History of David Harold Peery
(Major David Peery, John Peery, James Peery #1)
(Eleanor Harman Peery, Heinrich (Henry) Harman, Captain Heinrich Henry
Herrmann Sr., Henry Adam Herrman)
Compiled and Written by Liliu Davis Peery
February 1941
Part 1
David Harold Peery, son of Major David and Eleanor Harman Peery, was born
in Tazewell County, Virginia, May 16, 1824. His early boyhood and
manhood were passed in Virginia and Kentucky. His father was a
well-to-do farmer, owning lands, livestock and Negroes. Mr. Peery
finished common schools in Virginia and then went to Emery and Henry
College. He worked on his father's farm from 1832 to 1842, when not at
school. He also taught school for one year during 1844 and 1845.
He was naturally inclined to follow merchandising and banking. In 1846,
he commenced in the merchandising business at Clear Fork, Tazewell
County, Virginia, with his brother, John D. Peery. Later he bought his
brother's interest and moved his store to Burke's Garden, Virginia. He
was interested only in business and did not care for or have any desire
to learn anything about religion. He belonged to no church.
One day a beautiful, young Mormon girl named Nancy Campbell
Higginbotham (born in Tazewell, Virginia, May 19, 1835) went into his
store. Mr. Peery was instantly attracted to her and started an
acquaintance which resulted in courtship and marriage. They were married
on December 30, 1852. This union was blessed with two boys and one girl
-- Thomas Carnahan Peery, born in Burke's Garden, Tazewell County, Virginia,
October 9, 1958; died May 1, 1861. William Harold Peery, born in Burke's
Garden, Virginia, September 21, 1862; died October 12, 1862. Louisa
Letitia, born in Burke's Garden, Virginia, July 14, 1860; died at Salt
Lake City, Utah, July 29, 1930, the wife of Charles Comstock Richards.
Mr. Peery was greatly troubled because his wife belonged to the unpopular
Mormons. He tried to argue with her but she had studied her religion so
well and understood it so thoroughly through studying the little book
"Voices of Warning," by Parley P. Pratt, that he soon found out that it
was useless to argue any further. So he sent for a celebrated preacher
in Richmond, Virginia, to come to Burke's Garden and show his wife where
she was wrong. The preacher was badly defeated and I have heard Mother
Peery say many times that "Aunt Nancy could wind him up so tight he
couldn't think of a word to say." Mr. Peery was very angry angry and
took the preacher aside and said "You say you are a graduate of a school
of ministry and yet you don't know a thing about religion. The idea of
your letting my young wife out-argue you."
He next sent to Washington, D.C. for one of the most celebrated clergymen
in the country. It did no good for his wife had the truth and she was
able to defeat this preacher also.
Mr. Peery was still very much troubled because of his wife's religious
beliefs. His son, Joseph S. Peery, makes the statement that his father
refused to learn willingly so he had to learn through suffering.
In 1862, David H. Peery volunteered and entered the Confederate Army of
Eastern Kentucky, as assistant commissary under General Humphrey Marshal.
Up to 1861, he had been remarkably prosperous, being out of debt and
worth more than $60,000, with a good name and character.
In 1861, a series of misfortunes and disasters began in his affairs.
His oldest son, Thomas Carnahan, died May 1, 1861. In 1862, while in the
army, he was taken down with typhoid fever and was removed in an
ambulance to his father's home. While he was sick, his father and mother
and father-in-law, William Higginbotham, all died of the same disease.
In July 1862, being still sick, he was removed to his own home in Burke's
Garden, and on September 30, 1862, his beautiful wife, Nancy, died. Soon
after, on October 12, 1862, his other son, William Harold, died. He was
now left with his motherless daughter, Lettie.
Still sick and much distressed with his overwhelming sorrows, a great
desire came over him to read his wife's books and to learn what was in
her religion to hold her so firmly in its beliefs and teachings. With a
believing heart he read her copy of "Voice of Warning" and then read a
book by Orson Pratt on "Eternal Family Relationship." He loved his
family so dearly and was so impressed with what he had read that he was
thoroughly converted to the faith which he had tried so hard to take from
his wife.
He asked his mother-in-law, Louisa Ward Higginbotham, where there was a
local Mormon Elder. She answered that the only one she knew of was
Absolam Young who was twenty-five miles from there. Without telling
anyone where he was going, he jumped on a horse and rode the twenty-five
miles over snow covered mountains and found Absolam Young. Together they
cut ice which was six inches thick and David Harold Peery was baptized by
Absolam Young in November 1862.
In December 1862, he returned to the Confederate Army, acted under the
command of General Williams of Kentucky, and in the spring of of 1862,
while still in the army, he was again stricken with typhoid fever.
During his former sickness he had lain for six weeks, and during this
latter sickness he lay four weeks, both times at the point of death.
On July 18, 1863, after having returned to the army, his residence, store
and six houses filled with goods and provisions, property valued at
$60,000, were burned to the ground by the Union Army. Not a thing was
saved and he had no insurance.
