Pvt. Ezekiel Perham Jr. (1764–1843)
Perrysburg has only a handful of direct links to the American Revolution, and Pvt. Ezekiel Perham Jr. is one of them. Born in 1764 in Pepperell, Massachusetts Bay Colony, he grew up in a Patriot town where the Revolution was not an idea but a daily reality. At just 15–16 years old, he entered military service in 1779 during the final years of the war, joining the ranks of young Massachusetts militiamen who guarded supply lines and reinforced Continental forces as the new nation fought for survival.
After the Revolution, Perham married Hephzibah Jewett and raised a large New England family. Like many veterans, he followed the postwar migration north into Athens, Vermont, where he lived for roughly forty years before moving west to join his children in Perrysburg, Cattaraugus County. Here, on the edge of the early frontier, he lived out his final years among the first Euro American settlers of the region.
Pvt. Perham died on April 19, 1843, (his 79th birthday) and is buried in Perrysburg, today believed to be Mallory Cemetery. His grave stands as a rare and powerful reminder that the legacy of the American Revolution reaches all the way into the deep woods of Western New York. His life traces the arc of the nation itself: born under British rule, forged in the struggle for independence, and carried westward by the restless energy that built the American frontier.
Research completed by Town of Perrysburg Historian - Steve Stockwell