Dosite Samuel Perkins, M. D., Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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Dosite Samuel Perkins, M. D. Representative of honored names in the 
pioneer life and affairs of southwestern Louisiana, Doctor Perkins has 
for a period of thirty-five years performed a varied service as a 
physician and surgeon in the community of Sulphur in Calcasieu 
Parish.  He has worked faithfully as a professional man, and hardly less 
has he been active and public spirited in all matters connected with the 
public welfare.

He was born at Rose Bluff on the Calcasieu River, near Sulphur, 
December 12, 1866.  His father was Eli A. Perkins, who operated one 
of the First lumber mills in southwest Louisiana, and was a very 
conspicuous citizen of Calcasieu Parish.  He was born and reared in the 
parish, established his early lumber business at Rose Bluff, conducting 
it under the name Perkins Brothers, and acquired a large amount of land 
and was one of the leading stock raisers in the southern part of the state.  
In 1876 he established at Sulphur the first business house, giving the 
Initiative to that town.   He built the first store building.  After 1891 he 
lived retired, and died at the age of eighty-four in February, 1917.  He 
served as a soldier in the Confederate army, was a member of the 
Louisiana Legislature, and belonged to the Primitive Baptist Church.  
Eli A. Perkins married Anna Broussard, who was born and reared in 
Calcasieu Parish and died in March, 1918.  Her father was Joseph A. 
Broussard, who came from France and was a factor in the early 
development of southwestern Louisiana.

Dr. Dosite Samuel Perkins grew up on his father's plantation and 
country home at Sulphur, attended Country schools, and continued his 
education in the Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas, where 
he specialized in chemistry and physics.  From there he entered the 
Medical Department at Tulane University at New Orleans, graduating 
M.D. in 1889.  Later he studied Pharmacy, passed the state board 
examination as a registered pharmacist, and was assistant to Doctor 
LaPlace at New Orleans, an eminent specialist in antiseptic surgery.  
On graduating in 1889 he returned to Sulphur, where his time has been 
quite fully taken up with his work as a physician and surgeon.  He is 
also the owner of the leading drug store of the town, the Paragon Drug 
Store, is a director and vice president of the First National Bank of 
Lake Charles and director and vice president of the Lake Charles Trust 
& Savings Bank.  He is a member of the Parish, District, State and 
American Medical Associations.

Doctor Perkins was the first mayor of Sulphur when the town was 
incorporated in 1912, and for four years was president of the Calcasieu 
Parish Board of Health, for six years was president of the Parish School 
Board, and for two terms represented the parish in the Louisiana State 
Legislature.  He is now a member of the Sulphur City Council.  He was 
active in all local war work.  Doctor Perkins donated the sites for the 
Baptist and Catholic churches at Sulphur, and had a prominent part in 
the bringing about the building of the present beautiful church home for 
the Methodist Episcopal Church at Sulphur, of which he is a member of 
the official board.

Doctor Perkins married, in 1893, Miss Septima E. Postell of 
Plaquemine, Louisiana, daughter of Dr. P. S. and Pauline D. Postell.  
Her father, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, was for four years a 
Confederate soldier, and in 1876 located in Plaquemine, Louisiana, and 
carried on a successful practice in medicine there for nearly a quarter of 
a century, until his death in 1900.  He was president of the school board 
there.  Doctor and Mrs. Perkins have three living children.  The oldest, 
Dr. Philip Samuel, is a graduate of the Sulphur High School, of the 
Military academy at Staunton, Virginia, of the Medical Department of 
Tulane University, and practiced at Leesville, Louisiana, for a period of 
live years.  He is now at the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital at New 
Orleans.  He is married and has two children, Eunice and Philip 
Samuel, Jr.  Ruth Perkins is a graduate of the Sulphur High School and 
attended the Brenau College in Georgia.  On September 6, 1924, she 
was married to Jean M. King, of Lake Charles, Louisiana.  The third 
child, Logan Postell, has finished his high school course and is 
attending the Louisiana State University.
NOTE:  The referenced source contains a black and white photograph 
of the subject with his/her autograph.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 13, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New 
York, 1925.