Personal life

William Hayes Perry was born October 17, 1832, near Newark, Ohio

Newark, Ohio

In addition, the remains of a road leading south from the Octagon have been documented and explored. It was first surveyed in the 19th century, when its walls were more apparent. Called the Great Hopewell Road, it may extend to the Hopewell complex at Chillicothe, Ohio...

, where he
spent his boyhood. He completed an apprenticeship in cabinet making

Cabinet making

Cabinet making is the practice of using various woodworking skills to create cabinets, shelving and furniture.Cabinet making involves techniques such as creating appropriate joints, dados, bevels, chamfers and shelving systems, the use of finishing tools such as routers to create decorative...

 and
turning.

Perry married Elizabeth M. Dalton in 1858. They had three children
living: Mamie Perry (Davis) Modini-Wood, Charles Frederic Perry, and Florence
Johnson. Perry built one of the largest homes in Boyle Heights

Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California

Boyle Heights is a neighborhood east of Downtown Los Angeles on the East Side of Los Angeles. For much of the twentieth century, Boyle Heights was a gateway for new immigrants. This resulted in diverse demographics, including Jewish American, Japanese American and Mexican American populations,...

 called the Mount Pleasant House

Mount Pleasant House

The Mount Pleasant House is a house built in 1876 by William Hayes Perry in Boyle Heights and later relocated to the Heritage Square Museum in the Montecito Heights section of Los Angeles, California....

.

Career

In 1853, partly on account of his health, Perry started for California overland
with Colonel William Welles Hollister

William Welles Hollister

William Welles Hollister was a Californian rancher and entrepreneur.-Ancestors and early life :William Welles Hollister, was born on Jan...

, of Santa Barbara, who crossed the
plains that year with stock, sheep, cattle and horses. The party, consisting of
about fifty men and five women, crossed the Missouri River

Missouri River

The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

 at Bennett's Ferry, south of Council Bluffs. On their route they were much annoyed by
the Indians. The party came into California via Salt Lake City, thence south
via San Bernardino

San Bernardino

San Bernardino, California is a large city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California.San Bernardino may also refer to:-Landforms:*San Bernardino , a torrent that flows through the Italian province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola...

 to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, arriving in Los Angeles in February,
1854.

Perry arrived in Los Angeles, at the end of his long overland journey, worn out,
dead broke, and very nearly naked. The first thing he did was to try to get a
suit of clothes on credit. He made his way into a store and told his story to
the proprietor, who was an entire stranger, and asked to be trusted until he
could earn enough money to pay for the cheapest suit of clothes he had in the
store. Notwithstanding his ragged appearance, the proprietor of the store seemed
to be favorably impressed, and not only offered to trust him for a plain working
suit, but also insisted that he take a second and better suit to wear to church
and other places requiring him to dress well, allowing him his own time to pay
for them both.

Perry engaged in cabinet making. Although a mere boy, he took hold with an
ambition and will to accomplish all that industry, economy and perseverance
could bring him in that business, and in less than one year from the time of his
arrival, he opened the first furniture store in Los Angeles. With the articles
he manufactured, and with shipments he made from San Francisco, he kept a full
and complete assortment, and held the trade solid, and had no competitor for
four years.

Perry took a partner (Brady) in 1846; Wallace Woodworth bought Brady out in
1858. The partners operated as Perry & Woodworth for twenty-five years,
until Woodworth's death in 1883. In 1873, they changed from the furniture and
cabinet business to dealing in lumber, moldings, doors, sash, blinds, and
building hardware, and finish of all kinds. They bought and built on the
property now occupied by the business, extending through from Commercial street
to Requena, and on the south side of Requena street, building a branch of the
Southern Pacific Railroad

Southern Pacific Railroad

The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....

 through the property, so as to avail themselves of
railroad facilities in handling lumber, etc.

After Woodworth's death, Perry incorporated his business, which became known as the
W. H. Perry Lumber and Mill Company. It did an immense business; selling from
30000000 board feet (70,792.1 m³) to 80000000 board feet (188,779 m³) of lumber per annum. It had been the ambition of Perry to
take the lumber from the tree in the Northern forests, manufacture it in his own
mills in the forest where it grew, ship it on his own vessels over his own
wharves, and deliver it to the consumer in Southern California, thus
enabling his company to defy all competitors. That ambition had been realized,
his company owning their own timber lands, their own saw-mills, their own
vessels, their own wharves, and their own yards throughout the country for
distribution and sale. And as a result, their profits were very large.

Perry and associates organized the Los Angeles and Humboldt

Humboldt County, California

Humboldt County is a county in the U.S. state of California, located on the far North Coast 200 miles north of San Francisco. According to 2010 Census Data, the county’s population was 134,623...

 Lumber Company, at
San Pedro. He organized the Pioneer Lumber and Mill Company at Colton

Colton, California

Colton is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The city is located in the Inland Empire region of the state and is approximately 57 miles east of Los Angeles. The population of Colton is 52,154 according to the 2010 census, up from 47,662 at the 2000 census.Colton is the...

. He also
organized the Los Angeles Storage, Commission and Lumber Company.

Additionally, in 1865, Perry obtained a franchise from Los Angeles City to light
the city with gas

Gas lighting

Gas lighting is production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, including hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, or natural gas. Before electricity became sufficiently widespread and economical to allow for general public use, gas was the most...

. He organized the Los Angeles City Gas Company, holding
the position of president and manager for five years. Perry was the first to
set up and run the first steam engine brought to Los Angeles.
In 1879 he was elected Director, President and Manager of the Los Angeles City
Water Company. By introducing system, economy and efficiency, Perry put the
company on a dividend-paying basis.

Perry was President of the following corporations: W. H. Perry Lumber and Mill
Company, Los Angeles City Water Company, Crystal Springs Land and Water Company,
Ventura Valley Water and Improvement Company, Cosmopolis Mill and Trading
Company, of Washington Territory, and Director and one of the organizers of the
Southern California Insurance Company, and also Director of several other
corporations.