William PEERY

Abt 1755 - 1830  (~ 75 years)

• Name	William PEERY
  Birth	Abt 1755	Augusta County, VA
  Gender	Male
  Death	Aug 1830	VA
  Notes	(1) Peery, E. H. and Peery, Joseph S., "The Peery Genealogy," in The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, Vol. VIII, No. 1 (January 1917), p. 24: William Peery . . . was born in Augusta County; was a farmer and resided in Tazewell, Tazewell County, Virginia. He served in the Revolution and was in the battle of Alamance (probably Guilford) with his brother John who received sabre cuts, but survived. William was then a boy and did the cooking, but after the battle he took his pony, searched for his brother, and found him in the briars; got him on the pony, took him to camp and nursed him. A "Thomas Peery" was killed in this battle. William was in the Illinois Campaign with Col. George R. Clarke serving as sergeant. He died August 1830. He married Sarah Evans, daughter of John ? Evans of Tazewell. She was born 1764 and died 13 Feb. 1849 in Missouri and is buried in the Wynn Cemetery two miles west of Edinburg, Grundy County, Missouri. Children: . . . i Robert b 23 Feb. 1782 in Jeffersonville, now Tazewell, Tazewell Co., and died 25 Dec. 1849 in Grundy Co. Mo. Buried in family plot on farm. ii Polly b 3 June 1783 m cousin Thomas D. Peery, son of George and Martha. . . . iii George b 6 Oct. 1786; d 30 Oct.1873 m J. C.Thompson. iv Evans b 11 Sept. 1788; d Dec. 1864 Grundy Co. Mo. v Nancy b 22 July 1790; d 19 Sept. 1850 m Arch Peery. . . . vi Olivia b 25 May 1792. . . . vii Thomas b 25 Feb. 1794; d 2 July 1861. . . . viii Sophia b 14 Dec. 1798; d 1 Mar. 1873. . . . ix Cynthia b 24 May 1800; d March 1873. x Henry Felding b 14 May 1802; m Caroline Smyth, who died 1872; no children. . . . xi Emily b 5 Feb. 1805; d 23 March 1878. . . . xii Cosby b 29 Oct. 1809; d 26 April 1884. (2) Williams, Walter, A History of Northwest Missouri, Vol. 2, Chicago, IL and New York, NY, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1915, pp. 1211-1215: Among the old families of Gentry and Grundy counties the Peerys have had a prominent place from the times when Missouri was on the western frontier. Some of them were planters and slave owners in ante-bellum days, while others were strongly opposed to the peculiar institution and gave freedom to their negroes. On whichever side they stood in the great division of the states, they have all been known for a generous public spirit in community affairs, and their lives have been led along the paths of quiet industry and prosperity, and as farmers, professional men, soldiers and good citizens they have done their full share in the enrichment of community life. The history of the Peery family in Northwest Missouri goes back to the year 1835, only fourteen years after the state was admitted, two years before the Platte Purchase, and at a time when only the straggling advance guard of pioneers had penetrated into its rich and fertile district. In order to give a connected account of the family it will be necessary to consider first the father of the three brothers who with relatives arrived during that early year in Northwest Missouri. William Peery was born in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1755, lived a long and eventful life, and died in Tazewell County, Virginia, in 1830. He was little more than a boy when the Revolutionary struggle broke out between the mother country and the colonies, and was one of the volunteers who followed the leadership of George Rogers Clark in his brilliant invasion of the West and conquest of the Northwest Territory. He served with the troops who captured the British frontier posts of Vincennes and Kaskaskia, and his name appears as one of five who enlisted and continued in service throughout the entire course of the expedition. William Peery also fought for the cause of the colonies on the eastern. slope of the Alleghenies. He was in the battle of Alama.nee, North Carolina, against General Tarlton's British cavalry, and was also in the great battle of King's Mountain as a member of Acting Captain Reece Bowen's company. William Peery was married in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1781, to Miss Sarah Evans, and they became the parents of a large family of children. Robert, who was