Abigail Wilcox Perry
Source: Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women,
by Florence Chambers Dexheimer,
W. D. Hoard & Sons Co., Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin; Pages 137-138
Abigail Wilcox Perry, Grandmother of Eva Perry Russel, was born November 2, 1817, at Milford, Otsego County, New York, where she lived until her marriage January 3rd, 1838 to Seth Jones Perry, also of Milford, New York.
Soon after their marriage the young couple started, with their few earthly possessions, for the western frontier, travelling by canal boat and the Great Lakes until they reached Milwaukee.
Later they settled on a farm at East Troy, Walworth County, Wisconsin where they lived a few years. Soon the desire for still more acres possessed them and again they started with their two young children, in the spring of 1848, to the northward, travelling thither in a rude ox-drawn wagon, to a spot in the wilderness, six miles west of where later the city of Appleton, Outagamie County, was founded.
Here they purchased a section of land, or six hundred and forty acres at ten shillings per acre, which they cleared and built a home where they lived the remainder of their lives.
Abigail Perry was a most devoted wife and a wonderful mother. She was a woman of sterling Christian character and given to genuine hospitality, often befriending the Indian as well as the white settler when any were in need. She was active in establishing Sunday schools among the early settlers and opened her home for Christian services long before a place of worship had been built in the community. She never let her own comfort deter her from lending her help to her neighbors in their sickness, or her sympathy in times of their sorrows but gave of herself to the utmost.
She passed from earth's duties April 13, 1885, after a life of great usefulness.
Submitted by Eva Russel.
