George A. Perkins

GEORGE A. PERKINS. - The type of man best fitted to meet the wonderfully changed life of today is not a new type. He is a man resplendent with the same old sterling qualities, clean in his individual life, great in his civic and patriotic life and great in his religious life. G. A. Perkins, whose name forms the caption for this article, is a representative citizen of Bonner Springs, where he has resided since 1897 and where he is accorded recognition as a prominent and influential business man. Mr. Perkins was born at Adrian, Lenawee county, Michigan, on the 24th of August, 1860, and he is a son of Alexander and Martha (Bean) Perkins, both of whom are now deceased. The father was identified with the mechanical line of enterprise during the major portion of his active career, and he passed the closing years of his life at Paola, Kansas.

The third in order of birth in a family of four children, George A. Perkins was reared to the age of eleven years in the old Wolverine state of the Union, whence his parents removed to Kansas in the year 1871. Location was first made at Paola, to whose public schools Mr. Perkins is indebted for a portion of his educational discipline. When nineteen years of age he established his home in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was engaged in the harness business for a period of twenty years, at the expiration of which he came to Bonner Springs, and here opened a harness shop. In 1904 he added hardware to his first enterprise, and with the passage of time added furniture and house furnishings. His establishment consists of two rooms, each twenty-five by seventy-five feet, and of a third room twenty-five by one hundred feet. It is one of the most complete in the way of equipment and one of the largest stores of its kind in a town of this size in the west, and for that reason, together with the strictly square and honorable treatment given all customers, an exceedingly large patronage is controlled.

On the 3rd of October, 1888, at Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Perkins was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Downing, who is a native of the state of Maine, and who is a daughter of J. W. Downing, a farmer and citizen of Wyandotte county.

In politics Mr. Perkins accords allegiance to the principles and policies endorsed by the Democratic party, in the local councils of which he is an active and interested factor, ever being on the qui vive to do all in his power to advance the general welfare of the community in which he resides. He is affiliated with a number of fraternal and social organizations of representative character and in their religious faith the Perkins family are consistent and zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church, to whose philanthropical work he is a liberal contributor. Concerning Mr. Perkins the following appreciative words have been said: "He is a man of an exalted sense of honor, of cordial and friendly nature and of fine public spirit. He believes in Bonner Springs and is a participant in every plan to boost the town." And we further quote of him and his business from an article published recently in a local paper:

"The largest store in Bonner Springs, which has grown to its present proportions on its own merit and on the confidence that the public has in its owner, is that of G. A. Perkins, who deals in hardware, harness, furniture and house furnishings, the latter including stoves. Mr. Perkins carries a big stock of the highest standard. His store, which is composed of two rooms of twenty-five by seventy-five feet each, and a third of twenty-five by one hundred, is one of the most complete and modern in a town of this size in the country. Fourteen years ago it had its start in a small harness shop. The year following he added hardware, and then furniture and the store grew in business largely because he responded intelligently to the public demand and gave his customers square treatment. That has always been his reputation in this community. Mr. Perkins was born in Michigan in 1860. He came with his parents to Paola when he was about eleven years old and afterward moved to Kansas City, where he was in the harness business for twenty years. He is a man of an exalted sense of honor, of cordial and friendly nature and of fine public spirit. He believes in Bonner Springs and is a participant in every plan to boost the town."