Tag: Perry

Spring 1950

These are the writings of my g grandmother’s (Mollie Mahon Gilman) brother Robert Perry Mahon that has been in the family. I have read it over and over and noticed there are 25 surnames mention and 19 of those have Crockett county, Tennessee connections. Several other surnames have connections to surrounding counties. I thought it would be nice to share with other family members and others who may have known the Mahon-Perry families.

Robert P. Mahon

The MAHON family is Irish and comes from North Ireland, Belfast. They have always been Protestants.

Our grandfather MAHON came to this county in the early part of the last century and settled in North Carolina. There he married Nancy EPPERSON, and a few years later they moved to what was then known as the “Western District of Tennessee”, to that portion which is now Crockett county. In those days it was a sparsley settled country and only hardly pioneers dared to face the work and dangers of the new land. Our grandfather MAHON was named John Henry.

To our MAHON grandparents were born eight children that I know of. The oldest, a daughter Betsy, married a man by the name of BRIM, a widower.They moved to Missouri where BRIM passed away. Betsy came back to Tennessee and passed away in Alamo in the home of her brother,Howell. Our father, Franklin Epperson (Photo), was the next child and oldest son. Then there was Jackson, Bently, then a daughter whom I never knew and the names I do not know. She married a MAYFIELD in the early days and moved to Bastrop, Texas. Then there was Jane, Clemenda and the baby Howell H.

Grandfather died in the late twenties of the last century and as the oldest son,my father became head of the family. My grandfather was a Baptist but grandmother was a Methodist. As far as I know my father and his youngest sister, Clemenda, were the only ones to become Baptist; all the others were Methodists.

Father was married three times; the first two wives were DEAN and from a prominent family from the lower part of Crockett county. By the first wife there were three sons- John Henry who died leaving no family; Fountain Epperson who married in Tennessee and later moved to Arkansas. He died leaving children but I do not know their whereabouts to this date. William H. never married. Then there was a daughter Lucy who ran away and married and after that never came around our home very much. She has descendants in Crockett county somewhere around Maury City.

By his second wife,also a DEAN, there were two sons and a daughter- James Carter, who died in Memphis in 1947 at the age of 93 years; a daughter Emma; and another son Francis Sylvester. James C. married Jerusahe WORRELL near Johnson Grove. By this wife there were a number of children who are married and live in and near Memphis, near Dyersburg and Helena, Arkansas. They are a fine lot of people.

Emma married Abner EARLY and they moved to Honey Grove,Texas where he was killed in a railroad accident. By him she had one daughter,Mrs. J. T. JENNINGS of Alamo,Tennessee. After some years she married a second time to John H. ADAMS of Johnson Grove. By him she had two sons-Henry, who lives in St. Louis, and Barney, who lives in Memphis. They had one daughter, Olivia who lives near Johnson Grove.

Francis Sylvester, when quite a young man, went to Arkansas, married and moved to Texas. I know he had a family but I know nothing about them.

Then, about the year 1864 my father married the third time. His third wife was Elizabeth Lucy PERRY, whose home was near Chestnut Bluff in the lower part of Crockett county. My mother was born June 29,1829 and died March 30,1883. Father was born May 4, 1814 and died Oct 3,1896; To this union five children were born. They were Robert Perry, October 22,1865; Molly Euzera,September 11,1867; Bently, December 15,1868(died when a small boy); Charley Buck, April 15,1870; Martha Clemenda, December 17,1871.

Robert P. married Kate SAVAGE, Jackson,Tennessee, on October 1, 1895. Mollie married B.J. GILMAN, Halls. Tennessee. Charley Buck married Mary HOWARD in McNairy county,Tennessee. Martha C. married Edward B. PERRY, a second cousin, Halls, Tennessee.

Our mother, Elizabeth Lucy PERRY, came from an old English-Welsh family, and it was a Baptist family. I know very little of our ancestry except that her father was named Robert. My mother had five brothers which I know of and one sister. William PERRY, a Baptist preacher, was at one time connected with the Union University at Murfreesboro. His wife was an EVERETT and had four children- Dr. Robert PERRY, a prominent physician of Key West Florida; Lizzie, a school teacher and never married; JOSIE, also a teacher but as an old maid married a prominent doctor in Milan, Tennessee. Dr. JORDAN. The baby was Ed and he never married. Dr. JORDAN and cousin Josie both died in Nashville, Tennessee. Then there was Uncle Felix. I remember seeing him once but knew nothing of his family. I think Paschal was killed in the war in the Confederate Army. I remember Laban and his wife, Aunt Sally. They left a son, cousin Laban, whose family I know. Uncle Franklin PERRY lived and died near Chestnut Bluff. For many years he was a deacon and clerk of South Fork Church. He was a most lovable man and a fine citizen. He and his wife and eldest son died within a few days of each other with Typhoid fever. Of his children, the eldest, May married a GINN now lives in Jackson, Tennessee; Minnie married a LASSITER near Rutherdord, Tennessee, and she died not long ago. She leaves some noble sons. Lucy also married in the same commuinty as Minnie and also Willie. Sam went to California years ago and I understand did well. Isaac, the youngest boy, lives in Trenton, Tennessee. He had become a County Court Clerk, clerk of Gibson County Association, and an outstanding citizen and a fine Christian man. Margarette was a baby. When her parents died cousin Josie JORDAN took her as a daughter and still lives in Nashville. For a number of years she held a very responsible position with the Sunday School Board. Aunt Jennie, mother’s only sister, married Henry NUNN, near Chestnut Bluff. They had no children. She was a beautiful woman and we loved her very tenderly, because she was so kind and gentle.

Back to the MAHON family. My father and mother were religious in a very practical way. In our home we were taught to reverence God, His name and His day. We were reared in a modest home, with plenty to eat and plenty to wear. We had good associates and our parents were loved and honored in the community. Father was a deacon in the Baptist Church, Johnson’s Grove, and an ardent Mason. My mother sympathized with him in his devotion to the lodge.

Some of the family traits are: (1) Rugged individualism. They did their own thinking, religiously and politically. Some were pro-slavery, some abolitionists. After the war some were Repulicans and some were Democrats; some were Baptist and some were Methodist. (2) All men and women were great lovers of home and families, and in consequence there were no broken homes among them. (3) All high tempered and impulsive, but like the Irish they did not harbor resentment. They were generous and I never knew a MAHON who loved money inordinately. (4) Outspoken and fearless. They never “went with the crowd” ; They dared to stand alone. All had a sense of humor and loved a good joke. (5) All religiously inclined but despised piosity or sham. They never produced big business men, were not traders, made good farmers, but turned more to the profession, especially law and the ministry. physically, they were usually tall and straight with a military bearing; not fleshy but sinewy and of great endurance, industrious and alert. They were all men and women of decision. Their motto might well be ” Get in or get out”.

Some of the family traits of the PERRY families are; Comin from English-Welsh stock they were all religious,quite, industrious, also greay lovers of home and loyal to their families. Physically they were rather stocky, not tall and more stout in their build. They were industrious and fugal and knew how to get along. As a race they were good looking, both men and women, and were well fashioned and attractive.

Note** Let me say that Uncle Bently MAHON moved to Texas in the early days and left a family. One son was named Bently and he had a family. I know nothing of their whereabouts, weather living or dead.