Daniel (Dan) Perkins
Birth: 9 January 1887, Bluff, San Juan, Utah, USADan was the third son and fifth child of Hyrum Perkins and Rachel Maria Corry. He attended the public school in Bluff with his siblings and cousins. He assisted his father and brothers in watching the cattle. From 1907 to 1910, he attended Brigham Young Academy in Provo. The trip to and from Provo took five days each way, taking the train to Thompson Springs north of Moab. During the summer of 1909, Dan guided John Wetherill and several scientists from the Smithsonian Institute in search of ancient Indian relics and "a huge natural bridge near the Colorado" spoken of by the Paiute Indians. Dan was among the known first white men to see Rainbow Bridge.
He served thirty-three months as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Carolina, departing for that service in 1911. On his return he married Margaret Clayton, granddaughter of William Clayton of "Come, Come Ye Saints" fame, who had come to Bluff to be a school teacher. Dan and Margaret moved their family from Bluff to Blanding in 1917. Dan was soon called to return to Bluff as bishop of the ward and Margaret was called as relief society president. The assignment involved keeping the ward functioning and the people active, which proved to be a difficult task. After five years, they were released and returned to Blanding.
Dan was then called to be a counselor to Bishop Hanson Bayles and served for five years there.
During the years in Bluff and Blanding Dan had been in partnership with his brother, Corry, raising cattle, sheep and lambs. When the price of wool dropped to near nothing, he found a job as foreman in the Civilian Conservation Corps, and worked there for five years. He then sold his interest in the livestock partnership to Corry, and Dan moved his family to Salt Lake City. Here he worked as circulation department manager for more than eleven years.
After suffering a stroke in 1956, he retired from the Deseret News. He became a crossing guard for Holliday Elementary School where he worked until April 9, 1968. Ten days later he suffered a heart attack and on April 21, 1968 he passed away. Dan and Margaret had five children.
Sources:
1. Pilgrims in Zion: Rachel Corry Perkins and Joseph Alvin Lyman, by Margaret Tennity.
2. NPS Rainbow Bridge
National Monument, history
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Daniel Perkins, young boy
Dan Perkins (back row second from left)
was a member of the
Douglass-Commings Party
which discovered Rainbow Bridge
Margaret Clayton Perkins