JEFFERSON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA 
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook 
vfcrook@trellis.net
April 13, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 407-408

PERRY C. DUNAWAY, who is successfully engaged in the
furniture and undertaking business at Charles Town, Jef-
ferson County, was born at Stewardsville, Greene County,
Virginia, and he is a scion of a family that was founded
in the historic Old Dominion State in the early Colonial
days, when John and James Dunaway, brothers, came from
England and settled in Virginia. Raleigh Dunaway, Sr.,
grandfather of him whose name introduces this paragraph,
was born and reared in Rappahannock County, Virginia,
and there became the owner of an extensive landed estate,
besides which he inherited a number of slaves, he having
never bought or sold slaves, however. In connection with
the Civil war he met with heavy financial reverses, in which
he lost the most of his real estate and other property, and
he removed with his family to Rockingham County, Vir-
ginia, where he passed the remainder of his life.

Raleigh Dunaway, Jr., father of the subject of this sketch,
was reared on the home farm, or plantation, and as a youth
he found employment in a general store at Elkton. At the
age of twenty-one years he settled on a farm near Stanards-
ville, Greene County, Virginia, and there he continued his
activities as an agriculturist until 1892, when he engaged
in the general merchandise business at Leetown, Jefferson
County, West Virginia. In 1917 he sold his stock and busi-
ness, and he has since lived retired. His wife, whose maiden
name was Fannie Lou Kennedy, was born and reared in
Greene County, Virginia, as was also her father, Chester
Kennedy, who entered the Confederate Army at the incep-
tion of the Civil war and who died while in service, at the
age of thirty-five years, his widow, whose family name was
Mayors, having survived him by many years. Raleigh and
Fannie Lou (Kennedy) Dunaway became the parents of
the following children: Daisy Fritts; Lulu Pearl, who be-
came the wife of Robert W. Clendening and who died in
April, 1918; Raleigh W., who is engaged in the grocery
business at Charles Town; Virginia, who is the wife of
W. R. Licklider; Jessie; Perry C., who is the immediate
subject of this review; and Jndson and Homer.

Perry C. Dunaway gained his early education in the pub-
lic schools, and was a lad of fourteen years when he began
to assist in his father's store. In 1906 he entered the serv-
ice of Moulton Brothers, engaged in the wholesale drygoods
and notions business in the City of Baltimore, Maryland,
and for ten years he was a successful traveling salesman
for this representative concern. For two years thereafter
he was employed in the Westinghouse undertaking estab-
lishment in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in the
meanwhile he attended the J. Henry Zong School of Em-
balming, in which he was graduated in 1911. In 1912 he
went to Mercer, Pennsylvania, where he was employed in an
undertaking establishment for a time, and he then passed
two years in business at Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
He then, in 1915, established his present furniture and un-
dertaking business at Charles Town, where his success has
been the direct result of effective service and fair and hon-
orable dealings. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Dunaway
is affiliated with Malta Lodge No. 80, A. F. and A. M., and
Jefferson Chapter, R. A. M., besides which he holds mem-
bership in Blue Ridge Lodge of the Knights of Pythias.
He and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian
Church in their home city.

The year 1915 recorded the marriage of Mr. Dunaway
and Miss Emma Louise Price, who was born at Pomeroy;
Ohio, a daughter of David and Elizabeth (Eppel) Price.
Mr. and Mrs. Dnnaway have one daughter, Emma Louise.