The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 612 A portrait of John M. Perry appears in this publication. JOHN M. PERRY. With the development of the horticultural interests of the Yakima valley many enterprising men have embraced the opportunity of becoming successful fruit dealers in this section. Among those connected with the wholesale fruit trade in Yakima is John M. Merry, president and manager of the J. M. Perry Company, Incorporated, who, closely studying every phase of his business and applying himself most earnestly to its conduct and management, has built up a trade of extensive and gratifying proportions. The story of his life record is the story of earnest endeavor. He was born in Houlton, Maine, in 1861, a son of Charles and Margaret (Hanna) Perry, both of whom died in the Pine Tree state. They were natives, however, of Ireland and came to the new world in 1848. The father settled in the midst of the Maine forest, where he cleared and developed a farm and there continued to make his home until his life's labors were ended in death. John M. Perry acquired a public school education, supplemented by study in the Bryant R Stratton Business College of Philadelphia. He has been identified with the west since 1888, in which year he arrived in Spokane, Washington, where he resided for a decade, during which time he was engaged in the grain trade. In 1898 he came to Yakima and entered the fruit business and in 1900 built a warehouse, since which time he has been engaged in dealing in fruit as a wholesale merchant. He was the first to enter this line of business on a large scale and is today the oldest wholesale fruit dealer of the city. His first location was at Yakima avenue and the railroad and in 1911 he built a fine new plant, three hundred by one hundred and eighty feet, where he has a cold storage capacity for five hundred cars of fruit. This is the largest establishment of the kind in the Yakima valley. He operates his own ice plant and does an extensive business with the Pacific Fruit Express Company and the Northern Pacific Railway Company, supplying them with over twelve thousand tons of ice in a season. His plant is operated by electric power and its equipment is most modern and complete in every particular. He handled over five hundred cars of fruit in 1917 under the "Perry" brand and his sales cover the United States and Canada. His packing plant is of the most modern type. He has a packing room eighty by one hundred and twenty-five feet, which is kept at forty-five degrees Fahrenheit, where he makes a specialty of handling pears. After they are packed they are put in a room where the temperature is kept at thirty-two degrees and where they are held until loaded in iced cars before shipping. He handles more pears than any other packer of Yakima and he employs from fifteen to fifty people, according to the season. There is no man able to speak with greater authority upon horticultural interests, especially in connection with the wholesale fruit trade, than Mr. Perry, who has been in the business for a longer period than any other Yakima merchant in this field and whose well directed activities have kept him constantly to the front as a leader in his special line. He is also the president of the Yakima Valley Traffic & Credit Association, which control's ninety percent of the Yakima valley fruit tonnage, and is constantly studying every question which has to do with the development of the horticultural interests and the handling of the fruit products of the northwest. In 1898 Mr. Perry was married to Miss Harriet Martin, a native of El Paso, Illinois. He is identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and is a life member of Yakima Lodge No. 318, and he is also a valued representative of the Yakima Commercial Club and of the Yakima Country Club. His political endorsement is given to the republican party and he does not lightly hold the obligations and duties of citizenship but is loyal at all times to the best interests of community, commonwealth and country. ******************************** Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.