Henry Perky - Early Life

Early Life

He was born in Saltcreek township, Holmes County, Ohio, the fifth son of Daniel Jefferson Perky (ca. 1808-?) and Magdalena Drushel (ca. 1812-?), both of Pennsylvania. He married his wife Susanna Melissa Crow (1845-?) on 3 August 1865 in Mount Hope, Ohio. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in Nebraska. He was elected to the Nebraska State Senate in 1868 when only twenty-five years old (although other sources suggest he represented the eighth district from 1874–1876). The couple lived at Omaha, Nebraska and Wahoo, Nebraska before 1880. Henry went to Colorado for his health in 1880 where he was an attorney for the Union Pacific Railroad. Sue followed from Wahoo later that same year and, in Denver, Colorado, she gave birth to their only surviving child, Scott Henry Perky (1880-?). Scott H. Perky went on to be a writer; the life of his father was the subject of one of his books. (In 1920, Scott Perky invented a shredded wheat product called Muffets, marketed by his company Toasticks; Muffets were later sold by the Quaker Oats Company as "the round shredded wheat".)