Mary Combes was formerly married to William Perlee. Mary's father, a lieutenant in the War of 1812, had been given the land they had come to in Lamont as a bounty. Mary and William Perlee and family came up the river on the steamer "Paragon" and landed at Grandville , which was then probably the closest landing to their home, according to Early History of Ottawa County. Mary Perlee wrote letters to her family telling of her first years settling on the banks of the Grand River in Lamont. Many of these letters have been preserved .