Henry Fielding Peery
Henry Fielding Peery Went West
(Margaret Peery/Joseph Gose, .... #1)
by Robert (Bob) Henry Peery
I have been trying to trace my great grandfather's roots and travels for
the past few months. Following is the information I have discovered.
Henry Fielding Peery was born in Tazewell county on July 12, 1841, the eighth
child of Joseph and Margaret Peery Gose. Joseph died when Henry Fielding was
8 years old. Henry and his brothers and sisters were living with
their Uncle Jonathan in the 1850 census. From what I found, young Henry Peery
finished school in Virginia where his uncle owned 8 slaves. He attended one
of the Lincoln/Douglas debates when he was 17 years old. He became an
abolitionist and joined the company I 17th /LL infantry on May 25, 1861 in
Peoria, Illinois from Green Co., Ohio when he was 20 years old. He fought in
many battles where he was a fifer. He was presented a silver fife with the
inscription, "To Henry Fielding Peery by Company I 17th Ill. infantry
Vicksburg Dec. 1, 1863." I now have possession of the fife.
Henry went back to Tazewell after the war and was shunned for being a
Union soldier. He traveled west with an oxcart and a portable photography
studio. He took pictures at outposts along the route. He showed in Hot
Springs, Arkansas around 1867. He moved on and purchased 600 acres of bottom
timber land at Dallas, Texas, then a small trading post. He stayed the first
winter in Dallas making a loop of travels taking pictures. The second year he
made a western loop, and the third year he went south. On the way back to
Dallas, he traveled through Kaufman, Texas, a larger growing community. He
returned to Dallas where he sold or traded his land for 60 acres of cleared
prairie land east of Kaufman. He opened a photography studio in Kaufman in
1871 and married Mary Stirman the same year. He operated the studio for many
years. They had one son, Valley Peery.
In the middle 1870s, the railroad was completed to Aransas Pass, Texas.
Henry Fielding went on a fishing trip to Aransas Pass. He had a Hispanic
guide and a rowboat. Using mullet for bait, a heavy rod and reel, and strong
cuttyhunk line, he went after a tarpon. He hung a 6 1/2 foot tarpon. On the
initial run, the leather flap on the reel wore through cutting his thumb to
the bone. He instructed the guide to club the fish when it came near the
boat. After pulling in the fish and returning to shore, he had the fish
mounted and shipped to Kaufman. He hung the fish in his studio. When his
son, Valley Peery, opened a saddle shop and hardware store in Kemp, Texas in
1895, the fish hung in his store. That building burned in 1912. The town
watchman broke the window to the building and saved the fish. The fish was
hung in the new Peery Hardware store, where it hung until 1966. That year
the store was sold, and I received the prize fish from my Uncle Reagan. I
repainted the tarpon and gave it to my son to hang in his new log home. It
hung in his home over the piano for six years until it fell and damaged the
piano. It now hangs in my boathouse. What do you do with a 125 year old
fish?
Henry Fielding Peery returned to Tazewell, Virginia on a visit in 1894.
He became postmaster at Kaufman, Texas from 1897-1899. He is honored as one
of the grand old pioneers of Texas in the Encyclopedia of Texas. He died in
Kaufman in 1904.
Source: Submitted by Bob Peery on
Sat, 7 Jun, 1997, on behalf of Mike Peery who had forwarded it to him
on Wed, 4 Jun 1997.
Editor - Peery Family
History
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