J. E. B. Stuart’s biographer Emory Thomas describes Tom Perry as "a fine and generous gentleman who grew up near Laurel Hill, where Stuart grew up, has founded J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace and attracted considerable interest in the preservation of Laurel Hill.  He has started a symposium series about aspects of Stuart’s life to sustain interest in Stuart beyond Ararat, Virginia."
 

     Thomas David Perry born on November 4, 1960, grew up in Ararat, Virginia, the son of Erie Meredith and Betty Jane Hobbs Perry. He is a 1974 graduate of Blue Ridge Elementary school, where his father was Principal. Tom graduated Patrick County High School in 1979. In 1983, he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in history from Virginia Tech. Tom started the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, Inc.in 1990. The non-profit organization has preserved 75 acres of the Stuart property including the house site where James Ewell Brown Stuart was born on February 6, 1833.
 

     Perry wrote the eight interpretive signs about Laurel Hill’s history along with the Virginia Civil War Trails sign and the new Virginia Historical Highway Marker in 2002. He spent many years researching traveling all over the nation to find Stuart materials including two trips across the Mississippi River to visit nearly every place "Jeb" Stuart served in the United States Army (1854-1861). He leads an annual Civil War bus tour about Stuart along with speaking over fifty times a year about historical topics. He continues his work to preserve Stuart’s Birthplace as the Emeritus Board Member producing the Laurel Hill Teacher’s Guide for educators and the Laurel Hill Reference Guide for groups and the organization to share his lifetime of research on the only preserved site in the nation relating to the birthplace and boyhood home of James Ewell Brown Stuart.

     Tom can be seen on Virginia Public Television’s Forgotten Battlefields: The Civil War in Southwest Virginia with his mentor noted Civil War Historian Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. Perry has begun a collection of papers relating to Stuart and Patrick County history in the Special Collections Department of the Carol M. Newman Library at Virginia Tech under the auspices of the Virginia Center For Civil War Studies.

     He is the author of Ascent to Glory, The Genealogy of J. E. B. Stuart. He has completed a manuscript entitled The Free State of Patrick: Patrick County Virginia in the Civil War. Among his other writing projects are Stuart’s Birthplace, A History of the Laurel Hill Farm and he is editing J. E. B. Stuart’s Papers for future publication.

2nd Annual Civil War Workshop at Bassett Historical Center, Feb. 4, 2006

     Tom produces a monthly email newsletter about regional history entitled Notes From The Free State of Patrick that goes out to over 2000 people from his website www.freestateofpatrick.com.
 

View the Perry Collection