Description

William Henry Perry (b. 1844 – d. 1929) was the son of William Kittredge Perry and Charlotte Jones Prescott. At the age of 9, he came with his father to the California gold fields in the Sacramento Valley. After a few years, they returned to Fitchburg, Massachusetts. After his 21st birthday, he joined the Masonic Order at Fitchburg and remained a member all his life. 

Henry went back and forth between Fitchburg and California several times. He formed a partnership with George Helm to raise sheep in the Fresno, California area. On one of his trips back to Massachusetts, he met and married Mary Agnes Clark (b. 1850 – d. 1915) on August 4, 1873. She was from Dublin, Ireland. In 1874, after bearing their first son, Henry Jones, Mrs. Perry joined her husband in California. In fall, 1875 they began their move to Arizona with their sheep and settled in Badger Springs, Arizona. After several years, they sold their sheep and began raising cattle as well as opening several mines. The family grew to nine children; six girls and three boys.

In 1901, Perry retired from the cattle business, and turned the ranch over to his oldest son, Henry Jones. The senior Perrys bought a farm near Phoenix, Arizona and a home in Tempe, Arizona where they lived until their deaths: Mary Agnes in 1915 and William Henry in 1929.

Source: Perry Family article prepared by daughter, Maud Perry Daly, Tempe, Arizona, September 26, 1954 and filed in a Surname File at the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives.

Handwritten note on back of photograph states: "Mr. Wm. H. Perry settled on the lower Agua Fria in 1874."