Meet the woman who has worked quietly behind the scenes to build Heritage Farm Museum & Village into a highly acclaimed throwback to America’s Appalachian roots and one of the premier tourism attractions in the state of West Virginia.
By Marla Brannan
HQ 63 | AUTUMN 2007
“Behind every good man stands an even better woman,” one version of the old adage has it. And when Henriella Perry is the woman, her husband, well-known Heritage Farm Museum & Village front man Mike Perry, agrees wholeheartedly. The prominent former attorney, banker and interim president of Marshall University says: “Most people associate the farm with me. But they need to know of Henriella’s critical role from the beginning. People will comment that I’m a blessed man, often from the standpoint that she just goes along with me. But that’s not correct. In the final analysis, it was Henriella’s idea to move to the country, which inevitably led to the formation of Heritage Farm.”
It wasn’t a return to her roots that she sought; Henriella Mylar Perry was born and raised in Huntington, by hard working parents, Ralph and Virginia Mylar. They owned and operated a family business, Mylar’s License Service, and from the age of 15 Henriella worked right alongside her mother. She points to this experience as a great tool for her new role of managing Heritage Farm.
“My mother was one of my first inspirations because of how she handled people of all walks of life,” she recalls.
Mike wasn’t from farm stock either. His parents raised him and his brother within walking distance to school on Huntington’s South Side and the young couple seemed destined to follow a similar path.
Mike and Henriella’s love story began in the fifth grade when he came home from school one day and told his mother, “I’m going to marry that girl one day.” But it wasn’t until their senior year when some cupid-playing teachers cast them opposite one another in a love duet at Huntington High’s spring choir concert that the couple began dating. Four years later, when Mike graduated from Marshall, they were married. Henriella followed Mike to Morgantown and three years of law school. Then it was back to Huntington and a role as attorney’s wife and stay-at-home mom to children Michele, Melanie and Audy.
When Mike began working longer hours at a prominent Huntington law firm and golfing during his free time, Henriella suggested that perhaps they could do something together with the children on Saturdays instead of work or golf. Mike says, “perhaps it was how she said it, but we started going antiquing every Saturday with the children.” Their budget was the amount he’d been spending weekly in greens fees playing golf – about $5. The children were told to find an item unknown to them, buy it and then learn what it was and how it was used. Thus began the collection of kitchen devices, meat grinders and small hand tools that now – after 30 years of foraging – is displayed at Heritage Farm Museum & Village.
The farm, located on Harvey Road in Wayne County, celebrates Appalachian history in brilliant detail covering everything from the history of transportation to the history of the broom. There’s an authentic one-room schoolhouse, a church, several museums chock-full of the Perrys’ collections of covered wagons and automobiles, washing machines and steam tractors, a general store, the offices of doctors and dentists, a blacksmith shop, a grist-mill, a sawmill and a glass blowing furnace – all in working condition. A tour of the Progress Building celebrates how our ancestors adapted to change and takes the observer through a late 19th and early 20th century kitchen, an exhibit depicting the history of quilting, and a 50s style doo-wop soda fountain.
The Perry’s say the mission of the museum is to educate today’s generation, as well as future generations, about life in Appalachia at the turn of the century.
By 1973 the family lived in a lovely brick home on the South Side within walking distance of great schools. Their home was close to work, shops, restaurants and church. But their spare time was spent on a 200-acre farm Mike’s father had purchased in Wayne County shortly before his unexpected death. Something, however, was missing from their easy city-life. Henriella felt it was getting difficult to teach their children about hard work, so the Perrys sold their South Side brick, purchased farmland adjoining his family’s acreage and moved to the country to what is now Heritage Farm. “I had a strong belief and conviction that our family would be happier and that our kids would have the opportunity to learn responsibility by taking care of horses, having chores – jobs that teach things you can’t learn in school,” says Henriella.
But there were logistical problems to contend with before moving the country. The log house on the farm was partially burned, had no indoor plumbing and only one light and one electrical outlet. It would be a tremendous sacrifice. But in the end, it was Henriella who suggested they sell their South Side brick and move, knowing it might be some time before they could afford to remodel.
