A Town Called Perry: Midwest Life in Small-Town Iowa

From author's Foreword: "This is not intended to be a history of Perry, just stories about Perry out of history. The material has come from more than 100 years of The Perry Chief files. From these old newspapers it can be learned how Perry began and how the town grew. They tell of the many businesses which flashed into being, flourished for a while, and then faded. This is about some of them. They tell of pioneers who led interesting and exciting lives as they played out their role in Perry's progress. This is about some of them. And it is also about conditions - the way they were....It took over 20 years of scanning the old newspapers to get these stories and many more hours to put them together. Some were easy. Some raised questions which might not be answered until years later in a different issue. Some will still leave the reader wondering what it was that was not reported. There are many great stories hidden in Perry's past. It was not possible to tell them all."