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Oliver Hazard Perry was born in 1785 in South Kingstown, the son of a naval officer. He joined the Navy as a teenager and served in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.
Lake Erie
During the War of 1812, Perry was sent to Lake Erie, where he oversaw the building of a small fleet at Presque Isle in Pennsylvania. In September 1813 he met the British squadron near Put-in-Bay, Ohio.
His flagship, the Lawrence, was shot to pieces. Perry rowed to the Niagara under fire, took command and won the battle. He sent a famous message to General William Henry Harrison: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”
The victory gave the United States control of Lake Erie and helped it retake Detroit.
Later life
Perry died of yellow fever in 1819 during a mission to Venezuela, on his 34th birthday. His remains were brought back to Newport.
His younger brother, Matthew Calbraith Perry, later led the expedition that opened Japan to the West. South Kingstown and Newport both claim the Perry family, and the name appears on schools, streets and Navy ships across Rhode Island.
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