In 1864, believing that these were the last days spoken of by the
prophets when the judgments of God should be poured out upon the earth,
he had a strong desire to gather with the people of his faith in the land
of Zion. He started for Utah with his mother-in-law, her three children--
Simon, Letitia and Frank Higginbotham--, and his own little daughter,
Lettie.
Upon arriving in Omaha [Nebraska, the eastern terminus of the Mormon Trail]
the bought three ox wagons and six yoke of cattle, two cows and provisions.
They left Omaha June 4, 1864, in an independent company. The Indians were
bad that yeaer and their train was attacked two or three times, but none
of the party was killed, neither did they lose any of their stock or goods.
They came to Utah by way of the Platte and Sweet Water Rivers to the South
Pass and arrived in Salt Lake City August 31, 1864.
Part 2
In Holladay [Holidayburg, Salt Lake County], Utah on April 10, 1865, David
Harold Peery and Elizabeth Letitia
Higginbotham were married by Elder Winslow Farr (father of Winslow
Farr and Aaron Farr of Ogden, Utah) and on November 9, 1865, he and his
former wife's sister, Elizabeth Letitia Higginbotham, were married in the
Endowment House by Heber C. Kimball, for time and all eternity. At that
time both sisters Nancy Campbell and Elizabeth Letitia Higginbotham were
sealed eternally to David Harold Peery. Elizabeth Letitia was just
nineteen years of age, but had mothered his daughter, Louisa Letitia
(Lettie) since the death of her mother Nancy in 1862.
Their union was blessed with ten children: David Henry, born in
Holidayburg [Holladay], [Salt Lake County,] Utah, April 13, 1866 - died in
Los Angeles, California December 6, 1907; Joseph Stras, born in Ogden, [Weber
County,] Utah, October 5, 1868; Nancy May, born in Ogden, May 2, 1871 - died
in Ogden, March 31, 1873; Horace Eldredge, born in Ogden, November 14, 1873 -
died October 2, 1913 [in Porterville, California]; Eleanor Virginia (no
date of birth - died in infancy); John Harold, born in Ogden, February
19, 1878 - died June 11, 1939 [in San Francisco, California; Margaret
Louise [Margaret Louisa, Louise Margaret, or Elizabeth Louise] Peery
Fulkerson (wife of Emmett G. Fulkerson [a Peery descendant]) born in Ogden,
February 20, 1881 - died June 13, 1916; Simon Francis [Higginbotham], born in
Ogden, August 18, 1884 - died February 20, 1935 [Provo, Utah County, Utah];
Louis Hyrum Ward, born in Ogden, April 11, 1887; Harman Ward, born
in Ogden, August 23, 1891. Nancy May and Eleanor died in infancy.
In October 1866, he moved to Ogden, where he owned and operated a
thresher with J.C. Thompson. During the winter of 1866-67 he taught
school in Ogden. In March 1867, Mr. Peery entered the mercantile
business once more; this time beginning as a clerk in a store owned by
Bishop Chauncy W. West, who had the only store in Weber County at that
time.
Mr. Peery would go to the store at six o'clock in the morning and have
it all cleaned and in readiness by the time the manager, Mr. Hopkins,
would arrive at about nine o'clock. One morning Mr. Hopkins came into
the store, felt the counters to see if they were properly dusted and
then remarked "Mr. Peery, one year from now I will be the owner of this
store." Mr. Peery answered, "If you are, Mr. Hopkins, you will have to
get up earlier in the mornings than you do now." One year from that
time D.H. Peery, in partnership with L.J. Herrick, was owner and manager
of the store, having realized means by collection of debts and sale of
real estate in Virginia.
The business was very prosperous, but at the request of President Brigham
Young, Mr. Peery sold his stock of merchandise to Z.C.M.I. [Zions
Cooperative Mercantile Institution] and became manager of Z.C.M.I. In
July 1869, he resigned as manager of Z.C.M.I., but after a visit to
Virginia he was again made manager of the same institution.
In December 1872, he bought the Weber Grist Mills and adjacent lands from
William Jennings.
He served as a missionary to the Southern States and labored in Texas,
Tennessee and Virginia. He left Utah in 1875, but there is no record as
to the length of time he served.
On the 9th of February, 1881, a number of prominent citizens met at his
home to take steps to organize the Herald Publishing Company. A
permanent organization was completed on the 18th day of February of the
same year, with David Harold Peery as president. New presses, types,
etc., were purchased and on May 2, 1881, the first number of the Ogden
Daily Evening Herald was issued. The paper was successful. In 1883, the
business was out of debt, with stock at par, and at that time Mr. Peery
resigned as president of the organization.
On August 5, 1873, Mr. Peery wrote in his biography "I sustained a heavy
loss by fire during a terrible conflagration. The amount of the loss was
about $20,000, including in the property destroyed, a large, new
storehouse filled with merchandise, and a large adobe residence, both of
which were situated on what was then known as Main Street (west side)
between Fourth and Fifth Streets. There being no insurance on any of the
property, the loss was total." The residence was in the exact spot where
the Peery Egyptian Theater of Ogden now stands.
