewife
5.
December 16, 1845
6.
Atlanta, Ga.
7.
Captain Joseph Holmes Perry - December 22, 1861, Atlanta, Ga.
8. On
December 20th, 1861, I married Joseph Holmes Perry, a well to do
contractor from Mississippi and went to Memphis on our honeymoon, stopping
at the Gayoso Hotel. The bridal suite was very unusual with satin lined
walls. We were entertained by the officials of the railroad, and after
several years of work in Mississippi and Tennessee, he took a contact to
build the 2nd or 3rd railroad line in Arkansas from Atkins beyond
Clarksville. Losing our fortune after coming to Arkansas in the railroad
contract, he put his life earnings in; he died, leaving me and my children
in strange country with little material assets. I had never known anything
but the love and care of the traditional old south with its luxury and
position supreme. I am a direct descendent of one of the signers of the
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in 1874, one of the Alexandria
family.
9.
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10.
Lived in Arkansas 71 Years.
11. We
came from Missouri to Memphis by train, then from Memphis to Arkansas by
boat and landed at Lewisburg near Morrilton. We stayed at a Mrs. Taylor’s
for several days. She had a lovely home. We brought a negro boy to take
care of horses and a negro girl to take care of baby. Then we left
Lewisburg and came by stage up to (Gala Creek) now Pottsville.
12. We
came to Arkansas because my husband was building a railroad.
13.
My early home was a beautiful structure, this was in Mississippi. It had
several rooms, the old fashion type, four rooms with hall and two rooms
with back porch. The chimney was made of brick.
14.
We made candles, and then used oil in quaint small holders with tall
chimneys.
15.
The electric lights were first used when we were living in Russellville in
1901.
16.
We used wood for fuel, then coal.
17.
The food we had in the early days was just about what we have today. Game
and fish were plentiful, but we did not depend on it for meat supply.
There were Prairie Chickens, Wild Turkeys and Deer. We had a farm out near
McKeaver Springs; about three miles south of Russellville, and deer would
jump from the bluff on our land.
18.
We lived in Atlanta most of my early days, and we had all kinds of
clothes, most of them at that time were made at my home. In making the
dresses, there was always a lady, who came to our home to make our spring
and winter dresses. We had neighbors, who had to spin and weave all their
clothes. I remember the first sewing I ever did was to hem shirt tails.
19.
Shivarees were very frequent.
20.
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21.
When anyone was in need of food, we always helped in time of need. We knew
a woman, who was in need, and we helped. The town gave her a ticket to her
former home. My husband was most generous in time of need.
22.
The early cultivated crops were cotton, corn and oats. The domesticated
animals were horses, mules, cows and sheep.
23.
The early farm implements were plough, harrow, bull tongue, and some were
home made, but my father lived in city and bought most of farm implements.
My grandfather Payden had a huge farm, and most of his implements were
homemade.
24.
Farming
25. I
lived at Atlanta and then it was a small city and we didn’t use wild
plants at all.
26.
We attended Sunday school, picnics at Stone Mt. just outside of Atlanta.
This was a beautiful place and is where they have made images of Robert E.
Lee and Stonewall Jackson and others. We always went to corn husking. We
all got together, and the women would cook food while the men were
working. We would have corn husking contests to see who would be the
winner. We always had plenty of good eats. I remember I was visiting out
from Atlanta, and Indians would come and bring baskets of things and want
you to refill the baskets for them.
27.
We combated the building fires by bucket brigade.
28.
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29.
There were all kinds of stage coaches in Arkansas, where we lived at Galla
Creek (Now Pottsville), and the stage coach would stop there and would
stay all night, put fresh horses and start early next morning. This was a
stage station. Uncle Joe Potts was the bookkeeper and would take care of
the money.
30.
When I went to school in Atlanta, it was a public school. This school was
a frame building and had been built for a suburban store. This was near
where we lived, out from Peach Tree Street. I was then about six years
old.
31.
Atlanta, Ga. About 1851.
32.
The teacher stayed at our house, don’t recall name.
33.
Paid tuition
34.
The school books used was Blue Back Speller, then McGuffey’s reader and in
later years Geography and Dictionary, went to college, and the building
was beautiful and very attractive inside.
35.
We always took the Atlanta Journal and subscribed to Godey’s Magazine.
This was a choice magazine. My husband had a dressmaker, who went to Paris
once a year to make my clothes in Mississippi. After making one beautiful
gown, she sent a picture of me to Godey’s Magazine in N.Y. which was
printed in an issue.
36.
The first telegraph station was in Russellville about 1873.
37.
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38.
