The Early Perfects from Virginia to Ohio

By Suzanne Link Allen
Photos by
Julia Perfect Teuschler, Joann Perfect Harris, and Suzanne Allen

      William Perfect (listed in DAR records as a Revolutionary War veteran) and his wife, Elizabeth Day, natives of Virginia, are said to have gone to Kentucky with Daniel Boone.  It’s very possible since the Daniel Boone and William Perfect families lived in Culpeper County, Virginia.

      William was born in 1746 in Virginia and Elizabeth was born in 1761 in Piscataway, Maryland.  They had Thomas Perfect who was born in 1786; John, born in 1790; Truman, born in 1794; and William, born in 1798 before they left Kentucky.

      In 1801, they left Kentucky, floated on a boat down the Ohio River to Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio where they lived on Brush Creek until the spring of 1807.
 

William Perfect descendant, Julia Teuschler, reenacting the Perfects crossing the Cumberland Gap with Daniel Boone

Ohio River at Brush Creek, Adams County,  Ohio

       Rebecca Perfect was born in 1802 and Middleton, the youngest child, was born in 1805 in Adams County.

        William Perfect purchased one hundred acres of military land in Trenton Township in Franklin County, Ohio in 1807. Delaware County was taken from Franklin County in 1808 so the Perfects then lived in Trenton Township, Delaware County, Ohio.  William’s land was located near the mouth of Perfect Creek where the stream joined Big Walnut Creek.
    
In the spring of 1807, Elizabeth Perfect and young son, Middleton, rode a horse and the others came on foot or horse driving the horses, cattle, and

Typical log cabin in Adams County

hogs on the long journey from Adams County to Trenton Township.  Their small supply of furniture was hauled in a cart pulled by one yoke of oxen and one horse.

     Middleton, the family historian, told that the family cut some branches, laid them in the snow and placed bedding on them for beds until a cabin was built.  The cabin was fourteen by eighteen feet and one and a half stories high with a puncheon floor, wooden door with hinges, and oiled paper for windows.  A stone fireplace with hearth and chimney furnished the heat for the cabin.  Four foot shingles held on by weight poles were the components of the roof.
 

      William and a Mordecai Thomas planted orchards that were the first efforts of fruit growing in the area.

      Middleton told that a bell was put on one horse and it was turned out to graze and the cattle were turned out the same way.  At night and morning, Middleton had to look for them.

     The older boys who could do a man’s work and William cleared enough land to support the family.

      Truman, Middleton’s brother, told about the time when the boys could not find the horses to bring them in.  They got two work horses and picked up the wandering horses’ trail and followed it until darkness when they camped near Buel Hill near Croton.  In the night, they heard horses neighing. The went to the top of Buel Hill and saw a campfire with some Indians asleep around it.  They slipped back, untied their horses that had been tied to saplings, and with their other two horses went home.  They got home before morning.

William Perfect Descendants putting flowers on William and Middleton’s graves

Left to Right: Barb Osborne, Suzanne Allen,
Clyde Perfect, Celia Baker

      William died at the age of sixty six in 1813 and was the first death in Trenton Township.  Elizabeth died at the age of seventy six in 1837 and is buried in Sunbury Memorial Park.
     
Descendants of the six Perfect sons and the daughter are scattered across the United States but there are good size groups of Perfects in Central Ohio and Southern Indiana who keep the Perfect Family reunions and family get togethers continuing.  Many are doing further research tracing the roots of the Perfect family.
 
     

Typical log cabin of Perfect era
in
Cardington, Ohio park

     
Bibliography for Article:

A Perfect Link, Volume 2    by William Perfect descendant, Suzanne Link Allen

         
   
Perfect School
North Old CCC
Trenton Twp.
Kathy and Walter Sandel left with Clyde Perfect, right back, and his grandchildren
Clyde bought and erected the sign,
made and installed the gate and fence
Perfect Reunion at Perfect School
2007

Walter Sandel Home was John and Maria Perfect's Home

         

George and Emily Smith-Perfect Reunion at John Perfect's House in 1894

         
 

Perfect Reunion, October 2007

 
 

Photo by Lenny Lepola

 
     
 
     

Return to Local History Index
See Heritage Day 2007 for More Perfect Photos
 

(11-4-2007)