DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to give it the weight it deserves. Now, Milam County has seen its share of long lives and longer memories, but William Persky — well, he was in a category all his own. He was born on November 21, 1844, over in Germany.
Eight years old when his family made the crossing to the United States. Think about that for a second — a child, an ocean, a whole new world. Whatever that journey cost him in comfort, it seems it didn't cost him much in constitution.
When the Civil War came, Persky enlisted in the Confederate army. And the war didn't go easy on him. He served time as a prisoner of war — something the marker notes plainly, and something that deserves to sit with you a moment before we move on.
After all that, he came home to the work of living. He farmed. He put down roots in Austin County, then Bell County, moving as life directed him.
And then in 1925, he came to this area — Milam County — and that's where he'd stay. Now here is where the story turns into something you almost have to say twice to believe. William Persky lived to be one hundred years old.
Born in 1844. Died February 9, 1945. At the time of his death, he was not only the oldest resident of Milam County — he was the last Confederate veteran the county had.
One man, carrying a century of American history right up until 1945. The child immigrant, the prisoner of war, the farmer, the old-timer who outlasted them all. When William Persky finally laid down that load, Milam County lost something it could never replace.
What the marker says
(Nov. 21, 1844 - Feb. 9, 1945) A native of Germany, William Persky migrated to the United States with his family at the age of eight. He enlisted in the Confederate army during the Civil War and served time as a prisoner of war. A farmer, Persky lived in Austin and Bell counties before moving to this area in 1925. He lived to be 100, and at the time of his death in 1945 was the oldest resident and the last Confederate veteran of Milam County.