I have always been interested in family history...who were my grandparents, who were their parents, etc. Fortunately I have other family members who know or are working to find out. When searching through genealogical archives, the name(s) of the previous generations will hopefully be attained. That tells you by what name that person may have been called but it doesn't tell you who the person was. Was he a hard worker? Did she have to wash others' clothes to help make ends meet for the family? You get the picture.
I can tell you a little about my maternal great-grandfather, Josiah Perry. He lived from April 17, 1842 - March 1922. He was a Union soldier in the Civil War (the Battle of Gettysburg). We have a picture of one of us pointing to his name on the monument there at the Gettysburg battlefield.
You can't see the name very well because of the shadows. A story that has been told and re-told is that his to-be wife's brother had been shot on the battlefield and as Josiah walked by him, he asked Josiah to loosen his belt buckle. He knew he would probably not make it off the field. He also knew there would be some discomfort from bloating as he waited. After his time in the war, Josiah married Emily Blackmore (b.May 13, 1851-d.December 1918) and they raised 14 children...John born 1868, Eleanor (died as an infant), Mary Ellen 1872, Frank 1874, Charles 1876, Will 1878, Alex 1880, Susie 1883, Cornelius 1885, Wesley 1887, Myron 1888, Florence Tylee (FT) 1891, Elizabeth 1893, Martin 1897 and a grandchild Ed Hawk 1893. The birth years of each child were given by Uncle Martin at my request.
I was very excited to come across a letter that had been written to a cousin introducing her to our great-grandfather. Josiah was a small man. He was much smaller than his wife, but he was a very stern man and ruled his family with a rod of iron. He was not afraid to physically overhaul his boys when they didn't move at his instant command. He was a lumberman and eventually became quite deaf. Most of his sons inherited this characteristic. Because he lived and worked with a rough crowd, he apparently was a very rough man, unlearned in reading and writing. But he managed to make a fairly good living considering the size of his family and the type of work in which he was involved.
Before my grandfather (F.T.) was born, a traveling Methodist minister told Josiah about Jesus Christ and how He wanted to live in Josiah's heart and how He wanted to help him live his life. Josiah believed. He learned to read the Bible. He even told about the Lord at church so that he was called a Methodist lay minister which was quite an honor. The older children may have resented a little the sudden interest in the Bible, the Lord and the repeating of the Lord's prayer at breakfast on the knees everyday. They possibly resented the out loud prayers of their mother, Emily, in the evening as she prayed for her rugged sons and their wild lives. However, when the youngest son, Martin, was born she asked in faith believing that one of her 10 sons would become a minister. My Grandfather and Uncle Martin never smoked, drank or swore like the others. Uncle Alex eventually became a Christian and was given the responsibility of being pastor of the Monterey Baptist Church. Uncle Martin, known as the mountain pastor, stayed in one locality for over 60 years telling the boys and girls (with the help of his wife and various other people) the stories of Jesus, David, Daniel and all the others in the Bible. My grandfather, F.T., pastored several churches and had some very interesting things happen to him.
When the Lord passes out the rewards in Heaven, probably that traveling minister who took time to tell this rather calloused lumberman about the Lord and probably didn't expect too much in return will receive a great share in the men and women of Monterey, Lake Lamoka, the foothills of Tennessee and the rural regions of Cayuga and Steuben counties of New York State.
Josiah Perry about 1920
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