born February 25, 1782, and died in Grundy County, Missouri, married for his first wife a Miss Roberts, and for his second Margaret McFarland. He was an ancestor of the Carnes, Boyce, Fulkerson and Thompson families, and also of the late Capt. Fielding Peery, of Jamesport, Missouri. Mary, better known as Polly, Peery was born June 3, 1783, married Thomas Peery, spent her life in Daviess County, Missouri, and is an ancestor of Ben L. and Logue Peery and of the Thomas Williams family, of Albany. George Peery, the next in line, is the subject of the following paragraph. Evans Peery was born September 11, 1788, married Elizabeth Niell, was a farmer in Grundy County, freed his slaves before the war and sent them back to Liberia in Africa, and did this froin a sense of deep religious conviction that slavery was wrong, Nancy Peery, born July 22, 1790, married Archibald Peery, and died in Grundy County, Missouri. Olivia Peery, born May 25, 1792, married John Wynne, and died in Virginia. Thomas Peery, born February 25, 1794, married Jane McDonald, and they spent their lives in Tazewell County, Virginia. Sophia Peery, born December 14, 1798, married James Wynne, and they lived in Grundy County, Missouri. Cynthia Peery, born March 24, 1800, married John Gibson. Henry Fielding Peery, born May 14, 1802, was a physician and man of affairs in Virginia, where he died, and married Caroline Smith. Emily Peery, born February 5, 1805, married Minor Wynne, and they spent their later years in Grundy County. Cosby Peery, born October 29, 1809, became the wife of John Buren, of Grundy County, where she died. The founders of the Peery family in Northwest Missouri were the brothers George, Evans, and Robert, named in the above paragraph, and also Archibald Peery, who was a cousin and who married a sister of the three Peery brothers. It is noteworthy that George and his brothers Thomas and Fielding were of the slave-holding class, while the brothers Robert and Evans were against the institution, and the relatives by marriage, Buren and Gibson, were aligned in the same way. George Peery was born October 6, 1786, and died in Gentry County, Missouri, August 30, 1873. He married Jane Campbell Thompson, who was born in Virginia, August 1, 1795, and was a daughter of Col. John Thompson, of Tazewell County, and a granddaughter of Lieut. Reece Bowen, who was killed at the battle of King's Mountain in the Revolutionary war. George Peery was regarded in his community as a man of unusual information, but had a retiring disposition, and little inclination to accumulate wealth, and lived the life of a modest farmer. He possessed a high sense of honor and good steady habits. His wife was an excellent manager, possessed rare energy and common sense, and her children owed much to her character and influence. George and Jane Campbell (Thompson) Peery were the parents of a large family of eighteen children, fourteen of whom lived to be grown and thirteen of whom married. A brief account of these children is as follows; Henry, who died in Albany in 1903, had no children. Louisa (Vicy) married Milton Moore, died in Grundy County, while her husband died on the Isthmus of Panama while returning from California in 1852. Sarah E. married Jewett Norris, founder of the Trenton Library and a state senator, and she died in Trenton, while her husband passed away at St. Paul, Minnesota. William, the next child, is sketched in the following paragraph. John Thompson, who was a minister of the Southern Methodist Church, married Mrs. Mary Jane (Chick) Johnson, and after her death Miss Kate Thornton, and died in Lewis, Henry County, Missouri. Dr. Archibald Peery married Elizabeth Ann Kirk, a great-granddaughter of Major Howe of the Revolution, who was a cousin to Lord Howe of the British army, and also a cousin to "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the great American patriot and brilliant Indian fighter. Narcissa Bowdry Peery married Henry J. Tandy, and died in Worth County, Missouri, leaving a numerous posterity. Mary Jane Peery married Samuel Ashby and, spent her life in Grundy County. Nancy Peery Married George W. Lewis, and died at Albany in 1899, leaving a daughter, Mrs. Holden, of Albany. Reece B. T. Peery, who married Eleanor Witten, died in Grundy County, leaving