Middleton L. Perry, M. D. Among the men of Kansas who are carrying on the highly important work of caring for the afflicted and irresponsible members of society, one of the best known is Dr. Middleton L. Perry, superintendent of the State Hospital for Epilepties, at Parsons.
Doctor Perry was born at Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas, August 15, 1868, and is a son of Middleton and Ellen (Ellis) Perry. The family is of English extraction and settled during colonial times in Virginia, where the grandfather of Doctor Perry, Franklin Perry, was born. He was a farmer by vocation and in young manhood moved to Illinois, where he became a pioneer of Greene County and there continued his agricultural pursuits until his death which occurred before the birth of his grandson. Middleton Perry was born in 1814, in Indiana, but as a boy was taken to Illinois, where, in Greene County, he was educated, reared and married. In that state he followed farming, but in 1844, when thirty years of age, went to Texas as a homesteader, and that state continued to be his home until his death, which occurred at Lancaster, in 1892. Mr. Perry took part in the stirring happenings that occurred in the formative era of the Lone Star State and endured the privations and hardships incident to pioneer settlement, and was considered one of the sturdy and self-reliant men of his day who assisted in the development of his adopted commonwealth. He was an industrious man, and through hard and constant work became the owner of a valuable property. Politicelly Mr. Perry was a democrat and one of the stanch supporters of his party’s candidates and principles. He was an active member of the Baptist Church, the movements of which he supported liberally, while his fraternal connection was with the Masonic order. At the outbreak of the Civil war, he enlisted in the Confederate service, and rose to the rank of a captain of a Texas cavalry regiment. Mr. Perry married Miss Ellen Ellis, who was born in 1824, in Illinois, and died at Lancaster, Texas, in 1891, and they became the parents of the following children: Frank, now deceased; Mollie, who is the wife of W. D. Breazeale, engaged in city work at Dallas, Texas; Maggie, who is the wife of W. P. White, a real estate agent of that city; A. L., a farmer, stock raiser and general business man of Duke, Oklahoma; Nona, who married L. E. Stout, a stockman of San Angelo, Texas; W. Y., who is engaged in banking at Lancaster, Texas; Lours, who resides with her brother, M. L.; and Middleton L., of this notice.
The early education of Middleton L. Perry was obtained in the public schools of Lancaster, Texas, where he was graduated from Lancaster Academy in the class of 1885. He next enrolled as a student at the University of Texas, at Austin, where he spent one year, and then entered the medical school of the University of Tennessee, at Nashville, from which he was duly graduated in the class of 1892, at that time receiving his cherished degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1892 and 1893 he served as interne in the City Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, and in the latter year also did post-graduate work at the University of Virginia. He then returned to his native state for a short time, but soon went to New York, where he did post-graduate work under private instructors for six months, and also in hospitals there. He next became assistant physician of the State Hospital, Morris Plains, New Jersey, in 1894, and held that position steadily until 1898. In 1898 Doctor Perry went to Enrope, where he specialized in neurology at the University of Berlin and the University of Vienna. In 1899 he was appointed pathologist in the State Hospital of Georgia, and remained in that capacity until 1903, when he was sent for to come to Parsons and become superintendent of the State Hospital for Epileptics, of Kansas. The first act of the Kansas Legislature of 1899 was the setting aside of an appropriation and the appointment of a committee for the building of this hospital, one of the most humane and highly important state institutions in the Southwest. The buildings are located in the northwest part of Parsons, and the grounds consist of 640 acres. During his incumbency, Doctor Perry has labored faithfully in behalf of his charges, and at present a new hospital building is being erected, although this is but one of the many benefits and improvements secured through his earnest and indefatigable work. He is nationally accounted an authority on the care and treatment of epilepsy and is frequently called upon to appear before important bodies to read papers and deliver lectures upon the subject. He makes his home in the state residence on the grounds and is therefore constantly in touch with the wards of the state. Doctor Perry is an independent democrat. In line with his profession he belongs to the Labette County Medical Society, the Kansas State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Southeastern Medical Society and the Medical Society of the Sonthwest. He belongs also to the Parsons Chamber of Commerce and is a director of the Exchange State Bank of Parsons.
Doctor Perry was married in 1902 at Milledgeville, Georgia, to Miss Jamie Wimberly, daughter of the late James and Ellen (Guiton) Wimberly, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Wimberly was for many years one of the successful attorneys of Georgia. To Doctor and Mrs. Perry there have been born two children, namely: Middleton Lee, born December 23, 1903; and Wimberly, born July 29, 1905, both at Parsons.