The story of Asaph Perry

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ETHEL STORY LINE
Opening Marriage Business Woman Amanda Westbrook Church Mother

Ethel comfortably wore the hats of both motherhood and businesswoman. Ethel tended the economics of the Perry home, maintaining a thriving garden with enough chickens for the extended Perry family to eat stewed, boiled, or fried. Outside the home, she marketed her skills as a seamstress. At one point, Ethel took on additional help to meet the demand for her seamstress services when her younger cousin, Amanda Westbrook, moved in to, in part, provide added help.

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Documents

The story of Ethel, the contributor and provider, emerged from her own writings. We learned about how she kept house in a letter she wrote to Asaph May 29, 1900. In the letter, Ethel writes about family savings and subsistence farming as well as alluding to her own private business venture. We discovered that Ethel had a small business in one of the many newspaper clippings saved by the family. These clippings were presumably from the Cherokee Advance.