The Perfect Barn comes to fairgrounds

0

A new 22-stall, concrete horse barn was quietly dedicated at the Delaware County Fairgrounds this year, thanks to Clyde Perfect and his grandsons Kirk, Wade, Nolan, and Charles.

After reading a news article about a bed tax to help improve the Delaware County Fairgrounds — specifically that the fairgrounds needed barns — Perfect stepped up to the plate and said, “I can build a barn.”

The Perfect family goes back to the early days of eastern Delaware County. William Perfect and family came to the Trenton Township area in 1807 before Delaware County was formed.

William and his sons deadened a few acres and built a cabin — 14 by 18 feet and one and one half stories high — for their home. William died in 1813 and was the first death in Trenton Township.

John Perfect was William’s oldest son and farmed the land along with his mother, Elizabeth, and his brother, Middleton, who lived on the homestead until Elizabeth died in 1837. John had a son, George, who farmed the Perfect land with his son, John Warden Perfect.

John Warden Perfect’s son, Mac Martin Perfect, born in 1862, farmed the homestead and had a stable of standard-bred racehorses. Mac had a half-mile track on this farm and once a year conducted a day of races which were well attended and where the best horses showed their speed.

William Perfect’s grandson, Norman Perfect, son of Middleton Perfect, was another Trenton Township farmer who farmed 145 acres, plus 23 acres of the Perfect homestead farm. Norman and his partners had two fine stallions imported from France.

Through the years, subsequent Perfect family members have been involved in the horse industry, along with farming.

Clyde Allen Perfect, great-great-great-grandson of William and Elizabeth Perfect, continues to farm and raise horses. First he had an old pony, Major, when he lived in Trenton Township between Condit Station and South Condit.

When Clyde was in the eighth grade at Sunbury School, the family moved to Mount Healthy, Ohio, because his father, Leroy Franklin Perfect, a railroad mail clerk, was transferred to Cincinnati. Clyde and his family had saddle horses on their farm.

After Clyde and Ella Mae Perfect bought a farm near Lawrenceburg, Indiana, they raised cattle and quarter horses until January 1981 when he and Ella Mae and their children turned the hilly farm into Perfect North Slopes, a ski resort.

Clyde, whose occupation was a brick contractor and farmer, built the ski lodges, lakes, parking lots and all the landscaping necessary for a safe ski area. He wore many hats to make a successful ski business for 34 years.

Following retirement from the ski slopes and turning the business over to his children, Clyde began to think he’d like to have a race horse after his cousin, Ron Potter, trained Big Bad John who won the Little Brown Jug race in 2011. Potter agreed to train his horse, so Clyde bought Ilikeitrealhot at the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, racehorse sale.

Potter trained Perfect’s horses, and many were successful on the racetrack. Perfect and Potter had Avalanche Hanover in the Little Brown Jug race about two years ago. Today, Perfect owns about 12 standard-bred horses.

During the 2015 Delaware County Fair, in the Log Cabin, the Fair Board presented Clyde and Ella Mae Perfect with a plaque that was put on the new barn.

During the 2015 Delaware County Fair, in the Log Cabin, the Fair Board presented Clyde and Ella Mae Perfect with a plaque that was put on the new barn.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2015/11/web1_Perfect.SUBMITTED.02.a.jpgDuring the 2015 Delaware County Fair, in the Log Cabin, the Fair Board presented Clyde and Ella Mae Perfect with a plaque that was put on the new barn.
Family in county before it was a county

By Suzanne Allen

Keep up with The Gazette on Twitter @delgazette.

No posts to display