Perkins, Robert J.

Louisiana:  Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 353-354.  Edited by Alcee Fortier, Lit.D.  Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.

Perkins, Robert J., was born in Assumption parish, La., Aug. 6, 1868.  His father, Robert Jones Perkins, was born in Lafourche parish, and was a son of Robert W. F. H. Perkins, who was a native of North Carolina and of English lineage, and the first of his family in Louisiana.  He settled in Lafourche parish and was a sugar planter.  His son, who was the father of the subject of this personal sketch, was a veteran of the war of secession, and served with gallantry as a Confederate soldier, but when the war was over, hostility was over with him, and his subsequent life was that of a planter in the main. 

He was a graduate of the University of Louisiana, and for awhile just after the war he taught school.  He became a lawyer, but planting was his real occupation, one that he loved and in which he was numbered among the most progressive of his time.  He died in 1896 at the age of 63 years.  He married Mary Louise Beasley, who was a native of Louisiana and a daughter of James W. Beasley, also a native of Louisiana, his people coming to the state in the early days from Tennessee.  James W. Beasley was a successful planter and lived to the advanced age of 85 years.  Mrs. Perkins is now in the 71st year of her life.  She bore her husband 5 children, one of whom is Ruffin T. Perkins, M. D., of New Orleans, and another being Robert J. Perkins, whose name forms the caption or this personal sketch.  From childhood to the age of about 14 years Robert J. Perkins was reared in Lafourche parish, thereafter in Jefferson parish, and amidst the scenes and experiences of plantation life.  He attended the high school of the old Louisiana university, afterward the
Tulane university.  He was a member of the first class to graduate from the academic department of Tulane university, graduating in 1889. 

For awhile thereafter Mr. Perkins was employed as a chemist by the American Sugar Refining Co. in New Orleans.  His ambition was to become a lawyer.  He studied law while working as chemist, and in 1893 he graduated from the law department of Tulane university, and shortly afterward entered upon his professional career in Jefferson parish where he served ably for 9 years as district attorney.  He then came to New Orleans, where he soon built up a lucrative practice, and has since resided.  In 1896 Mr. Perkins married Miss Mary Virginia Logan, daughter of William Y. Logan, and 5 children have been born unto the marriage. Mr. Perkins holds prominent relations in fraternal and club life.  He has taken both York and Scottish Rite Masonry, being a 32d degree Scottish Rite and a Knight Templar Mason, and also a member of the Mystic Shrine.  He is a member of the Boston, Louisiana, the Chess, Checkers and Whist clubs, and other social organizations, and in politics a democrat.