George Powell Perry, senior partner of the firm of Perry and Perry, druggists, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, October 24, 1849, his parents being Henry C. and Malinda B. (Jefferis) Perry, who resided at Wilmington, Delaware.  They had two sons, Enos J. and George P.  The mother, died when they were only 8 months old, and the father afterwards married Miss Clarissa Thomas, of  Maryland.  There were three children born of that union:  Harry L., who lives in Dallastown, Pennsylvania; Clara Viola, the wife of David Hyson, of Hampstead, Maryland; and Effie Jane.  The father was a carpenter by trade and afterward followed the occupation of farmer.  He came to Illinois about 1855 and settled in Carroll county, where he turned his attention to general agricultural pursuits.  He afterward removed from there to Red Oak, Iowa, where he died in 1871, at the age of forty-seven years.  His first wife died in 1850, while his second wife only survived him for only three months.

    George P. Perry and his twin brother, following their mother’s death, were reared by some aunts and their maternal grandmother, and Enos J. Perry is now a distinguished dentist of Chicago.  George P. Perry was reared to manhood in Carroll county, Illinois, upon a farm.  He attended the public schools of Mount Carroll and afterward took up the study of medicine under Dr. Shimer, while for one term he was a student in the Chicago Medical College in 1871.  He afterward entered a drug store at Fulton, Illinois, where he remained for a year or more, and then spent sixteen months in a drug store in Moline.  In 1874, he came to Sterling, where he was employed in different drug stores, and on the 4^th of July, 1888, he became proprietor of a store, which he has since conducted.  He carries a large and well selected line of drugs and kindred goods, tastefully arranged, and the business is accorded a liberal patronage in recognition of the honorable methods pursued by the house.

In September, 1875, Mr. Perry was married, in Mount Carroll, to Miss Sophia E. Shirk, a daughter of Jacob and Susan (Stauffer) Shirk.  They have become the parents of three children:  Raymond, a resident of New York City, who married Emily Russell, a niece of Sol Smith Russell, the renowned actor; William H. who is a senior in the medical department of the Northwestern University, and who married Miss Mary A. Davis, by whom he has one child, Sophia Marie; and Linda, the wife of  E. W. Aument, of Sterling, by whom she has one son, Richard Perry Aument.

The parents are members of the Baptist church, in the work of which they are deeply and helpfully interested, and Mr. Perry is serving as one of the deacons.  Politically he was a republican until recent years, but has now very strong tendencies toward the prohibition party.  He resides at No. 408 West Third street.  His worth and reliability as a business man and citizen are widely known and have gained him classification with the representative and honored residents of this city.

SOURCE: History of Whiteside County, Illinois : from its earliest settlement to 1908. Chicago: Pioneer Pub. Co., 1908, 1493 pgs.