The Laney and Buchanan-Perry House Sites
First Citizens Bank
Pencil Drawing of the Buchanan-Perry House
Color Pencil Rendering of Buchanan-Perry House
One of Dr. William Joel Perry's Automobiles
Rock from Melton (Grandparents) House
Made Into a Marker for This Site
Dr. Jerry Buchanan Perry married Helen King of Chesterfield. Their five children are, as follows: Claudia Perry Harmon Maloney, Vivian Lynn Perry Quick Clower, Jerry Perry, Jill Perry, and Mollie Perry Rose.
STORIES: On December 7, 1941, Dr. William Perry was called to the office for an emergency. As he placed the key in the lock to open the door, he heard someone say, “The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor.” That moment remains imprinted in his mind, even today.
He told of a patient who had a severe case of “jock itch”. The young man had a low level mental capacity, and someone told him to put tincture of iodine on the rash. He applied a bit of the mixture to the rash and seemed to experience some relief; so he decided to coat the entire area with iodine. Immediately the iodine began to cause a serious burning sensation. The young man was rushed to the doctor’s office, and as the car came to a stop at the back entrance to the office, all four doors opened immediately, and the man was rushed into an examining room. Dr. Perry administered a quarter grain of morphine (a good-size dose) to aid the man in coping with the pain. An oscillating fan was brought into the room and turned on to aid in cooling the affected area. Upon returning to the examining room a short time later, Dr. Perry found the man with his pants removed and his buttocks positioned directly in front of the fan. The man kept his behind in synchronization with the fan as it moved from one side to the other. Dr. Perry said he couldn’t afford to laugh at the situation and had to leave the room before he could react to the scene he had just witnessed.
One Christmas Day a man came to Dr. W. J. Perry’s house with an emergency. The man had gone to the outhouse, or privy, and as he sat on the open seat, he failed to notice that a spider had built a web across the area. Immediately the man was bitten on his male organ by a black widow spider. The rich supply of blood made this a critical area which caused the spider venom to spread. Dr. Perry administered morphine to assist with the pain. The man had to return three times that Christmas Day before finding any relief. Fortunately, no permanent damage was done, and the man survived the incident.
On a cold winter evening, Dr. W. J. Perry was called to the Will Redfearn house where the library stands today. He had been treating Laurin Redfearn for pneumonia. It was such a cold evening that the warm fire in the fireplace brought welcome relief to Dr. Perry. However, upon examining the patient, Dr. Perry realized that the fire was consuming all the oxygen in the room and that the patient was near death. He rushed to the window and threw it up, and immediately the boy began to breathe normally. Many times medical applications are nothing more than common sense. It is frightening to think what might have happened had Dr. Perry not sized up the situation so accurately and acted so quickly.
Mr. Ira Redfearn, who was associated with Chesterfield Drug Store, had a son, I. C. Redfearn, who wanted to enter the service but felt his blood pressure would prevent him from being accepted. I told him that magnesium sulfate would lower his blood pressure if he used if for two to three days prior to the examination. He got in service and rose to the rank of Colonel, so it must have worked.
I recall one of the first assignments I received from my father when I joined the practice in 1940. He said, “The jail and the County Home are yours.” I recall hearing that a tragic fire occurred at the old jail and that several prisoners were burned to death.
Mr. Walton I. Burr, Sr., who lived where Jakie Watson, Jr. lives today, came to my father’s office, and after an examination my father determined that Mr. Burr was recovering from a heart attack. My father asked Mr. Burr, "Where is your car? I will send someone to get it." Mr. Burr replied, "It is in front of Press Odom’s store, but I can walk over there." Dr. Perry replied, “Dagnabit it”, Walton, you have just had a heart attack. You cannot go get the car.”
I recall that on a trip home from Wingate College I went by an auction on the corner of Main Street and South Page Street. I decided to bid on a Model A that used a hand crank to start it. The car belonged to Mr. Carl Gaskins, Roy Hurst’s wife’s brother. I bid $5.00, and when the auction was over, I was declared the winner. I had no money with me and told them that, but they said I had bought it. I went to my father and told him what had happened, and he gave me the money for the car. I went back and got it and drove it to Wingate on a couple of occasions. Later I sold the car to a black man who lived in the “Wamble Hill” area.
Did you know that Chesterfield had a private school? It was located at the end of Green Street beyond where the Selma Rae Rivers Henderson house is today but on the opposite side of the street from her house.. My mother, as well as Betty Byrd Hunley’s mother and many others, attended.
Once I received word that I was needed at Mrs. Ada Rivers's house. The house was located on the lot where Hugh and Louise Rivers Gaddy later built their house at 544 East Main Street. (The original house was moved to what is today East Boulevard and is owned by William P. (Bill) and Margery Goforth Stubbs.) I arrived to find Mrs. Ada dead on the floor of the living room. I was told that she had walked alone from her house to the Rivers Cemetery on Jackson Road and back (a distance of over 5 miles). As I checked for any sign of life, I discovered that Mrs. Ada had a part of a rubber tire inner tube strapped to her waist. I wondered what that could be and removed it, finding that she had $18,000 in securities strapped to her body. That was a lot of money in those days. Not all of it was in cash, but I was told that the total amount was worth $18,000.
One of my recollections is that the plans for a diesel engine and the formula for sulfa drugs were stolen from Germany and brought to the United States just prior to WW II. Both probably aided our efforts in winning the war.
Editor’s Note: One of Dr. William’s interesting quotes: “Democracy-A charming form of government full of variety and disorder, where subjects act like rulers, and rulers act like subjects, and everything is managed by drones.”
Editor’s Note: As we begin the 21st century, often without local medical personnel, it makes the 20th-century doctors who ministered to our community seem all the more valuable. For a small community Dr. Robert Lee Gardner, Dr. R. W. Newsom, Dr. Walter R. Wiley, Dr. W. J. Perry, Dr. William L. Perry, and Dr. Jerry B. Perry, and others in the early part of the century provided excellent medical support. We are grateful for their expertise and their compassion.