John S. Perry (1831 - 1870)

Born 1831 in Cooperstown, Brown, Illinois, United States [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah Ann (Rogers) Perry — married 16 Mar 1856 in Marion County, Iowa

Descendants

Died 1870 at about age 39 in at sea

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Marnie Hall [send private message]

Biography

John Perry and Sarah Ann Rogers were married March 13 or 16, 1856.^[1] Two children are shown in the 1860 census:

• John S. Perry, age 29, (c 1831), born in Illinois
• Sarah, age 22 (c 1838), born in Indiana
• Calvin, age 3, (c 1857), born in Iowa
• Ruth, age 2 months (b ca March, 1860) (shown in image only)

The Census shows John was a farmer, with real estate worth $600 and a personal estate worth $100. Edward Perry lived one house away.^[2]

John Perry died at sea. No one knows why, but his great-granddaughters Delores and Evelyn recall their father, Earl Van Benthuysen, saying he did. It's strange to think that an Iowa farmer died at sea. He died five years after end end of the Civil War. Did he retain his Quaker faith? I have not seen his name in military records. Could he have joined the Navy? Could "at sea" mean the Great Lakes?

In 1770, the year of John's death, the Census shows his daughter Ruth living with some Perry relatives and his son Calvin in another household. Did John's wife Sarah abandon her children after his death? Before? Or was she absent temporarily? Usually when a husband died, the widow and her children moved in with parents or a sibling. Why didn't Sarah? Or did she?

John's wife died in Madeley, Shropshire, England in 1880, according to the same family sources. What connection did she, or possibly both of them, have to England?

Edith McIntosh Hall (1907-2009) did extensive family research and tried to get information about the Rogers in the early 1950s, but no one wanted to talk about them. I was a child at the time, but I would venture to guess that some of our Rogers family lived in Mahaska or Marion County, Iowa. Various people doing current research believe that Sarah Ann Rogers Perry was the daughter of Needham Rogers, but Needham Rogers moved to Kansas, and I have seen no connection to Iowa.^[3]

Who are these Perrys in 1856 Iowa Census at Liberty, Marion, Iowa?

1. E.C. Perry b 1829, TN, married
2. M. Perry, b 1833, OH, married
3. C Perry, b 1852, IA
4. Ellen Perry, b 1853, IA
5. Lucy Perry, b. 1854, IA
6. Ruth Perry, b. 1855, IA^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ "Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XJVH-MJH : 8 March 2016), John S. Perry and Sarah Ann Rogers, 1856.
2. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8LQ-1CF : 30 December 2015), Ruth Perry in entry for John S Perry, 1860.
3. ↑ Marnie Hall, gg-granddaughter.
4. ↑ Ancestry.com. Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Microfilm of Iowa State Censuses, 1856, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1925 as well various special censuses from 1836-1897 obtained from the State Historical Society of Iowa via Heritage Quest.