Mary "Eva"
(Minor) Perry
(1856-1946)
Mary
"Eva" (Minor) Perry was born on
Nov. 3, 1856 in Columbus, Franklin County, OH, the daughter of Daniel
and Jane Ann (Duff Langdon) Minor Jr. Like her father, her husband was "prominent in
business and church circles" of Columbus.
In 1882, when she was age 26, Eva married 27-year-old Oliver Hazard Perry (1855-1935). He was a native of Stratford, Delaware County, OH, and the son of Norman Dewey and Mary (Crist) Perry. Oliver's father, said the Columbus Dispatch, "was one of the prominent paper manufacturers of Ohio and built the old paper mills at Stratford…"
Oliver was featured with a biography in the book, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio History, Vol. 2. The profile states that he attended Ohio Wesleyan University and Ohio State University. Following graduation, he clerked in the law office of Wood & Jones in Columbus, but eventually left after two years to join the Columbus Buggy Company in 1878. Continued the History:
There the business ability and enterprise which he displayed won him promotion and in time he was made cashier. When the business was incorporated in 1897 he was elected treasurer of the company... When he first entered the business it was of small and inconsequential proportions but the trade has grown rapidly until it now extends to every state in the Union and to various foreign countries as well. The volume of business annually transacted is represented by a large figure and the success of the undertaking is attributable in no small degree to the efforts of Mr. Perry.
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| Busy High Street in Columbus, north of Gay Street |
In
describing Oliver's career, said the Dispatch, he was "a stock broker for a number of years until his retirement because
of ill health, with offices in the Chamber of Commerce building, and previously
had been auditor and treasurer of the old Columbus Buggy Co. until the time it
was dissolved."
Interestingly, two famous Americans got their early training salesman for Columbus Buggy -- Harvey S. Firestone and Eddie Rickenbacker. Firestone would go on to found the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. Rickenbacker became an American flying ace in World War I, shooting down 26 enemy aircraft. A broadly smiling Rickenbacker is seen at left, posed against the chassis of a favorite vintage aircraft.
In 1900, when the federal census was taken, Eva's widowed mother was residing in their home on Seventh Avenue, as was a servant and a coachman.
In December 1904, Eva was badly injured
in a freak accident. She was knocked down by a bicycle rider and almost run over by an automobile. The Columbus
Evening Dispatch reported that she suffered "a fractured left leg and dislocated
left hip, and probable internal injuries." In describing the accident, the Dispatch
said:
Mrs. Perry was crossing the street near her home when she saw a car approaching from one direction, and a bicycle from another. She became slightly confused, and attempted to cross in front of the cyclist, when she was struck and knocked down, falling directly in front of the car. The fender on the car failed to drop and passed over her body, rolling it along the ground, and when the wheels struck her she was pushed for some distance before the car was stopped. The bicyclist mounted his wheel during the excitement, which followed the woman's dangerous predicament, and rode away. Dr. S.M. Sherman was called to the Perry home after the injured woman had been carried there.
Oliver was treasurer of the Broad Street Presbyterian Church until about 1934.
In 1909, Oliver
was elected president of the
Columbus Board of Trade. A rare old postcard photograph of the Board of Trade's
building is seen here. The following year, the board was reorganized into
what is now the Columbus
Chamber of Commerce.
When the federal census was taken in 1910, Eva and Oliver lived at the famed Southern Hotel as boarders. They had been married for 28 years at the time. His occupation that year was stated as "Treasurer - Buggy Company."
When Eva's mother died in 1909, Oliver served as co-executor of the estate. Eva inherited $1,000 cash and a town lot on North Broadway in Clinton Township, Franklin County, OH. Oliver inherited a set of books, entitled Beacon Lights of History.
The 1920 census shows the Perrys residing in their own home on East Broad Street. Oliver was employed that year as manager of a dental tool factory.
By
1930, Oliver's professional position had changed again. The census shows him at
age 71 working as an investor in a brokerage business. Boarding in their
home that year was 40-year-old Jessie A. Barr, a book saleswoman.
Oliver suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in the early 1930s. He died after a second attack on Nov. 1, 1935, at the age of 80.
Eva outlived Oliver by 11 years, and resided at 580 East Town Street.
She suffered from "a long illness," said the Ohio
State Journal, and died at age 90 on May 14, 1946 in Columbus. Eva was buried beside
her husband at Green Lawn Cemetery.
For more information on the genealogy of the Perry family, contact Joanne Rose-Layshock, a distant niece of Oliver's.
Copyright © 2001-2005, 2008 Mark A. Miner