Description

Mary Agnes Clark Perry (b. 1850 – d. 1915) was born July 15, 1850 in Dublin, Ireland. She was the daughter of Captain Joseph J. Clark and Agnes Clark. When she was two, her father left for the California gold fields. Letters were received, but then ceased and it was never known what happened. When she was five, her mother died of tuberculosis and she went to live with her grandmother, Katharine Mullen. At age nine, her grandmother died, but her inheritance from her father and grandmother was sufficient for her to be enrolled in a convent where she lived and was educated, finishing at age 16. Sufficient funds remained to pay her passage to America.

Mary Agnes arrived in Boston where she stayed with Mamie Kelly, a former convent friend. She became a governess to several well-to-do families. At age 23, she was spending a summer in Fitchburg, Massachusetts with a family. There she met William Henry Perry, from California, who was visiting his parents at their farm. After a whirlwind three-month courtship, they married on August 4, 1873. William returned to California temporarily leaving behind a pregnant Mary Agnes.

After bearing their first son, Henry Jones, Mrs. Perry with her mother-in-law and 10-month old son, journeyed from Boston to San Francisco, California in 1875. In fall, 1875 the Perry family began their move to Arizona with their sheep settling in Badger Springs, Arizona. After several years, they sold their sheep and began raising cattle as well as starting several mines. The family grew to nine children; six girls and three boys.

In 1901, William Perry retired from the cattle business, and turned the ranch over to their oldest son, Henry Jones. The 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.

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