Augustus’ widow, Hannah retained legal ownership, yet share habitation with George and Malinda until her death on September 13, 1922.
Melinda was now the only remaining Perry from the original family.
By 1930, Malinda was in her eighties and widowed as George passed away in 1928.
The Perry family descendants were still running the farm, but as the Great Depression neared, operations slowed substantially.
It was no longer the premiere jewel, set atop the Wabash Valley, perfectly situated for the new and improved modes of travel and trade as it had been in 1856.
It was now just an old Indiana farmhouse that someone’s great-grandfather built long ago…
George and Malinda’s daughter, Mary Cree, began to take care of Malinda as the seasons of life change again in the Perry family.
Malinda, the final eyewitness of Edwin and Lydia’s lives, passed away on May 18, 1931.
Her daughter, Mary, passed away 5 years later on June 27, 1935.
After Mary’s death, Frank’s granddaughter, Willow Stewart took possession of the Brick House.
She and her husband, Everett, were not blessed with children of their own, however, they claimed their niece, Mary Alice, as their daughter and raised her in their mutual family home. In fact, I still have Mary Alice’s doodles on one of the walls, proving that through the Ages children remain the same.
The Brick House remained in the Perry Family until Willow sold it on June 23, 1989.
Willow and her husband, Everett, the last of the Perry family descendants to live at the Brick House and farm Edwin’s land.
Everett passed away on March 20, 1979.
Willow passed away in 1998.
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