The first automobile was seen in Russellville, ark. About 1904.
39.
The first railroad in state is over one hundred years old. My husband was
superintendent of the Memphis and Little Rock to Ft. Smith. We located at
Potts Station (now Pottsville, Ark.) he finished this road about 1874. At
that time my husband had asked Mr. Potts to change some bills, and he told
him that Mr. Sinclair there could change them for him, so Mrs. Sinclair
and her daughter; Mrs. Mary Ann Falls opened the feather bed and changed
$1000. Bill. There were no banks near, only at little rock. When we came o
Russellville, I carried all my money in money bags, as we had sold our
home in Mississippi. Mr. Perry constructed a section of the Little Rock
and Ft. Smith railroad from Atkins to a point west of Clarksville,
investing personal fortunes of $60,000 incidentally, which was never
recovered, and loss of which was believed by his family to have hastened
his death a few years later.
40.
The first airplane seen was in Russellville, 1919.
41. --
42.
When I was a very small girl, my father took me to a show in Atlanta, Ga.
This was Tom Thumb and Wife. I was placed on the table, where Tom Thumb
and wife were. To me this was a wonderful show, to see these midgets. Were
also had operas in a large brick building called Athenaeum Building
43. --
44. --
45. --
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47. --
48. --
49.
The railroad camp had petitioned the President or the War Officials to
release it from war services to rebuild the bridges and replace the
railroads that the Rebels had destroyed.
I
evacuated Atlanta with my father and family to the wire grass country,
when the Federals marched on the City. We returned to find our property
taken by the Federals, and the Northern Governor Bullock's mansion was
built on my father's property on Peach Tree and Waldron Streets.
My
husband joined the first cavalry commander, assembled in Memphis in 1885.
When I was a little girls, my sister and I saw a coat with bright metal
buttons at the home of J. H. Perry. This probably was an army coat.
I
still have a gold headed walking cane, which was presented to Mr. Perry by
the employees of his railroad, when he enlisted in the Southern Army at
the outbreak of the Civil War. This was presented March 15, 1861 at
Hopefield, Ark. The cane was cut from the right of way, has a sold gold
head, and the engraving is beautiful.
50. --
51. I
recall where I was boarding with Mrs. J. L. Williamson, and Jay Hawkers
came. Two men held her arms, and two held her knees, while they burned her
feet with hot coals. A negro, belonging to my husband, was there, and he
prevented them from getting her money. Their purpose was to rob her. She
had scars on her feet from the horrible burns.
52. In
Atlanta, the Ku Klux Klan was a fine organization and was really meant to
do good and protect the people, was organized purely to do away with
evil.53. My husband was one of the first organizers of the Masonic Lodge
and held the highest degree. I was an active worker in the Eastern Star.
I
am the only living charter member of the First Baptists Church,
Russellville, Ark., which was organized in 1873 with nine members and
also, the only charter member of the State and Local Units of the Women's
Missionary Union of the Baptist Denomination.
54. --
55. --
56. --
57. --
58.
Sons and daughters:
Mrs. Fanny Perry Brooks, wife of William Brooks, Russellville, Ark.
Mr. Talbert Hancock, Pensacola, Florida
59.
Grandchildren:
William Brooks, Joseph Brooks, Christine Brooks and Mrs. Cecil Balkman.
Great
grandchild:
Marion
Brooks
Great
grandchild:
Mary
Brooks Best
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CITY’S OLDEST RESIDENT HAS 95TH BIRTHDAY
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Mrs. J. H. Perry Is Only Living Charter Member of Russellville
First Baptist Church
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Russellville’s oldest citizen. Mrs. Susan Marion Perry,
widow of Joseph Holmes Perry, early Arkansas railroad builder,
observed her 95th birthday here at the home of her
daughter, Mr. William Brooks.
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Mrs. Perry, known affectionately by friends and
relatives as “Diddie” comes from English families, which settled
in South Carolina before the Revolutionary War. She was a daughter
of William Deaton and Mary Eleanor Peden Deaton and was born in
Atlanta, Ga. on December 16th 1845.
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At the time of her marriage, at the close of the Civil
War, Mr. Perry was superintendent of the Memphis and Little Rock
Railroad. She still has a gold-headed walking cane, which was
presented to Mr. Perry by the employees of his railroad, when he
enlisted in the Southern Army at the outbreak of the Civil War.
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Comes to Arkansas in 1870
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Mr. and Mrs. Perry came to Arkansas in 1870, and Mrs.
Perry boarder in the old Potts home at Pottsville, five miles east
of Russellville, for two years. At the time the Potts home was a
stage station.
