Background
He was born on December 20, 1788 at Norton, Massachussets, United States, the son of Nathan and Phebe (Braman) Perry. His youth was passed on the family farm.
He was born on December 20, 1788 at Norton, Massachussets, United States, the son of Nathan and Phebe (Braman) Perry. His youth was passed on the family farm.
His preparation for college attained through a private tutor and a short period at an academy at Ballston, New York, where his brother, Gardner, was principal. He entered Union College but remained only a year, transferring to Harvard where he was graduated in 1811.
During the next three years he continued medical studies at Harvard and under James Thacher of Plymouth and John Gorham and John Warren of Boston, all distinguished physicians in their day. In 1814 he received the degree of M. D. at Harvard Medical School
After graduation he opened an office at Exeter, New Hampshire. There he continued to practise until almost the end of his extraordinarily long life.
Between 1830 and 1835 he was particularly interested in the subject of insanity, and it was mainly through his influence and exertions that an asylum was erected at Concord. His agitation included the delivery of two lectures on insanity before the state legislature. In 1836 he was appointed lecturer at the Bowdoin College Medical School and served one year; in 1837 he was offered a professorship, but declined.
Perry had a keen interest in chemistry, and after a series of experiments became convinced that "British Gum, " an expensive imported product employed as a sizing by cotton manufacturers, could be produced by charring starch. Such a substance he succeeded in making from potatoes, and in the latter part of 1824 completed a mill for the manufacture of potato starch which was soon providing the cotton manufacturers of Lowell with a perfect substitute for "British Gum. " In 1827 and again in 1830 the mill was burned to the ground, but within a short time was operating again. The secrets of the business were finally discovered, however, keen competition developed, and Perry gave up the manufacture of starch as no longer remunerative.
It is said that at the last two presidential elections during his life his fellow citizens waited to vote until he had cast the first ballot. In his late eighties he was still performing difficult operations and at the age of ninety-two operated successfully for strangulated hernia.
He died in 1887.
He was known for his sound judgment, careful attention to his patients and great professional skill. Original in mind and straightforward in action, he devoted his talents for over half a century to the highest interests of his community.
He married, April 8, 1818, Abigail Gilman (1789 - 1860), the daughter of Nathaniel and Abigail (Odlin) Gilman, and had by her five children. His oldest daughter, Caroline Frances, became the mother of Sarah Orne Jewett.