Francis Allen Perry was born in Wolfboro, N. H., and while yet a child his parents removed with him to Biddeford, Maine, where his youth was passed in the acquirement of a good common school education. This supplemented with three terms at a private school fitted him for the duties of practical life. Early he exhibited a taste and talent for mechanical pursuits and turned his attention to the machinist trade in which he attained great proficiency. Several years of his life were passed in the employ of the Hinkley Locomotive works in Boston, where his faithfulness and skill so commended him to his employers that he was chosen to take out from the shop and deliver to the purchasers in various portions of the country the locomotives built by them. In 1852 he first located in Keene, as a locomotive engineer on the Cheshire railroad, and has successively risen to foreman of machine shop, general foreman, and in 1863 to master mechanic of the road. In this capacity he has planned and superintended the construction of the present machine shops of the Cheshire railroad at Keene, which are quoted as a model of convenience for the purpose of their design. As an inventor he is not unknown, having taken out six patents upon various improvements in railroad appliances. His services as a member of Keene city council, and chief of the fire department, have been wasely planned and ably rendered. Happily united in marriage with Miss Mary J. Lucas, daughter of a soldier who still lives in Fryeburg, Maine, to recount deeds of the war of 1812, he has reared two sons and two daughters. The oldest daughter, Lilla J., married Henry C. Maxham, of St. Albans, Vt., but both she-and her husband have passed away before their prime, leaving two orphan children to fill the place in heart and home left vacant by her untimely death. Frederick R. Perry the eldest son, is an engineer on the C. R. R., Eva A., a graduate, and Walter A., a student .of Keene high school.
