My Genealogy Hound

Aaron Perry, B. S., LL. B., whose portrait is shown on the opposite page*, is one of the best known and most successful lawyers of Oakland County, Michigan, where he has spent nearly his entire life. He was frequently called upon to fill positions of public trust at an earlier day, but has devoted his later years to the practice of his profession and study. He is the senior member of the firm of Perry & Stockwell, with offices in Pontiac, where he has resided many years.

Mr. Perry was born on a farm in Oakland County, Michigan, November 11, 1848, and is the youngest of a family of eight children born to Abram and Sophia (Andrews) Perry. His father was born in Warren County, New Jersey, and died when our subject was 15 years of age. He had come to Oakland County in 1836 and lived here until his death at the age of 54 years. He married Sophia Andrews, who was born in Genesee County, New York, and her death occurred when Aaron Perry was but two years old.

From his father’s estate, Aaron Perry received $700, which, with a sum borrowed, paid his way through school. He received a preparatory education in the Clarkston Union School of Oakland County, then entered the University of Michigan, and graduating therefrom with the class of 1870. He was a member of the Literary Adelphi and was one of the speakers at the second sophomore exhibition. In the fall of 1870 he entered into politics and lacked one vote of securing the Democratic nomination for the office of State Representative. He taught during the following school year at the Ortonville Academy, and during the school year of 1872-73 was superintendent of the Ovid Union School in Clinton County. In the famous Greeley campaign of 1872 he was elected a member of the State Legislature, and with five others formed, the minority in that body. At the close of the session in the spring of 1873 he went to Muskegon, Michigan, and took charge of the United States Harbor improvements under his former classmate, C. M. Wells. In the fall of the year he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, and in March, 1874, attended a special session of the Legislature called for the purpose of considering and submitting a new State Constitution to the people for their approval at the next election. The session continued about 40 days, during which time he roomed with Col. C. B. Grant, then speaker of the lower house and now one of the Supreme Court justices of the State. It is a matter of some pride to Mr. Perry, that on account of his ability in rushing business he was called upon to preside more during that session than any other member, excepting two, and that during his term of office he was enabled to do some good work in the interest of the University. During the next summer he was for a time in the United States service as harbor inspector on the West coast of Michigan, and traveled some in Illinois, Wisconsin and the Northern Peninsula. In the fall of 1874 he was a candidate for county clerk and with a total of 10,000 votes cast he was defeated by but 11 votes. That defeat he now counts as one of his strokes of good luck, as he was enabled to re-enter the law department of the University, from which he was graduated the following spring. He then spent two summers at Sand Beach, assisting Mr. Gilbert of the class of 1870, in charge of the work of constructing the United States harbor refuge at that place, spending the intervening winters in careful study of the law in the office of Judge A. C. Baldwin of Pontiac. In the fall of 1876 he entered actively into the Tilden campaign and stumped the county in the interest of Democracy. After the election he became a partner of Judge Taft of Pontiac, with whom he continued for two years. In the spring of 1878 he was appointed city attorney and filled that office most efficiently for a period in all of eight years, and also in 1878 was elected prosecuting attorney in which office he served for two years. Since that time he has but once been a candidate for an office, at which time he was candidate for Circuit judge, and, although he ran ahead of his ticket in his own county, met with defeat. Since 1876, he has practiced law continuously in Pontiac and ranks among the foremost in the county, having participated in much important litigation and is the president of the Bar Association of Oakland County. Both his tastes and aptitude fit him better for the trial of issues of law than of fact, and for that reason he has successfully argued a large number of cases before the Michigan Supreme Court. He has accumulated a large law library and an extensive collection of miscellaneous books. He has traveled very extensively throughout the United States, but never out of North America. Although a member of a fishing club, he has not caught a fish nor fired a gun in 30 years, and has no taste for sports of any kind, preferring to dig fossils from a disintegrating ledge of rocks. He has made a specialty of geology and microscopy and has spent many hours of recreation in gathering fossils and examining microscopical specimens. He has a large cabinet of fossils and geological specimens of different kinds, and has a large collection of books on the subject of geology.

On Christmas Day, 1873, Mr. Perry was married to Sallie Hoffman, who had been one of his assistants in the Ovid Union School, and they have one son, Stuart H., who was born in Pontiac in October, 1874. Stuart H. Perry graduated from the literary department of the University of Michigan in 1894 with the degree of A. B., and from the law department two years later. He then entered into partnership with his father under the firm name of A. & S. H. Perry; for a year prior to August 1, 1901, the firm maintained a branch office in the city of Detroit under the personal charge of the junior partner. Upon that date, Stuart H. Perry retired from the firm to become editor of the Oakland County Post and the Pontiac Daily Press, in which he had purchased an interest. His first experience as editor was while managing editor of the Inlander while at the University. May 1, 1902, he became proprietor and is editor of the St. Johns News at St. Johns, Michigan, where he now resides. He has traveled extensively in the United States, Mexico and Europe, is a member of the American Microscopical Society, and has contributed articles to the publications of that society. Although his tastes are literary, he shares his father’s tastes for geology. Stuart H. Perry was united in marriage with Maude Caldwell, a daughter of Dr. William C. Caldwell of Fremont, Ohio, whom he first met as a student at the University. They have one child. While connected with the Detroit bar he wrote a law book entitled ‘The Legal Adviser and Business Guide,” which was published in January, 1902.

There were many prominent and distinguished men in the class of 1870 in the University of Michigan of which Aaron Perry was a member, among them being Rufus Day, justice of the United States Supreme Court; William L. Penfield, solicitor of the State Department of the United States; Walter B. Stevens, secretary of the St. Louis Exposition; Alfred Noble, one of the most able engineers of the world, who served on the recent canal commission; Bernard Moses, who was appointed to the Philippine Commission by President McKinley in 1901; Lucius B. Swift, the noted civil service reformer, of Indiana; and Count Michael Meyerdorff, a well known civil engineer, now occupying a government position in Washington, D. C. Fraternally, Mr. Perry is a member of the Pontiac Lodge, F. & A. M.; the Knights of Pythias; and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His wife is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which he also attends.

*Editor's note: Portrait was included on the opposite page in the original printed book.