Henry Farnham Perkins
Henry Farnham Perkins (1877–1956) was an American
Biography
Early life and ancestry
He was born at 205 South Prospect Street in
He was the only son and the second child of
His mother was Mary Judd Farnham,
Mary's parents had emigrated to Illinois in 1836 and were among the founders and pioneers of Galesburg, Illinois. They built a temporary cabin in Log City near current Lake Storey, just north of Galesburg, the settlers having decided that no log cabins were to be built inside the town limits. They were also instrumental in the founding of Knox College. Eli Farnham served as secretary of the Board of Trustees for nearly forty years and also the first school teacher in Galesburg.[2][3][10][13]
Education
He graduated
Marriage and family
He married on June 11, 1903, at
She was a descendant of John Howland, who was one of the Pilgrims who travelled from England to North America on the Mayflower, signed the Mayflower Compact, and helped found Plymouth Colony.[18]
Henry and Mary were the parents of two children, Anna Keyser Perkins-Middlebrook,[16] who married as her second husband, Stanwood Wollaston[1][19] and Harriet Perkins.[1]
Career
In 1903, he was appointed associate professor of Zoology at University of Vermont, Burlington. He taught biology, entomology, anatomy and physiology, and embryology during the first half of his career. In 1911 was promoted to full professor and served as chairman of the Zoology Department. His sporadic research projects involved field studies in the rapidly fading naturalist tradition: studies of birds, game fish, and marine invertebrates. He retired in 1945 and remained active in the UVM Alumni Association until his death in 1956.
His interest in eugenics began shortly after the end of World War I. It was after World War I that he learned of a study by the U.S. Army which was used as part of the draft process. The results from the Army study showed that men from Vermont had an inordinately high rate of "defects" (such as diabetes, epilepsy, "deformities" and "mental deficiency"). Perkins saw this as a problem that needed to be fixed. He went about trying to "fix" this through investigation and social reform.[20] This reform, as denounced by historian Nancy Gallagher in her research titled Breeding better Vermonters, also targeted French Canadians and American natives in Vermont state, considered insane invasion to eliminate.
Around the same time, he revamped his Zoology curriculum and began teaching courses specifically on Heredity and Evolution. His heredity class provided the first known venue for eugenics education at UVM and the inspiration for a "Eugenics Survey"—a field station to study Vermonters.
Death
He died on November 24, 1956, in Burlington, Vermont.
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Cutter, p. 747
- ^ a b c Jones, p. 621
- ^ a b c Jones, p. 622
- ^ a b c Whipple, p. 294
- ^ Duffy, p. 232
- ^ Burt, 71
- ^ Obituary: "George Henry Perkins" New York Times. September 14, 1933.
- ^ SuccessfulAmericans, p. 302
- ^ "George Henry Perkins, State Geologist". Biographical sketches from the Vermont Legislative Directory, Biennial Session, 1902. 1902. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
- ^ a b "Loomis-Farnham Collection". Knox College Special Collections & Archives. 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
- ^ Loomis, p. 117
- ^ Jones, p. 274
- ^ Webster, p. 49
- ^ NaturalSciences, pp. 750–790
- ^ Howe, p. 292
- ^ a b Howe, p. 312
- ^ "WIN ARCHITECTURAL PRIZES.; University of Pennsylvania Carries Off Twelve of Nineteen Awards." New York Times. April 28, 1912.
- ^ Mary Edmunds, James Richard Edmunds, Thomas Hughes Edmunds, Lidia Hughes, Thomas Hurst Hughes, Ellis Hughes, Hannah Whilldin, Joseph Whilldin, Hannah Gorham, Desire Howland, John Howland
- ^ "Stan Wollaston 1915-2006". Lyric Theatre Company. 2006. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
- ^ Gallagher, pp. 38-39
References
- Burt, Daniel S. The chronology of American literature: America's literary achievements from the colonial era to modern times Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004. ISBN 0-618-16821-4
- Cutter, William Richard. New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, Lewis Historical Publishing, NY, 1914.
- Duffy, John J. The Vermont encyclopedia Publisher: UPNE, 2003. ISBN 1-58465-086-9
- Gallagher, Nancy L. Breeding Better Vermonters: the Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1999.
- Howe, Paul Sturtevant. Mayflower Pilgrim descendants in Cape May County, New Jersey; memorial of the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 1620–1920; a record of the Pilgrim descendants who early in its history settled in Cape May County, and some of their children throughout the several states of the union at the present time Cape May, New Jersey. Publisher: A. R. Hand, 1921.
- Jones, Emma C. Brewster. The Brewster Genealogy, 1566-1907: a Record of the Descendants of William Brewster of the "Mayflower," ruling elder of the Pilgrim church which founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. New York: Grafton Press, 1908.
- Loomis, Elias. The descendants of Joseph Loomis: who came from Braintree, England, in the year 1638, and settled in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1639 Author Elias Loomis Publisher: Tuttle Antiquarian Books, 1870.
- NaturalSciences. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Volume 54 Publisher Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1903.
- Webster, Martha Farnham. Seventy-five significant years: The story of Knox college. 1837-1912 Publisher Wagoner Printing Company, 1912.
- Whipple, Blaine. 15 Generations of Whipples: Descendants of Matthew Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts, Abt 1590-1647: An American Story (Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, 2007).
Further reading
- Academy of Natural Sciences. The Development of Gonionema Murbachii Publisher Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1903
- Jones, Emma C. Brewster. The Brewster Genealogy, 1566-1907: a Record of the Descendants of William Brewster of the "Mayflower," ruling elder of the Pilgrim church which founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. New York: Grafton Press, 1908.