OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Gen. Simon Perkins [15]
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
June 22, 1999
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Historical Collections of Ohio
The Kelley Family Collections
Newspaper article, Plains Dealer
compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925
And Then They Went West
by Darlene E. Kelley  1998
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Fifteenth of Series---

     After the death of Gen. Simon Perkins, his estate was left to his
sons, with the exception of what he provided for his wife, Nancy
Perkins. he had expressed a wish that one of his sons to occupy and
possess the family farm.
     And so it was that Henry Bishop, who had liked farming better than
the other boys, stayed in Warren. Here he had two farms of 600 acres
each on either side of the Warren-Howland road.  One farm was devoted to
cheese-making, the other to fattening steers and raising colts. A kind
faced man, Henry never drank, diliked revivals and revivalists, and
almost never agreed with his brother Joseph. Eventually Henry built a
new home for himself and moved Simon's old house out to one of the
Howland farms.  He tore down Simon's old office, where most of the land
business of the Reserve had been carried on, and built a new and
handsome one in its place.
     One of the earliest business acts in which Simon's sons
participated in was the reorganization of the Western Reserve Bank under
the Independent Banking Act of 1845. In 1852, Henry became a director of
this bank.
     As far as his other activities were concerned , in 1871, Henry
served on a committee to settle a Pennsylvannia- Ohio boundary dispute;
in 1880 he was presidential elector for Benjamin Harrison; in 1895, he
was a member of a committee for a new Trumbull County Courthouse.  He
was in addition a trustee of the Cleveland State Hospital; president of
the Trumbull County Agricultural Society; a trustee of the Ohio
Agricultural and Mechanical College; member of the Warren school board.
And with his brothers, he endowed a professorship at Western Reserve
University.
     Jacob moved to Cleveland. With Joseph, he promoted the Cleveland
Mahoning Railroad and became its president.  In 1850, he was delegate to
Ohio's Constitutional Convention, and in 1856, he was a presidental
elector.  He was an ardent abolitionist and popular speaker, but his
death in 1859, brought his career to an early end.
     Joseph, a handsome man, who loved to dress well. was remembered as
being fond of horses and immensely conscientious.  He moved to Cleveland
in 1852 and built a handsome Italian Villa syle house on fashionable
Euclid Ave.  He became a director of the Western Reserve Bank in 1845, a
director and vice president of Society for Savings, a director of
Citizen's Savings, and a director of Bank of Geauga.  With Jacob, he
promoted the Cleveland Mahoning Railroad on the right-of-way of the
Pennsylvania-Ohio Canal.  He was a member of the Ohio Board of Charities
and a contributor to Oberlin and Berea colleges. He received honorary
M.A. and Doctor of Laws degrees from Marietta College. For thirty-nine
years, he served as a trustee of Western Reserve University, giving
generously to that institution and establishing, with Henry and Jacob,
the Perkins Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, renamed
in 1882 the Perkins Professorship of Physics and Astronomy.
     Simon, Jr., continued living in Akron. He was a large man with a
head and beard that resembled Moses.  He had a deep gruff voice that
struck terror in kids when he spoke. He was not religious or straight
laced, but was an honarable man.
     In 1842, he started a wool business with John Brown, later of
Harper's Ferry fame, as his partner. Brown lived in a cottage or small
frame house on Simon's property, located just across te Portage Path
from Simon Jr's  big house. The partnership was not particularly
successful although Simon Jr. exhibited wool in the Crystal Palace. He
promoted and became President of the Cleveland Zanesville and Cincinnati
Railroad.  He gave Grace Park, Union Park, and Perkins Park to the city
of Akron. 
     So it was that Gen. Simon Perkins sons followed his final words; "
I hope my family will continue their present habits of care, kindness,
attention, and integrity."
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