Biography of J. Perry Long, pages 420/421/422.  History of 
DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 
Indianapolis, 1914.



A man who boldly faces the responsibility of life and by 
determined and untiring energy carves out for himself an 
honorable success exerts a powerful influence upon the 
lives of all who follow him.  Such men constitute the 
foundation of our republican institutions and are the pride 
of our civilization. To them life is so real that they find 
no time to plot either mischief or vice. Their lives are 
bound up in their duties, they feel the weight of their 
citizenship, and take pleasure in sowing the seeds of 
uprightness. Such has been the career of the subject of 
this brief notice.  J. Perry Long, who enjoys a favorable 
reputation as a successful carpenter and builder at Auburn, 
was born about one mile north of Garrett, DeKalb county, 
Indiana, January 25, 1867, and is a son of  Samuel Harrison 
and Marietta (Wyant) Long.  Samuel H. Long was a native of 
Ohio, and in an early day came to DeKalb county with his 
parents, Christian Long and wife, who were lifelong farmers 
and settled in this county when but little of the land had 
been cleared.  Indeed, where Garrett now stands was 
practically an untouched wilderness in which deer and other 
wild animals roamed undisturbed. The land which Christian 
Long owned was located where now stand the Baltimore & Ohio 
railroad shops, this land being sought by the railway 
company when the subject of this sketch was a lad of nine 
years. Perry Long was reared on the home farm, where he 
remained until attaining his majority, having performed his 
part of the work of tilling the soil and harvesting the 
crops and in the meantime secured a good practical 
education in the public schools. At the age of twenty-one 
years he came to Auburn and learned the carpenter’s trade, 
which he has made his life work. For about eight years he 
was employed as a journeyman and then he formed a 
partnership with Ora J. Brandon, building contractor. Two 
years later Mr. Brandon retired from the partnership to go 
into the lumber business, since which time Mr. Long has 
continued the business alone.  For many years he has been 
numbered among the leading contractors of DeKalb county, 
and many of the best residence and business blocks in this 
section have been constructed by  him.  His work has always 
been characterized by thoroughness in every detail and his 
absolute reliability in the performances of his contracts 
has gained for him the confidence of the public. 
Personally, he is a man of splendid qualities and genial 
address and has well merited the high standing, which he 
enjoys among his acquaintances.  Politically, Mr. Long is a 
stanch supporter of the Democratic party, and in 1904 was 
elected a member of the city council, the duties of which 
position he discharged to the entire satisfaction of his 
constituents. His fraternal affiliations are with the 
Knights of Pythias and the Knights of the Maccabees. Mr. 
Long has been twice married, first on May 13, 1888, to 
Florence Dirrim, daughter of William Dirrim, to which union 
were born three children: Ruth and Vesta, who live with 
their father, and Ethel, the wife of Orange Wasson, a 
farmer near Auburn, to which union have been born two 
children, Walter and Ruth.  Mrs. Florence Long died in 
1900, and in June, 1903, Mr. Long married Rosa Rupert of 
Newville. Her parents were Manassa Rupert and Mary (Borden) 
Rupert, the father a native of Mahoning county, Ohio, and 
the mother of Allen county, Indiana. To Mr. and Mrs. Long 
have been born five children, namely: Perry Waldo, Rupert 
D., Mozelle Rosamond, Marietta Evangeline, and a baby not 
yet named.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.con