| Sources |
- [S41] Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620-1988, Birth - Worcester, 1839.
Birth date: 7 Mar 1839
- [S82] Massachusetts, Marriage Records, 1840-1915.
- [S110] Michigan, Death Records, 1867-1950.
- [S55] Lewis Publishing, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeast ern Nebraska, Vol.2, pp. 828-832.
DAVID BRAINERD PERRY, D. D. David Brainerd Perry, president of Doan e College, Crete, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, March 7, 1839 . His ancestors on his father's side came from England to Massach usetts at a very early date, and the old homestead farm bordering on t he city of Worcester was for many generations a permanent and noted fa mily possession. John Perrv. the emigrant ancestor, with his son bear ing the same son of John Perry, Jr., with his son Nathan, moved from W atertown to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1751. Father and son bough t a large farm one and a half miles south of the center of Worcester , on what is now known as Vernon street, which has been in the famil y ever since, although the greater part of it has recently been covere d with city residences. Nathan Perry's son Moses was the grandfat her of Dr. Perry, who is in the sixth generation from John Jerry, Sr. , the line being as follows: John Perry, Sr., John Perry, Jr., Josia h Perry, Nathan Perry, Moses Perry, Samuel Perry, David Brainerd Perry . Grandfather Moses Perry married Hannah Hall, and lived to be over ei ghty; his wife died at the age of ninety-three. The Perry ancestors we re weavers in England, and for the most part farmers in this country , and they were men and women to be proud of, whether their individua l characters or their usefulness to the social world are considered . Samuel Perry, the father of President Perry, was born November 26 , 1796, and died February 12, 1878. He inherited the sturdy characteri stics of the family, and was a thrifty farmer. Possessing the respec t and confindence of his neighbors to a rare degree, he was an importa nt member of the community in which he lived, and a generous supporte r of religious and educational enterprises near and far. The aid he re ndered to Doane College at an early and critical period in its histor y was invaluable. He married Mary Harrington, who in addition to the t he care of her own family of ten children, was an efficient and much l oved medical adviser f( t the neighborhood. She was born March 20, 180 4, and died February 18, 1869, being a daughter of Francis and Lydia ( Perry) Harrington. In his early boyhood Brainerd Perry preferred wor k on the farm to attendance at school. Perhaps few boys have been mor e fond of an outdoor active life. Few boys took more interest in the g reat anti-slavery agitation with which New England was at that time al l alive. As he was too young to go in person to Kansas to take part i n the struggle for freedom, he did the next best thing—he sent his sma ll earnings to buy Sharp's rifles. When at the age of seventeen h is life work had been chosen he gave himself with intense purpose to m aking amends for lost educational time. He fitted for college in the W orcester high school, an institution of high grade. He went to colleg e for the purpose of preparation for the Christian ministry. His hig h school teachers, who were recent graduates of Yale, did much to dete rmine his choice of a college. He entered Yale in 1859 and graduated i n 1863 with the degree of A. B., taking second rank in scholarship i n a class of one hundred and twenty-two. During his training at Yale t he freshmen and senior college societies were in high savor, but he ca refully avoided the sophomore society, and used that of the junior yea r simply as a stepping stone to the senior society. The war for the Un ion was being fought out while he was in college, and he would gladl y have thrown himself into the conflict, but he was held back by the a d' ice of friends. Immediately after graduation from Yale he too k one year of theological training at Princeton Seminary, New Jersey . For an interval during this year he was able to give himself to th e service of the Christian Commission in Virginia, where he saw the ca mp fires of the enemy. He spent the following year at Union Theologica l Seminary, New York city, and engaged in religious work in Iowa durin g the summer vacation. He had gone to Andover, Massachusetts, for a th ird year in the theological seminary at that place when he received a n invitation from President Woolsey to become a tutor in Yale, which l ed him to change his plans and to take his third seminary year in th e Yale Divinity School during the two years of his college tutorship . continued his study and travel for fourteen months. Upon his retur n he was engaged for nearly two years again as a tutor in Yale. At th e end cf his student life his health, which had always been exceptiona lly good in his college days, was so much impaired that he asked the C ongregational Home Missionary Society for a frontier parish, where h e could have outdoor life and breathe the high, dry air of the plains . Superintendent O. W. Merrill assigned him to Hamilton county, wher e he lived near Aurora from April to September, 1872. In a short tim e the north half of Clay county was added to his parish, and he was th en in charge of three little churches. Efforts that had been put fort h for some time to establish a Congregational college in the state cul minated in June of this same year, and Mr. Perry was at once urged t o take up educational work in the new institution soon to be known a s Doane College. During his first year of service at Doane, 1872-73, h e was sole instructor with the title of tutor, and was engaged in prep aring a few students to enter a freshman class. Then he became profess or of Latin and Greek, and afterwards successively senior professor, a cting president, and, in 1881, president. He received from Yale the de gree of A. M. in 1866, and of D. D. in 1898. His sympathies have alwa ys been with the Republican party, but he has taken no active part i n politics, and has neither held nor sought public office. He is a mem ber of the Crete Congregational Club, the oldest organization of its k ind in the state, and the Schoolmasters' Club, which was organize d in 1898. He was married, July 3, 1876, to Helen Doane, and five chil dren were born to them: Thomas Doane, born May 27, 1877; Brainerd Clar k, August 13, 1879 (died July 21, 1880); Charles Boswell, January 25 , 1884; Helen Clark, February 17, 1888; Henry Eldridge, October 8. 188 0. place of the frontier home missionary, President Perry has never f orgotten the missionary work that drew him to Nebraska, and he has los t no opportunity to identify himself with the religious life of the st ate. He has sought to come in close touch with every phase of school l ife whether public or private. It has seemed to him that there shoul d be no divorce between education and religion, but that each should h elp the other to what is highest and best. The college of which he ha s been the head for thirty years has taken a high rank, and it is hi s ambition that he may be a part of its vitalizing power in the genera tions to come. He still fills the office of president of Doane Colleg e acceptably to all who are concerned in its welfare.
- [S44] Michigan, Death Records, 1897-1920, Battle Creek, Michigan, 1912.
Birth date: 1839 Birth place: Death date: 22 May 1912 Death pla ce: Battle Creek, Calhoun
- [S41] Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620-1988, Marriage - Boston, 1876.
Marriage date: 3 Jul 1876
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Discovering My Ancestors
1839 - 1912 (73 years)
[1, 2, 3] 
Education
