Perkins, Bishop W., lawyer, soldier and Congressman, was born at Rochester, Lorain county, Ohio, Oct. 18, 1841. He received a common school education, which was supplemented by a short attendance at Knox College, Galesburg, Ill. When the Civil war began he enlisted as a sergeant in the Eighty-third Illinois infantry, but was transferred to the Sixteenth U. S. colored infantry, where he served as adjutant and captain for nearly three years. At the close of the war he studied law at Ottawa, Ill., where he was admitted to the bar in 1867 and commenced the practice of his chosen profession. Soon afterward, however, he decided to try his fortunes in Kansas, located in Labette county, where he entered into local politics, and in 1869 was elected county attorney. The next year he was elected probate judge and was reëlected in 1872. In Feb., 1873, he resigned the office of probate judge to accept an appointment as judge of the 11th judicial district, and at the election in November he was elected for the unexpired term. He was reëlected judge of that district in 1874 and again in 1878, holding the office for nearly ten years. In 1882 he was nominated by the Republicans of his district for Congress, was elected in November of that year, and was three times reëlected, serving four successive terms in the lower house of the national legislature. Upon the death of Preston B. Plumb in 1891, Mr. Perkins was appointed for the unexpired term and died in Washington, D. C., June 20, 1894.