A. W. Perry & Wife, Sarah

They were our near neighbors, and they certainly were the right kind of neighbors. There are only just a few such people as Uncle Elic and Aunt Sally, as we used to call them, and if they had any enemies I never knew it, and i lived in half a mile of them, or near them, for thirty or more years.  A. W. Perry was not an educated man - that is, he did not have a literary education - but was a very practical man, and the boys would frequently say that he had more good horse sense than any man in the neighborhood, and a a stranger talking with him would just as likely take him for a judge as a common farmer.

A. W. Perry was the greatest provider for a family that I ever knew.  The abundance that he provided was wonderful, and no one ever knew of A. W. Perry and wife doing any light house-keeping.  his neighbors and friends were always welcome to share with them the good things they possessed.  It was always said he had the best orchard in that part of the country, and it was very seldom that he had less than one hundred bee stands, and it could be truthfully added that his place was a place that flowed with milk and honey.

Mr. Perry and wife moved from Illinois in 1844 with three children, and settled near the place that he died on.  He died recently at the ripe old age of 86 or 87 years, loved and honored by all who knew him. He had accumulated a very large estate, and he raised a large family of fourteen children. There are six or seven of them now living, and the others dead.  He made one division of his large estate many years before his death, giving each one a farm, and later, and not many years before his death, he made the second division.

Mr. Perry was a partner with W. H. Witt, and they build what was known as the Trinity Mills. Later he sold to W. H. Witt, and it was known after as Witt's Mill.  He was the original owner of the town site of Carrollton, and laid off the town and sold lots, and gave land for the M. K. & t. depot.

Religiously, A. W. Perry and wife were Baptists, and most of their children were members of the same church he joined the old Union Baptist Church, the first Baptist Church organized in the country. Said church was organized in 1846, with five charter members. He and his wife were always true to the Baptist faith. They were devoted Christians from the time of their conversion to the time of their death.

At the time Mr. Perry moved to Dallas County, in 1844, the Indians were plenty then, and made raids and stole horses after that time, but he did not suffer much from the Indians. Mr. Perry was a very cautious and a very shrewd man. If all of the people were such people as A. W. Perry and wife, the Millennium would be near at hand. We would need no sheriff, no police, no jail, no courthouse, no peace officers of any kind, but every man and every woman you met would be your friend, and we would almost have to have a heaven upon earth. Mr. Perry moved to Texas at a time when it tried men's souls, but he overcame every obstacle and surmounted every hill of difficulty, and was very successful in all his undertakings, and he departed this life without a stain upon his character.