HON. JEREMIAH PERKINS
| HON. JEREMIAH PERKINS, ADEL. JUDGE PERKINS, the title by which he is best known in Dallas county, is a native of North Carolina, and was born in Wayne county, near Goldsboro, on the 7th of January, i8i6. His father, who had the same name, was a millwright by trade and a mill owner, whose father came from England. The maiden name of Judge Perkins' mother was Susannah Tyson, but at the time of her marriage with Mr. Perkins she was the widow Loving. She became a widow the second time on the 20st of March, 1823. About 1830 she moved northward into Wayne county, Indiana, where the subject of this notice, after obtaining what knowledge he could in a country school, learned the carpenter and cabinet-maker's trade, and worked at it much of the time for ten or eleven years, leaving Wayne for La Porte county in 1833. He early imbibed a taste for legal studies, and for some time gave his leisure moments in the busy season and his entire winters to such mental pursuits, and was admitted to practice at La Porte about 1850. In 1854 Mr. Perkins came to Iowa, and after tarrying a while at Newton, Jasper county, located at Adel in June, 1855, here continuing his profession until the present time. In 1863 he was admitted at Des Moines to practice in the United States circuit court. As an attorney, he has done well. Latterly he has given a good deal of attention to the abstract business, making it, in fact, a specialty. He has an abstract of all lands and town lots in the county. In 1855 he was appointed prosecuting attorney, and the next year was elected by the people; was county judge for nine consecutive years, commencing on the 1st of January, 1861; during the same period was county recorder four years, and after going out of the latter office was county auditor three years. Few men in Dallas county have held more offices than Judge Perkins, and none have discharged their duties better or to the more complete satisfaction of their constituents. The judge was originally a whig, imbibing antislavery sentiments from his father, who was a Quaker. Naturally, on the demise of the whig party, he joined the republican. He has been the recipient of all his official honors at the hands of the latter party, but the vote he received was not always limited to his party. He is very much respected in the county. The religious views of the judge are liberal. He is a Royal Arch Mason. His wife, who was Miss Eliza Kennedy, a native of Richmond, Indiana, became such on the 4th of February, 1841. She died on the 6th of April, 1876, leaving seven children, and five had preceded her into the other world. Mary Lorette is the wife of Dr. Lee Kenworthy, a dentist, of Saint Helena, California; Jeremiah A. has a family, and lives in Fremont, Nebraska. The others are single. Judge Perkins has a commanding appearance. He stands six feet in his stockings, and weighs two hundred and forty pounds. He has brown hazel eyes, a florid complexion, easy and graceful manners, a cordial address, a cheerful disposition, and good social qualities. He has, in every respect, the polish of a gentleman. |
| The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Iowa Volume. Chicago and New York; American Biographical Publishing Company. 1878. Contributed by Nettie Mae Lucas, August 2018. |
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