{History of Mapleton} Horace Brigham Perry (1873-1967)

This is from The History of Mapleton, by Ralph K. Harmer and Wendell B. Johnson, on page 165-166.

One of the “five stalwarts of Perry street” was born September 12, 1873, at Springville, Utah. He was a son of Stephen c. Perry and Mary Boggs Perry. He began his education in Springville, but later continued in Mapleton. He described the first school as a small building about 30 x 14 feet. The walls were made of vertically placed boards with cracks “so wide the snow could drift between the boards.” The grades were called “chart class: 1st reader, 2nd reader, etc.” All classes were held in the same room. The children paid $3.00 per quarter for school.

As a young man, Horace worked hard. He herded cows in Maple canyon, worked the farm, and hauled wood from the mountains for fuel. He also helped rail and grub hoe the sagebrush to clear the land. This was done by hitching mules to the ends of a heavy pole and dragging it over the brush. Then a wide shovel-like hoe was used to chop away the tough, unrelenting sage roots.

Much of Horace’s early life was spent working away from home. In Colorado he worked in the Placer mine sluicing gold ore. He owned $4.00 worth of stock in the company, but the get-rich-quick venture folded because the man in charge was a drinking man and he mismanaged the business. Horace returned to Utah where he cut and hauled ties for the railroad in Spanish Fork Canyon. When that job ended, he and his brother Harvey went into the brick making business. They sold their product for $7.00 per thousand. Horace also became a farmer. He raised hay ($3.50 a ton), wheat (30¢ a bushel) and sugar beets.

On November 30, 1896, Horace married Ariel Warren in the Salt Lake Temple. She was the daughter of Amos Benoni Warren and Caroline Lucy Fullmer. Ariel was born March 27, 1879 in Springville and spent her childhood in Mapleton. After their marriage, Horace built a one-room brick home with a wooden lean-to on the back. He built it on land he obtained from his father (located on 300 West, 800 South). There he continued the brick business, augmented by farming and sheep raising. Later he took his wife and family to Winter Quarters to work in the mines. After moving back to Mapleton in 1905, he resumed farming, worked in a sorgum mill, and a few years later worked on the Strawberry Tunnel and for the Utah Sugar Company. During his life he held numerous other jobs and positions. Locally, he served as Road Supervisor for the Utah County Road Commission, manager of the Amusement Hall, and worked for a short time for the irrigation company.

Horace was always cooperative whenever there was a building to be built or work to be done. He had a talent for understanding and helping wayward boys. He was an arduous worker and always exerted a full day’s labor. Honesty was his code and his word was his bond. He always loved gardening and kept a neat, clean yard. He passed those qualities on to his children: Ardell Perry Warner; Elda Perry Johnson; Dena Perry Anderson; Warren Horace Perry; Leah Perry Wilson; (Levon Leroy died in infancy). “Uncle Horace,” as he was called by the neighborhood children, was never seen much in church in later life, but he was deeply religious in his own private way. He loved to sit on the porch in the evening. A common sight was his old black sedan which drove down the roads in all his glory. A stroke suffered in 1965 severely confined him. He was attended dutifully by Ardell and Warren until his death.