a large family. Emily Peery married Dr. George W. Stapleton, and died at Albany. Dr. George Fielding Peery married Annie L. Chamberlain, and died at Albany. Margaret E. Peery married John Graham, and died at Plattsburg, Missouri, leaving children. William Peery, a grandson of the Revolutionary fighter, William Peery, and father of Erastus L. Peery, was born July 4, 1815, grew up on a Virginia plantation that held no slaves, and was twenty years of age when he came to Missouri. A schooling of nine months served him as a foundation for a liberal education acquired during after life. His career in Grundy County was varied in the occupations of farming, merchandising and other lines. His business interests often required his presence in distant parts of the country, and he was a man of vigorous mind and body, and made several trips on horseback to Virginia, also to New York and to New Orleans in 1844, and in 1853 took stock across the plains to California. On returning by sea his boat was wrecked in the Pacific Ocean; he and several others embarked in an open boat, spent fourteen days on a desert island, and were finally picked up by a passing vessel and landed at Acapulco, Mexico. While crossing Mexico, Mr. Peery saw the opportunity to buy stock at a nominal figure, and brought a large number to the United States and resumed his business as a stockman. William Peery was a man of great force of character, a born leader in any cause he championed, and in spite of his meager education when a boy he studied to improve his mind so persistently that he familiarized himself with the best English literature, acquired a knowledge of French and Spanish so as to be able to read both languages, the former for enjoyment and the latter for his business dealings in the Mexican country. He had taken up the study of Latin with his children when the Civil war broke out. William Peery married, July 17, 1842, Lucy Ann Forkner. She came from North Carolina, where the fortune of the family was swept away in the panic of 1837. She left the scenes of her old home without bitterness and came to a frontier cabin in Missouri, and died at Albany in December, 1908, at the venerable age of eighty-eight. She was a worthy companion of such a man as her husband, and adapted herself to her new surroundings, passed through uncomplainingly the vicissitudes of life in a new country, and no regrets ever came in her mind nor did hardships decrease the tenderness of her sympathy and the sweetness of her character. The children of William and Lucy Ann (Forkner) Peery were as follows: Erastus L.; Samuel Forkner; Juriah E.; Junius W.; Narcissa L.; Nancy E. Erastus Linn Peery, who was born September 19, 1843, in Grundy County, Missouri, was educated in the old Grand River College, studied for the law at first under Colonel Shanklin of Trenton and later with Judge Lewis of Albany, when he came in 1865, but the necessity of giving his attention to his father's estate caused him to abandon the profession and engage in merchandising at Albany with his brother Samuel. The two brothers have always had a common interest in their business, farming and other affairs. During the war Erastus L. Peery was teaching school in Menard County, Illinois, and at its close returned to Gentry County and begun a successful business career. In the last forty years there has been hardly an undertaking of importance in Gentry County with which his name has not been associated. He assisted in the extension of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad from Bethany to Albany; in the extension of the St. Joseph & Des Moines Narrow Gauge into Albany; in the erection of the courthouse after its destruction by storm, a liberal money contribution having appeared opposite his name; and also in the campaigns to hold Albany as the county seat. Mr. Peery was president for several years of the Gentry County Fair Association and is still a member of its official board. In the maintenance of the Northwest Missouri College Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, now the Palmer College, he and his brothers have been factors that have enabled the school to carry on its splendid work in spite of many difficulties. Though a democrat, Erastus L. Peery has never held office except in the quasi-public