The story of Asaph Perry

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THE STORY'S CONTEXT
Opening Why Asaph Technological Change The 20th Century

This is the story of Asaph Perry. It is one of normal dimensions. He was not a famous figure from political or military history. Nor did the circumstance of his life thrust him to the forefront. Asaph (or W. A. as some called him) was a typical man from a small southern town who, with his wife Ethel, worked hard to raise and support a family. There are no statues built to honor him, nor are there stories to dishonor him. He is strikingly average which (ironically) makes him worthy of our attention. Of course, there are plenty of interesting and unique things about Asaph, if only that he occupies our attention at this time and place.

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Documents - SEE all the PERRY Documents

We have no primary or secondary documentary evidence that Asaph ever extended his sphere of influence far beyond a core of family, friends, and business associates. If Aspah had achieved some fame or made some significant social or economic contribution to his community, we thought that a record of this fame would have been present in the collection we received. Although the collection itself has no history - in other words we do not know who collected the documents - we must assume that the collection represents a mostly personal effort to capture important records. Not comfortable assuming Asaph was just another early 20th Century white male; we set about analyzing the documents in the collection. Our work resulted in this story. We will present the story as honestly and personally as we are able. We will use this space to expand upon the documentary evidence which supports our story. When appropriate we will expose our syntactic historical thinking, making use of a strategic for analysis known as SCIM-C. Please join us in the analysis and do not hesitate to send us an email at jklee@gsu.edu if you have any questions.