Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/296

 PERKINS

PERKINS

He was admitted to the bar in December, 1868, and was city attorney of Rochester, 1874-78. He engaged in historical study in Paris, France, 1890- 95. He was a member of the New York assembly 1898, and a Republican representative from the thirty-first district in the 57tli and 58th con- gresses. 1901-05. He was made a member of the National Institute of Art, Science and Letters and received from the University of Rochester the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1897. He is the author of : France under liicJtelicu and JJazai'in (1887) : France under the Re<jency (1892) France tinder Louis XV. (1897) -.Richelieti (in '* Heroesof the Nation Series " 1900) and numerous contribu- tions to periodicals.

PERKINS, Jennie Saunders, poet, was born near Purdy, McNairy county, Tennessee, April 8, 1832 ; daughter of Lindsey and Martha Ann (Landreth) Saunders, and a descendant of Thoiuas Saunders and Elizabeth (Rook) Saunders, who settled in Chatham county, N.C., near the close of the eighteenth century. Thomas was the son of Benjamin Saun- ders, a staunch Qua- ker, and his wife was a lineal descendant on her father's side of Admiral Rook of tlie British navy, and on her mother's side of a younger brother of Lord Stanford, and Marie Wills, of Ger- many. The family removed to McNairy county, Tenn., in 1825. Her first education was received from the common schools and from her parents. She evinced a literary taste at an early age, and before the civil war many of her poems were published in the leading papers of the South, over the signature of "Jennie S.," and at once attracted attention. Gen. Marcus J. Wright, a native of her county, and a resident of Memphis, was prominent in the business and literary circles of his adopted city, and having seen some of her poems in current papers, became interested in the success of his former neighbor, and gave able advice and kindlj- encouragement that made a marked impression on her subsequent life and its work. In 1863 slie was married to E. D. M. Perkins, by whom she had seven children. Even with the care and ed- ucation of these, she continued lier literary work. In 1872 she received the secojid prize over forty- nine cont»'Stants for the best poem on the Trenton Massacre. The family removed to Florida in 1878, and while there some of her best poems, in-

cluding : From Teniiessee to Florida, Lake BeaU' chiire, Florida Winter, Summer on the St. Johns, were published, and were widely copied through- out the country, extracts from them appearing in pamplilets and books. After a dozen years in Florida Mr. and ]\Irs. Perkins went to reside in Washington, where she continued to contribute numerous poems, floral articles and biograpliical sketches to leading papers and magazines. Here her lengthiest and most elaborate epic, Grant, was also written. In 1903 she was engaged in collecting her writings, published and unpub- lished, with a view to issuing a volume of her complete works.

PERKINS, Samuel Elliott, jurist, was born in Brattleboro, Vt., Dec. 6, 1811; son of John Trumbull and Hannah (Hurlburt) Perkins; grandson of Caleb and Sarah (Trumbull) Perkins, and a descendant of John Perkins, Ipswich, Mass., 1633. He was left an orphan when five years old and was brought up by William Baker on liis farm in Conway, Mass. In 183-1 he re- moved to Penn Yan, N.Y"., where he attended the Y'ates County academy, and in 1836 to Richmond Ind., where he was admitted to the bar in 1837 and published The Jeffersonian, a Democratic paper. He was married first, in July, 1838, to Amanda Juliet, daughter of Joseph Pyle of Rich- mond, lud., and secondly to Lavinia Wiggins Pyle, his deceased wife's sister. He was nomi- nated by Governor Wliitcomb to a seat on the supreme bench of the state in 18-11, and again in 18-12, but failed of confirmation in the senate. He was prosecuting attorney for the sixth judicial district of Indiana, 18-13-45 ; a presidential elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket in 1844, and was judge of the supreme court of Indiana, 1845-64. He removed to Indianapolis in 1847 ; was chosen professor of law in the Northwestern Christian university (Butler college) in 1857 : was professor of law in the Indiana State university. 1870-72, and judge of the superior court of Marion county, 1873-76. He was again judge of the state supreme court, 1876-79, and was serving as chief justice at the time of his death. He is the author of : Digest of Decisions of the Supreme Court of Lidiuna (1858) ; and Pleadings and Practice under the Code in the Courts of Indiana (1859). He died in Indianapolis, Ind., Dec. 17. 1^79.

PERKINS, Thomas Handasyd, philanthropist, was born in Bf)ston, Mass., Dec. 15. 1764; .son of

and Elizabeth (Peck) Perkins and grandson

of Edmund and Edna (Frothingham) Perkins and of Thomas (Handas5-d) Peck. His father was a merchant, and his mother a founder of the Boston female asylum. He was prepared for Harvard by the Rev. Mr. Shute of Hingham, but did not matriculate, determining to engage in commercial pursuits. He was trained in a