Erasmus Perry Chapter, NSDAR

Chapter History

Organized by twelve members on June 3, 1930, and confirmed on June 5, 1930. 

Erasmus Perry was a patriot ancestor of two of the chapter's organizing members. He was born in 1760 in Montgomery County, then called Lower Frederick. In 1778, he signed the Oath of Fidelity & Support, and enlisted as a private first class in Captain Samuel Swearington's 5th Company, Colonel John Murdock's Regiment, Lower Battalion, Montgomery County Militia.   While this regiment did not see active service during the Revolutionary War, it remained vigilantly on guard at the home front.

Erasmus Perry's home farm was part of the original Hermitage Trace, located on Newport Mill Road south of Viers Mill Road, in what is now Kensington Knolls. The farm extended to Rock Creek with Connecticut Avenue stretching across its eastern portion.

Erasmus Perry died in May 1828 and was buried in the family plot on the farm, which is now included in the Rock View Elementary School grounds. In 1953, when the chapter found it could not mark his grave, a contribution was made to have his name engraved on a plaque located in the DAR National Patriots Bell Tower at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.