My Genealogy Hound

Robert Y. H. Terry is the proprietor of the Hamburg Planing Mills and was born in South Carolina on March 27, 1837, to John M. and Mary (Graydon) Terry, also natives of the Palmetto State. The Terrys are of English extraction and came to the United States shortly after the Revolution, but the Graydons and Camps, the mother’s relatives, were soldiers in that war under Gens. Greene, Sumter and Marion, and were in the battles of Cowpens and King’s Mountain. John M. Terry lived and died in South Carolina, a leading member of the Methodist Church, and served in some official capacity the most of the time after reaching manhood. The paternal grandfather, Thomas Terry, as well as his wife were members of the Methodist Church in England under Wesley. John M. Terry died in 1853, and in 1858 Robert Y. H. Terry left South Carolina for Mississippi, in which State he remained one year, then came to Arkansas, which State he reached in December, 1859, his mother coming thither with him. He received the education and rearing which is usually given the farmer’s boy, and at the time of his father’s death he was prepared to enter college, but gave up this plan to take charge of the farm. After coming to Arkansas he opened up a woodland farm in Ashley County, near Marie Saline on the Ouachita River, and on this farm remained until the war came up, when he enlisted in Company A, First Trans-Mississippi Regiment, and on July 4, 1863, was captured at Helena and was kept a prisoner at Alton, Ill., for eight months, Fort Delaware twelve months and was paroled three weeks before Lee’s surrender. He then came home, remained on the farm one year, and in 1867 moved to Hamburg, where he has been since March, 1867. He first opened a furniture store and cabinet shop, but in 1871 built and operated with his brother and nephew, Dr. A. W. Terry, a saw and grist mill. Mary Terry died at her home in Hamburg, Ark., in 1879, in her seventy-ninth year. In 1887 the brother, William S. Terry, moved the saw mill to a location five miles south of Hamburg, after which Robert Terry engaged in his present business, at which he is doing well. His mill and machinery are valued at about $2,000, and although his trade is already large, it is rapidly increasing. In 1871 he was married to Miss Sarah A. Pryor, a daughter of Rev. John Pryor, and to them two children have been born: William Trigg and Annie E. Mr. Terry and his wife belong to the Methodist Church, and he is a member of the K. of H., and in his political views is a Democrat.