Transcribed From:

Springfield Reporter
 Springfield, Windsor County

VERMONT

~Perkins Research~

Springfield Reporter - Springfield, Windsor Co., VT - February 25th, 1887

JOSEPHINE MARIE WHIPPLE - Wife of the late General JOHN PERKINS, died at her residence of paralysis of the brain on Sunday the 20th, day of February, 1887, at half past twelve o'clock a.m. Her age was eighty-eight years, five months and twelve days. In October 1879, Mrs. Perkins was stricken with paralysis which effected the left side principally. After a few weeks she was enable to walk with assistance and gradually to use her left hand a little. Her mental faculties were not impaired to any great extent until recently. She endured the seven long years of waiting very patiently and though her eye sight was too defection to permit of her reading much and her left hand would not help her to knit, yet she could enjoy visits of her relatives and friends and never was tired of seeing people. During her long life, the most of which was spent in Springfield, unless prevented by sickness she was always ready to visit and assist the sick and would make effort and sacrifice to do so. She always liked the company of young people and wanted them often at her home. About 2 o'clock at the morning of February 16, she was again stricken with paralysis and though conscious for the first twenty-four hours, yet she was only partially and by Tuesday noon she had become so paralyzed as to know no consciousness when spoken to. Her last hours were distressing to behold, though painless to her. For three hours it seemed as if every breath would be the last. Mrs. Perkins was the third daughter of the Hon. Jonathan Whipple, who was for many years judge of Probate of this County. She was married to the late Gen. Perkins in 1825, and in 1826 moved to this village and resided for nineteen years in the house opposite the hotel, and for eleven years in the house in which she died. She had four children only one of which now survives her, Henry W. Perkins of Chicago. The funeral was held at her residence on Sunday, the 22nd, and attended by Rev. Charles W. Coit, the Rector of St. Luke's Church, Charlestown, N. H.
     _____________________________________

Springfield Reporter - Springfield, Windsor Co., VT - August 2nd, 1889

LUKE PERKINS, died at the town farm last week, and was buried on the "Plain" the 24th, Rev. H. M. Hopkinson officiating. He was a son of Elisha Perkins, and the two formerly lived where George Brown and Henry Smith now live. Luke has three children, Ozro Perkins of Springfield, Mary Ann Perkins of North Springfield, and Rev. Page Perkins who is now in the north part of the state. In later years he took to drinking, and was so ugly that he could not be endured by his own people, hence the necessity of putting him where he would be subject to some sort of discipline, and even there he has been a severe trial.
     ____________________________________

Springfield Reporter - Springfield, Windsor Co., VT - June 8th, 1900

ROBERT A. PERKINS, for many years managing editor of the Rutland Herald and a newspaper man well known in New England, died at his cottage on Shrewsbury pond in the town of Shrewsbury Sunday morning at about 10 o'clock. He came from Boston on May 18th, and went to his cottage at Shewsbury  May 20th. He was taken sick on the morning of the 25th. It was thought to be only a case of grip and on Saturday afternoon he walked down stairs unaided and ate a light lunch without feeling any unpleasant results. Be he passed a restless night and early Sunday morning he began to fail rapidly.
  Mr. Perkins had been a news paper man, either in New England or in the West for many years and had won a name for himself as a writer of caustic and pungency editorials. He was considered one of the best paragraphists in New England. For many years whether at Boston or Springfield or New York or in the West, his short humorous and searching paragraphs were continuous source of entertainment to the reading public. Mr. Perkins was widely copied, and many papers had the benefit of his peculiar genius for incisive description and picturesque judgment without knowing much, if anything, about the personality of their author.
   Mr. Perkins was a hater of hypocrisy and pretension. He had a Yankee way with him which enriched his literary style and carried an impression of sincerity with everything he wrote. His tributes to men in public life who performed their duties, and his denunciations of faithless public service, were alike expressed in superlatives. He had fine literary ways of uttering his praise and his blame, with it all was a choice penchant for quaint anecdote and incident. He attacked fraud and corruption in furious paragraphs and his word of praise for a good deed was as apt and winning as the sunlight falling upon a fair landscape.
   Mr. Perkins was born at Pomfret December 19th, 1846. He was the son of Alva and Patience Paddock Perkins. His first newspaper venture was the Woodstock Post, which he ran for a number of years and was widely quoted throughout the state. He then went west, and after a short season of study in a lawyer's office at Chicago he became the news editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel. He here developed his peculiar power of writing short paragraphs. As he edited the telegraphic dispatches he fell into the practice of writing clever and humorous observations on passing events, which immediately attracted attention. In 1882 he accepted an offer from Samuel Bowles of the Springfield Republican to do editorial work upon that paper, and it was while he was in that office that his writings attracted attention in New England. In the winter of 1885 Mr. Perkins became the editor-in-chief of The Rutland Herald. Two years later he was one of the editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser. Afterwards he went to the Newark Journal. After doing some work on the New York Press and the Engineering and Scientific Weekly, he returned to Rutland, and in 1890 he became editor-in-chief and business manager of the Herald, which position he occupied until October 1, 1899, when he resigned on account of ill health. He married September 24th, 1885, Miss CLARA M. VAIL, of Pomfret, who survives him. A special train was sent from this city to Cuttingsville Sunday afternoon and the body was brought here. The funeral which took place on Wednesday was held at Woodstock.
     ________________________________