positions above mentioned, but has done a useful part through other channels than politics. He has no church membership, but supports the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and for many years it was his practice to contribute to every church proposed to be built in Gentry County. Mr. Peery has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1866, is a past master of Athens Lodge No. 127, A. F. and A. M.; past high priest of Albany Chapter No. 116, R. A. M.; is commander of Albany Commandery No. 60, K. T.; and a member of Moila Temple of the Mystic Shrine at St. Joseph. Mr. E. L. Peery has never married. Samuel Forkner, the close associate of his brother in business and civic affairs, was born November 4, 1845, was a student in the Grand River College, and his course in business and in public work has been similar to that of his brother. He was married, October 13, 1880, to Pauline Garvine. The three daughters are Lucy K., Grace, and Ruby L. Miss Lucy K. Peery, who is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music, has a singing voice of remarkable sweetness and power, is in great demand as a singer on public occasions, has taught music, and after three years as an instructor in the Pennsylvania State Normal School at Millersville is now one of the faculty of Palmer College at Albany. Miss Ruby Peery, another daughter of Samuel Peery, is a graduate of the distinguished and long-established girls' school, Monticello Seminary, at Godfrey, Illinois, an institution from which her great-aunts, Mrs. Abbie Harris and Mrs. Anna L., wife of Doctor Peery, graduated sixty years before her. Miss Grace Peery, the other daughter, married Roy Forbis, and is a graduate of Northwest Missouri College and lives in Albany. Juriah (Jua), the third child of William and Lucy Ann Peery, was born January 22, 1848, attended old Grand River College, which had been founded largely through the efforts of her father, and on July 3, 1884, married Dr. William O'Hara. Doctor O'Hara was a dentist at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and died in San Antonio, Texas, April 1, 1903. Mrs. O'Hara has since lived in Albany with other members of the family. She is a member of the Methodist Church, while her husband was a Catholic. Next in the list of children comes Junius Woodson, a prominent lawyer of Albany. Narcissa L., born January 21, 1859, was also a student of Grand River College, and died unmarried in 1885. Nancy Emily, born April 1, 1861, attended the Albany High School and also the college in which her brothers and sisters were students, and is still living in Albany.
  Person ID	I31013	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	14 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Thomas PEERY,   b. Abt 1720   d. Between 1762 and 1763, Augusta County, VA (Age ~ 42 years)
  Mother	Mary Margaret OAKES,   b. Abt 1720
  Marriage	Abt 1738	Augusta County, VA
  Family ID	F13506	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Sarah EVANS,   b. 1764, Amherst County, VA d. 13 Feb 1849, Grundy County, MO (Age 85 years)
  Marriage	1781	Tazewell County, VA
  Children	1. Robert PEERY,   b. 25 Feb 1782, Tazewell County, VA d. 25 Dec 1849, Grundy County, MO (Age 67 years)   2. Mary PEERY,   b. 3 Jun 1783, Tazewell County, VA   3. George PEERY,   b. 6 Oct 1786, Tazewell County, VA d. 30 Aug 1873, Grundy County, MO (Age 86 years)   4. Evans PEERY,   b. 11 Sep 1788, Tazewell County, VA d. 8 Dec 1864, Grundy County, MO (Age 76 years)   5. Nancy PEERY,   b. 22 Jul 1790, Tazewell County, VA d. 15 Sep 1850, Grundy County, MO (Age 60 years)   6. Olivia PEERY,   b. 25 May 1792, Tazewell County, VA   7. Thomas PEERY,   b. 25 Feb 1794, Tazewell County, VA d. 2 Jul 1861, Tazewell County, VA (Age 67 years)   8. Sophia PEERY,   b. 14 Dec 1798, Tazewell County, VA d. 1 Mar 1873 (Age 74 years)   9. Cynthia PEERY,   b. 24 May 1800, Tazewell County, VA d. Mar 1873 (Age 72 years)   10. Dr. Henry Fielding PEERY,   b. 14 May 1802, Tazewell County, VA d. VA   11. Emily PEERY,   b. 5 Feb 1805, Tazewell County, VA d. 23 Mar 1878 (Age 73 years)   12. Cosby PEERY,   b. 29 Oct 1809, Tazewell County, VA d. 16 Apr 1884, Grundy County, MO (Age 74 years)
  Family ID	F13505	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Apr 2024