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ENOS PERRY. Progressive, energetic and enterprising, Enos Perry is numbered among the foremost merchants of Goreville, and, with his brother, A. B. Perry, owns one of the largest department stores in Johnson county. He was born June 15, 1867, in Jackson county, Illinois, on a farm lying in the vicinity of Carbondale. His father, Archibald Perry, was born in Tennessee in 1824, and as a youth came with his parents to Jackson county, Illinois, where he spent the remainder of his life, being engaged in farming until his death, in 1879. He married Lucinda Reeder, who was born in 1836 and died in 1909. Of the eleven children born of their union eight grew to years of maturity, as follows: J. N.; William; George W.; J. L.; J. A., deceased; A. B.; Mrs. Louise Rosson; and Enos.

Gleaning his early knowledge of the common branches of learning in the district schools of Jackson county, Enos Perry subsequently attended Ewing College for a time. Turning his attention then toward agricultural pursuits, he was successfully employed as a tiller of the soil until 1896, when he opened a general store at Vergennes, Illinois. Disposing of that in 1900, Mr. Perry removed to Goreville, Johnson county, and having erected a frame building put in a choice assortment of goods and carried on a substantial business until May, 1906, when a disastrous fire caused him a loss of three thousand dollars above all insurance. With his brother, A. B. Perry, he then erected a fine brick building, and he now carries a stock of general merchandise valued at nine thousand dollars, in addition to dry goods and clothing having groceries, shoes, furniture, hardware, harnesses, stoves, etc., every department being amply supplied with first-class goods.

Mr. Perry married, July 10, 1891, Mary Stout, of Jackson county, a daughter of Newton and Susan Stout, and into their pleasant home six children have been born, namely: Clyde Arthur, who lived but eight and one-half years; Hazel; Clara; Ruth; Grace; and Enos. Fraternally Mr. Perry belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and to the Modern Brotherhood of America.