HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, VOL. II, 1918, pages 284-285.

Orra F. Perkins is a retired merchant of Northwood and an honored veteran of the Civil war who well deserves mention in this volume among the representa­tive and valued residents of Worth county. He was born in New York, February 15, 1840, and there spent the first twelve years of his life, after which he accom­panied his father, who in 1852 removed with his family from the Empire state to a farm near Madison, Wisconsin, where they lived for four years. They then came to Hartland township, Worth county, Iowa, arriving in June, 1856. Since that time, or for a period of sixty-two years, Orra F. Perkins has made his home in Worth county and is numbered among the honored pioneers whose memory forms a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present.

He acquired his education in the public schools of New York and of Wis­consin and in his early twenties he responded to the country's call for troops, enlisting as a member of Company F, Fourth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for two years and six months. He then veteranized and was promoted to the rank of corporal on the 1st of December, 1864. He remained with the army until the close of hostilities, when he was honorably discharged and mustered out at St. Paul; Minnesota. His regiment was attached to the Fifteenth Army Corps, with which he fought in the battles of Iuka, both battles of Corinth, Champion's Hill, Jackson, the siege of Vicksburg, the battle of Altoona and the engagements at Benton Cross Roads, Savannah and others, par­ticipating, in all, in twelve battles. He was also present at the surrender of General Jackson at Galesburg, North Carolina, and he went with Sherman on the celebrated march from Atlanta to the sea, which proved that the Confederacy was but as an empty shell, the troops having all been drawn from the interior to protect the border. After the march to the sea the regiment proceeded to Washington, later to Louisville, Kentucky, and thence to St. Paul, Minnesota, where Mr. Perkins was mustered out.

As the country no longer needed his military aid, he returned to Iowa and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 25, Hartland township, upon which he took up his abode, continuing the cultivation of that farm for six years. On the expiration of that period he removed to Kensett, where he opened a hardware store, which he conducted with gratifying success for a con­siderable period. He later removed to Northwood, where he engaged in the meat business up to the time of his retirement from active commercial pursuits.

Mr. Perkins was united in marriage to Miss Martha J. Remore, a daughter of Harrison H. and Nancy (Hull) Remore. Mrs. Perkins was born in Watertown, New York, her parents being natives of Jefferson county, that state. Her father was born July 12, 1824, and was reared and educated in Jefferson county. In 1855 he removed westward to Columbia county, Wisconsin, where he resided until 1857, when he became a resident of Olmsted county, Minnesota. He was in quite limited financial circumstances when he went to that state, and he and his wife were accordingly forced to endure many privations and hardships inci­dent to settlement on the frontier. As the years passed, however, his hard work and close economy enabled him to make progress and he developed a farm which in time he sold at a good figure. He then removed to Worth county, Iowa, in the spring of 1864 and took up his abode on what is known as the Enos Smith farm in Northwood, now Grove, township. Upon that place he resided until the summer of 1870, when he established his home in Northwood and built a fine residence, which he occupied until his death, which occurred in 1893. For four years he had survived his wife, who died in 1889. Mr. Remore was the owner of two hundred acres of excellent land, which he brought under a high state of cultivation, and as the result of his intelligently directed efforts he became one of the substantial and prosperous farmers of Worth county. His fraternal relations were with the Masonic lodge of Northwood and in his political faith he was a democrat. His father, who spent his entire life in Jefferson county, New York, served as a soldier in the War of 1812.

To Mr. and Mrs. Perkins has been born a daughter, Grace Velma, who is the wife of A. L. Steece, of Minneapolis Minnesota, and has one child, Josephine L. Mr. Perkins has always voted with the republican party and he served as assessor of Hartland township, Worth county, but has not been an office seeker, preferring to concentrate his time and energies upon his business affairs, in which he has won a fair measure of prosperity. His life has ever been an honorable one, and in matters of citizenship he has displayed the same spirit of fidelity that characterized him as a soldier.

Transcribed by Gordon Felland - July, 2006