FRED PERKINS, one of the best known business men of Labette county, Kansas, is president of the Oswego State Bank, and has been engaged in negotiating farm loans for the past twenty years. He is an extensive land owner, and has some of the finest farms in the Neosho bottom.

Mr. Perkins was born at Becket, Massachusetts, in 1845, and is a son of C. O. and Joanna Sarepta (Snow) Perkins. His father was a native of Massachusetts and lived there all his life, although he spent a considerable portion of his time in Oswego, engaged in the loan business. He died at the age of sixty-seven years. He married Joanna Sarepta-Snow, who died at an early age. Their union resulted in the birth of one child, Fred, whose name appears at the head of these lines.

Fred Perkins received his primary schooling in his native town and took an academic course at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, after which he spent a year in the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. He then returned to the East, and in 1868 went west to Bolivar, Missouri, where he was located on a ranch for a period of two years. In I870 he moved to Oswego township, Labette county, Kansas, and engaged in farming and stock raising with great success. For several years past he has had the finest herd of Hereford cattle in Southern Kansas, and was the first to introduce that breed in this section of the state. He is an extensive land owner and possesses some fine land in the Neosho bottom, made valuable by his perfect system of tiling which he also introduced in this vicinity. He was one of the organizers of the Oswego State Bank, in 1888, and has since served as one of its directors. He was elected to the office of president in 1893, the duties of which position he has since discharged in a most capable manner. By efficient management the bank has been made one of the leading financial institutions of this part of the state, and it enjoys a liberal patronage from the leading citizens. Mr. Perkins has been engaged in the farm and loan business for about twenty years and has been financial agent of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company for Southern Kansas and Southern Missouri, - placing all of that company's loans in this territory.

Mr. Perkins was united in marriage in 1869 with Mary E. May, of Woodstock, Connecticut, and they are the parents of three children, as follows: Charles S., Kate S., and Elizabeth M. Charles S. was educated in the Oswego High School and the State Normal School, at Emporia, and is now engaged in business with his father; he married Eleanor Allen, by whom he has two children, - Clinton and William Fred. Kate S. and Elizabeth M. were educated at the Oswego College for Young Ladies, from which they graduated. Fraternally, the subject of this sketch is a member of the blue lodge, A. F. & A. M.; Chapter No. 15, R. A. M.; and Commandery No. 7, K. T. Politically, he favors the principles of the Republican party.