PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM
pg 741, 742
JOHN PERRIN, deceased, was a life-long
resident of Springfield Township, Clark County, and born on the farm now
occupied by his family, April 15, 1812. The
most reliable information regarding the ancestry is, that the grandfather of our
subject was one of two brothers who came to America in Colonial times and spent
his last years in Maryland engaged in farming.
His son John, the father of our subject, was born on the farm seven miles
from Hagerstown, Md., reared in his native county and upon reaching manhood
married Miss Jane INGRAM. Early in
the spring of 1806, accompanied by his wife and infant child, he started for
Ohio with a pair of horses and wagon and a saddle horse.
He and his wife took turns in driving the team and riding horse-back,
being obliged to ford the streams, their route lying through a very sparsely
settled country with no pikes or bridges. After
some weeks travel they arrived in what was then a part of Champaign County, but
is now Clark, of which they were therefore among the earliest settlers.
The greater part of the land in the State
was owned by the Government, and there were neither railroads nor canals and no
convenient markets. For many years
the surplus products raised by the scattering families were taken to Cincinnati,
and thence on flat-boats to New Orleans. Mr.
PERRIN soon purchased a tract of six hundred and forty acres in a body, a part
of which is now included in the city of Springfield. His first abode was a cabin built of un-hewn logs but he soon
erected a better structure of hewed logs, which in those days was considered
quite a pretentious dwelling. Subsequently
a brick house was built and in it he was living when called from time to
eternity in December, 1848. His
wife had breathed her last the previous year and the bodies of both were
interred on the home farm. The
following notice written by one who knew him well, was printed in the
Springfield Republic a short time
after Mr. PERRIN’S death.
“An Old Pioneer is gone.
I have always loved to meet an old settler, who “walked in the
wilderness” when there were no neighbors, and when one of them is taken from
among us by Death, I feel like cherishing his memory. John PERRIN, who died on the 16th day of December
last, a little upwards of seventy years old, was a native of Washington County,
Md., from which place he emigrated, in June, 1806, and located here.
Forty-two years of industry was rewarded with affluence; and forty-two
years of a just and upright life in all his dealings and transactions, secured
to him the confidence of the whole community.
Solomon says “Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom, but a
man of understanding walketh uprightly.”
Mr. PERRIN was in this a man of understanding that he gave an example of
integrity as well as of industry. These
qualities produce a sort of independence and force of character in a man, which
make his loss more sensibly felt in his circle and indeed in the whole
community.
“But few are left—long may they be
spared—who remember the state of the country, when Mr. PERRIN pitched his tent
here in the “back-woods” when a man might travel in a bee line for ten or
more miles and not be obstructed by a farm fence.
Springfield was a town only on paper for the hazel brush covered the
site. There were no mills, nor
churches nor schools; and no one then thought about turnpikes, and there were
but a few roads or paths of any kind. As
for railroads or telegraphs, they were not then even in the distant future.
Men of enterprising, discriminating minds like Mr. PERRIN, saw that the
county possessed the elements of future prosperity and greatness.
The hardships and privations incident to the first settlement of such a
country were great, and required industry, patient endurance, rigid economy and
integrity. All these he had in an
eminent degree, which enabled him to wrestle with the difficulties of the
enterprise, and now in a good old age, surrounded by those who love him, he has
been gathered to his fathers. He
has left four sons and one daughter.”
The subject of this biographical notice
could scarcely fail to do credit to a parent so highly regarded as was John
PERRIN SR., and to secure for himself a similar regard from those who knew him.
He was reared on the home farm, attending the pioneer schools, which were
taught in the log schoolhouse, and at his home learning much useful knowledge
which was not a part of the school curriculum.
During his early years, his mother did all her cooking by a fireplace,
cook stoves being unknown upon the frontier; she used also to spin and weave
wool and flax, clothing the family with the fruits of her own labor.
Mr. PERRIN remained with his parents until
their death and inherited the old homestead, continuing to reside upon it until
he also was gathered to his father’s June 27, 1888.
He had in the meantime erected a fine brick house, enlarged the barn, and
otherwise improved the place which forms one of the most pleasant homes of the
county. The farm contains two
hundred and eighty-three and a half acres, twenty-three of which are within the
corporation limits of Springfield, the remainder adjoining the same.
The dwelling is furnished in a manner which reflects credit upon the
taste of the occupants while making no pretensions to undue elegance.
On March 9, 1853, Mr. PERRIN led to the
hymeneal alter Miss Mary Dunn ROUSH, who was born in Berkley County, Va.,
February 2, 1825. Her paternal
grandparents were born in Germany, and upon coming to America located in
Virginia, spending the remainder of their lives there.
Her grandfather was a slave-owner and became well-to-do.
Martin ROUSH, her father, is believed to have been born in the Old
Dominion. He was a planter, working
his lands with slave labor until 1847, when he sold his possessions there and
came to Ohio. After residing in
Madison County a year he came to Springfield, in which town he abode a twelve
month after which he removed to a farm which he had purchased in Springfield
Township, dying there in1877 at the age of eighty-six years. His wife, who had borne the maiden name of Margaret PATTON,
was born in Greencastle, Franklin County, Pa., spent her last years in
Springfield, and was buried beside her husband in Ferncliff Cemetery.
To our subject and the widow who now mourns his loss, seven children were born, six of whom survive to comfort their mother in her grievous affliction and to share the burden of grief that follows the removal of a beloved parent. These bear the names of Margaret Amelia, Ellen Nora, wife of James E. STUDEBAKER; John Martin, Mary Belle, Ida Lavenia and Minerva Cooper. The deceased child who was called Katie McKee died at the age of seven years and five months. Mrs. PERRIN is a consistent member of the First Lutheran Church, which her husband attended and liberally supported, although not identified with the organization. Throughout the entire community Mrs. PERRIN is regarded with the respect due to a woman of her fine character, intelligent mind, and habits of usefulness, and the other members of the family share in the esteem of their neighbors. Mr. PERRIN lies buried within two hundred yards from the spot where he was born and where he had always lived.