In July 1882, while Mr. Peery was in Virginia, the Weber Mills (which he
now owned) store, storehouse, wheat, flour, merchandise, etc. burned.
There was no insurance. In 1883, in partnership with James Mack of
Ogden, he rebuilt the Weber Mills.
Mr. Peery served as a director of the Deseret National Bank of Salt Lake
City, Thatcher Bros. Banking Company of Logan, and was the first
president of the First National Bank of Ogden, which position he held
from October 9, 1888 until he resigned the position on January 11, 1894.
He served as a representative from Weber County in the Utah State
Legislature during the sessions of 1878, 1880, 1882 and 1884. On June 7,
1882, he was appointed by the Utah Territorial Convention as a delegate
to Washington to labor for the admission of Utah as a State. He went
with John T. Caine and F.S. Richards. On November 28, 1882, he again
went to Washington as a delegate on statehood, this time going with
President George Q. Cannon, John T. Caine and F.S. Richards.
He was elected Mayor of Ogden on February 12, 1883, and was re-elected
Mayor on February 9, 1885. He was elected president of the Ogden Chamber
of Commerce on April 15, 1887 and in June 1887 was chosen a member of the
Utah Constitutional Convention.
There was a vacancy in the Presidency of the Weber Stake, which then
comprised all of Weber County, and on May 27, 1877, the people were
assembled in the Ogden Tabernacle to sustain a new president to be named
by President Brigham Young, who arose and said "The name I propose to be
your stake president is a man you all know and like. He is not known as
a religious man, not a long praying man, but a man who will make you all
rich if you will let him. That man is David Harold Peery." The people
were delighted.
President Peery labored earnestly for both the spiritual and material
welfare of the people. He had many interesting experiences with the
people, one of which he told to Congressmen in Washington when he was
sent in an effort to obtain statehood for Utah. One Congressman said
"That is the best story of honesty of a people I have ever heard." This
is the story:
One year there was a failure of crops in Ogden Valley. The people were
in need of food. Mr. Peery owned the Flour Mills and he told the people
they could get flour at his mill and pay him after the next harvest. No
security was asked and during the winter hundreds of the farmers came to
his mill and secured flour. At the following harvest every man paid his
account in full.
As President of Weber Stake, Mr. Peery traveled constantly among the
people and met with the Priesthood. While always looking after the poor,
it was his desire to provide employment rather than to distribute
charity. He was very much opposed to helping those who showed little
disposition to help themselves. He was a bitter enemy of dishonesty.
His advice to the young was: "Have a good credit, live so that you can
have unbounded credit, but be slow to use it." He also said: "If you
earn $1.00 a day, save ten cents. Take care of the dimes and the dollars
will take care of themselves." No gossiping nor backbiting were allowed
in his home and he told his children: "Never talk about anybody; if you
must talk, talk about the sun, moon and stars." He always taught his
children to have the greatest respect for the General Authorities of the
Church and I doubt if anyone has ever heard one of his children criticize
any member of the General Authorities of the Church.
His estimate of a man was largely based upon his financial honesty.
Whether rich or poor, it made no difference to him, just so he was
honest. One friend remarked of Mr. Peery that clothes made no difference
at all with him. The look in the man's face and his eyes were the
determining factors with Mr. Peery.
David Harold Peery retired from active business life in 1894, when he
resigned as president of the First National Bank of Ogden. He built a
palatial residence in Ogden at that time which he named Virginia after
his native state. It was in this home that he spent the last six years
of his life in peace, comfort and contentment, which he had so well
earned.
At the time of his death, the Deseret News made the following comment:
"Mr. Peery was a man of wide reading and it was often wondered where he
found time to accumulate such a volume of general and accurate
information in the midst of such an active business career. His
intelligence was far above the average and his characteristic comments on
public characters, current events and every other subject that the world
gives serious attention to, carried with them so much charm that the
social hours spent with him were keenly enjoyed."
He was hospitable to the extreme. His home was always open to his
friends, many of whom were in the very humblest of circumstances and
others among the noted men and women of the country. Mother Peery used
to tell us that she never knew how many extra people would be brought
home to a meal. The family seldom dined alone and the only safe way was
to have plenty of food prepared.
Notwithstanding three destructive fires, Mr. Peery went on undaunted and
each time was able to build up a new business and succeed. He left to
his children and grandchildren a heritage of which any person could well
be proud and an example, which, if followed, will place them in the
highest esteem of all who meet them.
Mr. David Harold Peery has a posterity of thirteen children, twenty-seven
grandchildren, twenty-two great-grandchildren and seven great-great-
grandchildren.
He passed away at his home in Ogden very unexpectedly on the morning of
September 17, 1901 and is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery. "God
touched him with his finger and he slept."
Source: History of David Harold Peery, compiled and written by
Liliu Davis Peery, wife of Joseph Stras Peery, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Typewritten copies of this history prepared in February 1941, were
originally distributed to some third generation descendants of David
Harold Peery, including Paul Davis Peery, a grandson.
Editor - Peery Family
History
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