PERRY. PERRY. 473 PERRY, ARTHUR LATHAM, youngest son of Rev. Baxter and Lydia (Gray) Perry, was born in Lyme, Grafton county, N. PL, February 27, 1830. His father was gradu- ated from Harvard University in 181 7, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1S20. He was settled as pastor of the church at Lyme, in January, 182 1, and con- tinued his work there faithfully and suc- cessfully for nine years, when, six weeks previous to this son's birth, he died, leaving all the care and training of four children to the mother. Matthew Gray, her great grandfather, and Matthew Gray, her grand- father, were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the great immigration of these people into Massachusetts in August, 1718. The Grays and many others of these immigrants went almost immediately from Boston, where they landed, to Worcester, then a new town. The Perrys migrated from Watertown to Worcester in 1 751, and bought a farm there — still owned by their descendants of the same name. Worcester thus became the ancestral home of both parents of Mr. Perry. Previous to her marriage, his mother became a notable school teacher in Wor- cester and vicinity, and for a time taught a select school in Cambridge under the shadow of Harvard College. During her widowhood she displayed a capacity for practical affairs which gained her the ad- miration of her neighbors, and the lasting gratitude of her children. This posthumous son was well trained at home, was taught implicit obedience, and was drilled in the common schools of his native village until eleven years of age, when, beginning to " work out," he was able to attend the public schools in winter, only. But he took every advantage of what schooling he could get, until, by diligent reading and hard study at home also, he fitted himself to teach in a country school, which he did at sixteen years of age. He was fitted for college at Thetford Academy, Vt., entered Williams College in the fall of 1848, and was graduated in course in 1852, taking the metaphysical oration at commencement. He taught school in Washington, D C, for one year, and re- turned to Williams College in 1853 as pro- fessor of history and political economy, and has held this chair to the present time without interruption. His main life has been in his work of teaching, and he is always happiest when with his classes in his own lecture room. He has repeatedly refused flatter- ing calls from other colleges, and equally tempting offers to other positions. He has a taste for editorial writing, and for many years contributed articles to the •' Springfield Republican " and the " New York Evening Post," declining, however, an offer to go upon the editorial staff of the latter paper, then under the manage- ment of Wiliiam Cullen Bryant. His private study and public teaching of political economy made him a thorough free-trader, and he has been a willing lec- turer and speaker for free trade in his col- lege vacations for twenty years past, and in that time has delivered about two hun- dred public addresses in half of the states of the Union. He participated in a public debate with Horace Greeley in Boston in 186S, and again in New York in 1S69. He published his " Political Economy " in the autumn of 1865, which is now in its twen- tieth edition, and his " Introduction to Political Economy " in 1877, now in its fifth edition. He has seldom been absent from college, even for a day, during his long term of service. He is a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and president of the Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society. He received the degree of LL. D. from Union College in 1874, and the degree of D. D. from Doane College in 1882. Prof. Perry was married in Williamstown, August 7, 1856, to Mary Brown Smedley, whose two great grandfathers, Col. Benja- min Simondsand Capt. Nehemiah Smedley, were among the earliest settlers of Wil- liamstown, and were patriot officers in the battle of Bennington. Of this union are six children : Bliss, professor of elocution and English in Williams College ; Grace, teacher in the Albany Female Academy ; Arthur, in business in New York ; Walter, in business in Ansonia, Conn.; Carroll, in the junior class in Williams College, and Lewis Perry, still a school-boy at home. PERRY, Edward Baxter, son of Bax- ter E. and Charlotte S. (Hough) Perry, was born in Haverhill, Essex county, February 14, 1S55. When about two years of age he received an injury to his eyes, from the effect of which he has ever since been totally blind. He attended the ordinary public schools with other children, memorizing the daily lessons by having them read aloud to him at home. He entered the Perkins Institution for the Blind in 1864, remaining two years. Later he became an enthusiastic student of music, under Junius Hill, of Boston. In 1875 he went abroad, and for three years, studied music, lansruaares and aesthetics in Berlin,
