A Guide to the James F. and Stephen S. Perry papers, 1785-1942

Biographical Note

James Franklin Perry was the second husband of Stephen F. Austin's sister Emily. Born in 1790, he emigrated from Pennsylvania to Missouri where he married Emily Austin Bryan in 1824. In 1830 the couple were granted eleven leagues of land in Texas. Perry and his family set up a store in San Felipe, then moved to Peach Point Plantation, near a settlement on the Brazos River that later became known as Perry's Landing. He managed some of Stephen Austin’s business affairs while Austin was in Mexico, and became more politically active during the Texas Revolution, serving at various conventions and on the Committee of Safety. He served as the administrator of Austin's estate, and in 1839 declined to become secretary of the treasury of the Republic of Texas. He owned about twenty slaves, and was one of the first Texas planters to shift from cotton to sugar as a primary product. After Emily’s death in 1851, Perry and his daughter traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi to meet his son Henry. Both James and Henry Perry contracted yellow fever there; Perry died on September 13, 1853 and was buried in Biloxi. His oldest son Stephen Samuel Perry (1825-1874) continued to manage Peach Point Plantation, which declined after the Civil War until the discovery of petroleum on the property brought a brief return of prosperity in the early twentieth century.

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Scope and Contents

Correspondence, daybooks, letterbooks, memorandum books, deeds, surveys and plat maps, estate papers, and literary productions by James Perry and his son Stephen Samuel Perry and their extended families cover significant events in Texas history from the early years of colonization up to the twentieth century. Correspondence and business records concern Stephen F. Austin's land holdings, James Franklin Perry's mercantile business and other family-related business enterprises, the establishment and operation of Peach Point Plantation, and the daily concerns of paternalistic slaveholders who found it difficult to make ends meet raising cotton, corn, and sugar; to educate their children where there were no public schools; and to handle chronic health problems. The papers accentuate the contrast between life in various sections of the United States since the Perrys traveled for business, health reasons, and pleasure; attended schools in Ohio, Connecticut, Virginia; and corresponded with and visited relatives in the northeast as well as Ohio, Iowa, and Missouri.

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Restrictions

1. Pre-1865 material is available on Center for American History [CAH] microfilm 18,335, Series G, Part 1, Reels 12-31. See microfilm inventory in the microfilm room (Winkler Study) under the title, “Ante-Bellum Plantations.” Photocopies should be made from microfilm, not from originals.

2. The microfilm of this collection is part of the Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations, Series G, from University Publications of America (OCLC: 16125404).

3. Correspondence from this collection is available in transcripts. See the transcript volumes in the inventory.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

The James F. and Stephen S. Perry papers, 1785-1942, the Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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