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Mr. Perry constructed a section of the Little Rock and
Ft. Smith Railroads from Atkins to appoint west of Clarksville,
investing a personal fortune of $60,000., incidentally which was
never recovered and loss of which was believed by his family to
have hastened Mr. Perry’s death a few years later.
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During the construction of the railroad here, the Perrys
moved to Russellville, in 1872, which was then rather “wild and
wooly” outpost, the principal business of which centered around
two saloons and a “drug store”, which sold more whiskey than
medicine.
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Since her husband had to be away from home so much of
the time, he taught Mrs. Perry how to ride a horse and shoot a gun
for her self-defense.
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“City’s First Baptist”
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Although she was a member of a family of “Blue Stocking”
Presbyterians, Mrs. Perry has been a Baptist since a young woman.
In 1872, she was the only Baptist in Russellville, but soon
located another in the Shiloh Community north of town, and a third
at Norristown, historic Arkansas River part, three miles south of
Russellville and these three formed the nucleus for the
organization in 1873 of the Russellville First Baptist Church,
founded with nine charter members. Mrs. Perry is the last
surviving charter member of the local church and of the state, and
local organization of the Women’s Missionary Union of the Baptist
Denomination.
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Mrs. Perry is a Rebecca and a charter member and first
worthy matron of the Russellville order of the Eastern Star.
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In spite of her advanced years, Mrs. Perry is able to
get about and has a clear mind and vivid memory of her long and
eventful life, including the trying days of the Civil War in
Atlanta area, when she and her family were forced to refugee when
the Union army moved into that section.
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“A FEW FACTS ‘DIDDIE’, MY GRANDMOTHER,
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MRS. J. H. PERRY TOLD ME ABOUT OUR FAMILY HISTORY”
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“Diddie’s”
great grandmother was a Hyde living in England. She married a
young Durham from England, then ran away and came to America,
settling in South Carolina.
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The family in England belonged to Spurgeon’s Baptist
Church, his church still exists, I understand, as have the famous
man’s sermons.
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One of the Hyde family, probably an uncle, a wealthy old
bachelor donated to the City of London “Hyde Park” one of the
famous parks of the world.
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There is an account of the Hyde family in the
Encyclopedia Britannica of the 17th century that is
probably the same line.
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The young couple, who came to America, had five children
– Rebecca Durham, “Diddie’s” own grandmother, who married a Peden,
Alexandria Peden, a fine English gentleman, who was living in the
Carolinas.
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The Peden plantation, from all accounts, was one of the
most beautiful places in the Country, as complete as a town.
Alexander Peden was a very polished, progressive, beautiful loving
man. He had his own grist mill, blacksmith shop, gins and
commissaries and great orchards of every kind of fruit around his
home.
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“Diddie’s” mother, Mary Eleanor Peden was of course,
reared on the beautiful plantation, and when she was 16 yrs. Old,
a young contractor from Raleigh, N. C. came to do some building
for her father, Alexander Peden on the plantation. They fell in
love and ran away and were married, later living in Atlanta
proper.
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Her husband was Wm. Brantley Deaton.
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The Deatons were scholars, teachers, musicians and still
have their family reunions with their relatives far and wise.
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In or near Atlanta was where “Diddie”, Mrs. Perry,
(Susan Marion Deaton), my grandmother, met and married Capt.
Joseph Holmes Perry, who came to this country (Arkansas) in the
early days to build the very railroad we are using today.
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Her childhood home until the war was in Atlanta on Peach
– tree St.
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The Perry family is an interesting family to follow, and
they came from S. C. migrating to Mississippi. I shall have better
data to draw from, one of them was the Gov. of his native
Carolina.
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Mrs. Will Brooks, daughter of Mrs. J. H. Perry and my
mother, is and has been one of the most loved women of our
community. Even while she was living in other places, her
unbounded love, graciousness and fine, splendid character has
attracted others, (as the brilliance of a noonday sun). Her
husband and family continue to look and lean on her for every
source of comfort, inspiration and guidance. She is endowed with
untold ability. Everyone comes to find rest from their burdens.
She is too superb a person to try to describe her life, has always
been full of laughter and sunshine, hope, joy and love, crowned
with a faith but few possess.
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But for us, she could have been a glorious prima donna,
because her voice was recognized by the finest teachers as the
voice of an artist.
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“Diddie” (my grandmother) is today the essence of
fragile loveliness and refinement, though 95 years rest on her
Dresden like figure. Her lineage will be evident to the last.
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Christine Brooks –
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Granddaughter of Mrs. J. H. Perry
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