Henry Elisha Perry & Elizabeth A Zabriskie
(Parents
of Rosalia Elvira Perry, Mother of Nellie Amelia May, Mother of Wilson May
Grant,
Father of Nelada Marie Grant)
The
Perry family joined the Church in 1832 after some very miraculous events. Henry
had a very strong testimony of the gospel. Here is what he said:
“My testimony was put to the test in
1854. For over four years I had been
working for a Catholic who owned 1200 acres of land in Platte County, Missouri
which is very near to Kansas City. I
took his wagon trains to Santa Fe and elsewhere through Indian Country and
never had any trouble with the Indians.
He was so grateful for my ability and my honesty in managing his
business that he offered to make me his sole heir if I would give up being a
member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My wife's father was not a member of the
Church and he had a large farm which would supplement our income. We had one daughter and were expecting
another child. But the prophet, Brigham
Young, had asked the saints to come to Utah and we felt that wealth in this
world was not as important as our eternal salvation.”
Elizabeth
inherited 40 acres of land from her father along with some money. However, when
they left Missouri to go west with the saints, they were unable to sell the
land, so they just left it for whoever wished to take it. They were able to
outfit themselves very well for the journey with one team of horses and 6 yoke
of oxen, 2 wagons, our supplies, our household belongings, a milk cow and two
little girls.
“Henry and [his brother] Alonzo were
both good shots and were sent out to get buffalo for the company. I and my
little 5-year-old daughter Susan walked most of the way across the plains,
driving the milk cows and carrying baby Eunice. We figured out an easy way to
do our churning. We tied the churn to the back of the wagon, put our cream in
and presto in a short while we had our butter. That rough road really joggled
things around.
We were never molested by the Indians. The
trial was long and hard and dusty and we were glad to arrive in Utah. That was
Monday the 3rd day of September 1855.”