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Submitted: 4/19/12 • Approved: 5/24/18 • Last Updated: 5/27/18 • R679018-G0-S3
PRIVATE US Army
Company E 2 US Colored Light Artillery
Civil War Union
Death date unknown
Film # M589 Roll 67
George Washington Perry was the husband of Martha Ann Perry. His name was
originally George Washington Rayburn but the name was changed when he joined
the Union Army at Helena, Arkansas in 1863 and was discharged at Helena in
1865 to Memphis, Tennessee where he taught former slaves to read at
Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis. He traveled to the plantation in Panola
County, Mississippi where he left his family when he went to the Army. His
wife, Martha Ann, his son, William Wesley, his mother-in-law and his
sister-in-law all moved to Memphis where he resided. A daughter was buried
on the plantation property in Memphis. The Ole Missus gave him a trunk, a
butter dish, a cheese dish (glass) and a set of hand painted drinking
glasses that stayed in the family many years and as of May 2018 were in the
possession of his great-granddaughter, Margarete Ponds Lewis Banks. They
survived years of moving them from Arkansas to Oklahoma to Nebraska and none
of them so far are broken.
The cheese and butter dishes were in Oklahoma where his granddaughter,
Celestine Brown Roberts resided. She gave the glasses to her niece
Margarette, who took them to her Nebraska home where they still are.
George Perry moved from Memphis to the Redemption community of Perry County,
Arkansas where he became a deacon in the Pleasant Hill #1 Baptist Church.
More children were born in Perry County, but unfortunately George died in
the church graveyard and was buried there but the State of Arkansas
established a watershed there and the entire graveyard was washed away in
the Arkansas River. When the Federal Government sent the tombstone, the
family had movd to Conway County and it was placed on the grave of his wife
Martha Ann Perry who died in Morrilton and was buried in OddFellows
Cemetery. Family oral history relates that George was upset with the church
members because they were planning to move the church to Conway County and
name it Pleasant Hill #2 and walked out of the church meeting where they
found his lifeless body on a grave afterwards. The church did move to Conway
County and remains in the Kenwood community .
This message was sent via e-mail form at arkansasgravestones.org Sent
By: margrte2@q.com
Contributed on 4/19/12 by hawkinsdonna
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Record #: 679018