HISTORY OF STEPHEN PERRY AND ANCESTORS PAGE 2 Stephen perry's marriage and conversion to the Church of J.C. of L.D.S. 1816-1842 22-48 Stephen Perry met and married Rhoby Edwards, daughter of Joseph Edwards and Olive Green. The couple moved to Lewis, Essex, New York. Here three children were born to them. They were, Josiah Henry, born 5 April, 1818, Susannah Irene born 3 August, 1820, William Howard, born 2 August 1823, Sally Sylvia, born 1 September, 1826, Stephen Washington, born 9 October 1829, Sylvester Lyman, born 2 January, 1833 and Alonzo Orson, born 17 may 1836. Stephen and Rhoby joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. They brought up their children under the strictest code of this sect. The children were taught not to lie, steal or cheat, or in any way to be dishonest. Although the children had little formal schooling they did learn to read the Bible and were required to do so after the age of 9. (5) There was a great deal of religious excitement going on in this community, in the 1830's. Josiah Henry Perry left the following statement. "When I was 14 years of age, there began to be a great revival in the north part of town where I lived.--Among the rest, my feelings were aroused and I began to think more seriously about religious things as I attended themeetings. But how to get that religion which made them so happy and yet to weep and lament, I could not understand. I beheld that no two sects did agree in their religious tenants. The Preachers would tell the horrors of the infernal lake with it's entrance yawning wide to receive the sinner into the rolling sulpherous billows in the dark abyss. They would paint the joys of Heaven, but how to escape the damnation of Hell and insure the joys of Heaven, I could not learn." (7) Into this religious confusion, came the Mormon Missionaries. preaching Faith, Repentance and Baptism by immersion, for the remission of sins. Solomon Humphrey baptized and ordained Elisha Collins in 1832. The Perry's listened to the missionaries as they taught the true principles of Salvation. Sally Sylvia was the first to be baptized, in March of 1832. Josiah Henry was second, being baptized in July of that year.Elder Jared Carter had joined Elder Collins and performed this ceremony. These Elders continued teaching the Perry family. In 1834 Stephen was baptized and all the other members of the family, who were old enough. Stephen may have been afflicted with Epilepsy and at or before his baptism, received a miraculous release from this dread physical condition (6) While all this was going on, Rhoby's father died of dropsy at the age of 79. He had served in the Revolutionary war and had applied for and received an Army pension for himself and his wife. At his death, Olive Edwards was now alone and destitute. Stephen wrote and signed papers to help her get her widows pension. The Perry's took her into their home, where she remained until after the 1840 census. She then moved to Rodman, New York, where she lived with her son, until her deathe on 23 January, 1846. By 1842, the townspeople were becoming increasingly hostile because of the Perry's new faith. Stephen decided to move his family to Nauvoo, Illinois and join the body of the Saints. Josiah Henry 219