And so their new life began. “I remember Mike chopped wood while I fed the fire just to keep the house warm that first year,” Henriella recalls. “But I knew we would be happier out here and I had a great deal of peace about it. It was hard work and there were sacrifices, but we were doing the renovation together and were so happy here we didn’t dwell on those.”
Mike adds, “We about froze that first winter – but we were in the best shape of our lives! And living in that one-room cabin looking at those hand-hewn log walls led us to what Heritage Farm is today.”
What started with a small log cabin is now closing on 25 buildings that not only showcase remarkable museum exhibits (like Henriella’s favorite – the 1850s kitchen), but five modern bed-and-breakfast inns, a church and a visitor’s center for gatherings from weddings and wedding receptions to church youth retreats.
The real mission of the Farm is not purely educational or recreational, however. Henriella and Mike want today’s generation, as well as future generations who visit Heritage Farm, especially those from West Virginia, to take away with them a desire to emulate their ancestors. That desire grows from the realization that our Appalachian roots are nothing of which to be ashamed, that our predecessors are filled with pride, ingenuity, creativity, determination and a solid work ethic – qualities they fear may be waning. because the exhibits celebrate the West Virginia settler’s pride and penchant for hard work, the Perrys hope to inspire people to return to those values, just as Henriella dreamed that living on the farm would inspire her own children.
“When we show people that picture of our first ramshackle house, everyone is aghast,” notes Mike. “And I have to remind them that it was my wife’s idea to move to the country, and she had an equal role in the collection of antiques and design of these buildings. It seems like I’m the domineering husband and she’s the docile wife – but that’s not the way it was. When you marry your soul mate and dearest friend you would never do anything that would make her unhappy. Everything we’ve done, we’ve done together. This farm was our dream, not my dream.”
“And through it all she is never grumpy,” adds eldest daughter Michele Blake. “She’s just a hard-worker who dives in and smiles while she’s doing it. I remember my Grandma Perry saying one of the things she always loved about Mom was that she would always put Dad first. I’ve always thought that says a lot about her, especially in culture where self is proclaimed at the expense of others. She is such a faithful friend and mother.”
Perhaps the thing that makes Henriella most extraordinary is the fact that she never considered the huge changes in her life as a trial to be borne.
When many women are taking life easy in “retirement,” each day Henriella still rises early – very early. She studies her Bible, gets the paper and cooks breakfast for herself and her husband. She then retreats to the farm’s petting zoo and feeds 31 species of animals: goats, chickens, turtles, llamas, Freddy the cat and Ernie the rhea. This is a bright spot in her day, when things have just awakened and there’s no disruption, a brief but happy interlude spent with her now grown son and the animals she loves.
At ten o’clock, she opens Heritage Farm Museum & Village and begins welcoming the world. Sometimes that means answering the endless phone calls and scheduling weddings and receptions. Sometimes it means pointing caravans of school-children in the direction of the animals. And sometimes it means fixing lunch for Senator Robert C. Byrd and his staff. No matter what her day brings, whether meeting dignitaries and the stars of “We Are Marshall” or hard work and headaches, she begins the same way and meets it head-on with a smile.
No less a luminary than Senator Byrd recognized Henriella’s special qualities when he said, “Mike Perry and I share many things in common, including a love of history and appreciation for the people who built this country and helped make it great. We also share a most extraordinary stroke of good fortune in meeting our wives-to-be at very early ages and having them recognize in us some worthwhile quality. Like my darling wife Erma, whose eternal love continues to sustain me, Henriella is the rock upon which Mike’s many achievements have been built. Their unflagging devotion to each other, and enthusiasm for their shared interests, is inspiring. Mike and Henriella exemplify many of the sturdy, self-reliant qualities we admire in our West Virginia ancestors, and I am proud to call them my friends.”
Henriella’s long-time friend and fellow member of Beverly Hills Baptist, Linda Cummings, loves similar things about her. “Henriella is a joyful and Godly woman and, despite deep involvement in church and supporting the endeavors of her husband and family, she has never neglected any commitment to her friends.”
Could it be that Henriella Perry shares a connection with our Appalachian forbearers? Mike thinks so, and declares in parting, “Henriella would have made a wonderful pioneer lady – she’s very strong physically, mentally and emotionally. I’d start to cry if I told you exactly how much I love this lady and how remarkable she is.”
