Alvin C. Terry
Alvin C. Terry (1866-1957) was an early business leader in the Town of Oneida, and a descendant of the town’s first settler.
Biography
Born June 23, 1866, Alvin C. Terry was the son of Milton Terry (1834-1904) and Jane “Jennie” Thomas (1830-1908). His paternal grandfather was Josiah Terry (1780-1868), the first settler of Oneida. His maternal grandfather was Abner Wiley Thomas (1799-1884), who settled the headwaters of Pine Creek.
Terry’s siblings included Amanda Terry (1855-1860), Rebecca Jeffers (1856-1949), Salina Terry (1858-1943), Joseph Terry (1860-1861), Jane Duncan (1862-1950), Nancy Ann Litton (1864-1951), John Marion Terry (1868-1952), Milton Ensley Terry (1871-1938), and William Abner Terry (1873-1967). William A. Terry served as a judge of Scott County.
Terry married Nancy J. Davis (1869-1913). They had one son: William Claude Terry (1893-1954). When she died at age 43, he remarried to Nellie Savanah Smith (1886-1988) in 1914. They had another son: Luke Edward Terry (1916-1998).
Terry’s son, William C. Terry, was Oneida’s third mayor.
Professional Life
Terry was an influential business leader in early Oneida. He served as a member of the Oneida Independent School District Board of Education, an alderman of the Town of Oneida, and was a director of First Trust & Savings Bank (today United Cumberland Bank). He was also a founder of the Oneida Water Company.
In 1910, when the Oneida Church of Christ organized, it held its meetings in Terry’s home, until its permanent meeting house was built at the corner of Third and Cross streets in 1913.
In 1920, Terry sold five acres of land to the Oneida Independent School District that was used to construct the town’s high school at its current location on North Main Street.
Death
Terry died on June 18, 1957, at age 90. He was buried at Litton Cemetery, where his first wife had also been buried. His second wife would later be buried there when she died in 1988 at age 101. Terry’s oldest son, William Claude Terry, is also buried at Litton Cemetery.