Richard Leonard Perkins
Birth: 28 May 1890 at Mancos, Montezuma, Colorado, USA
Parents: Benjamin Perkins and Sarah Williams
Married: Ada Hunt 5 June 1913 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA
Death: 23 May 1924 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA
LIFE SKETCH RICHARD LEONARD PERKINS
By David L. WaltonAs my mother, Elaine Perkins Walton, was just four and one-half years old when her father died, she had little personal knowledge of him to pass on to her children. When she wrote her own life story, she included just three short paragraphs about him. As her mother had died over two years earlier, that source was also unavailable. Her two sisters and one brother, while older, were not enough older to be ready references regarding their parents either.
In consequence, this sketch will be brief, garnered from official records, my mother’s life story, and news accounts about him and his activities in San Juan County, Utah.
‘Leonard’ as he was known, was born 28 May 1890 in Mancos, Montezuma County Colorado. Marcos was, in my estimation, on the eastern edge of the San Juan Mission, to which his father had been called as a settler in 1879. His mother volunteered to go with the colonists to the San Juan, as a nanny for Ben and Mary Ann (Sarah’s sister) Perkins. She would later marry Ben as a polygamous wife. Leonard was their 5th child in their first nine years of marriage, and the only son among their ten children. Marcos was only a temporary home to Sarah Perkins — Ben had moved his wives several times in an attempt to keep ahead of marshals seeking his arrest for “having too many wives.’
At this time, Bluff settlers were being ‘called’ to open a new town on the slopes of Blue Mountain, and Ben was among the five men named by son-in-law, Albert R. Lyman, who first attempted settlement there. (1) The date of that first attempt to settle in North Montezuma, as it was then called, was early in 1887. Neither of Ben’s wives were in San Juan County at the time, Mary Ann had given birth in Teasdale in February, and Sarah states she was living in Hanksville. In any case, Ben did not remain in Monticello (North Montezuma) at that time, but was arrested for plurality of wives at Teasdale in 1888.
Leonard’s half-sister, Mary Jane, records that on her father’s release from prison, he moved her Mary Ann’s family to Bluff. A year later (1890) Mary Jane and her husband Heber Wilson moved to Bluff with the intent of joining Ben Perkins in moving to Mexico. The Perkins-Wilson group left Bluff that summer, but decided to stay at Verdure (just south of Monticello) rather than making the journey to Mexico. Sarah, who was expecting a child, and her family had been moved to Mancos, Colorado, where Ben's sister-in-law was the mid-wife. Ben acquired the mail contract between Mancos and Bluff at that time and traveled between the two towns with homes on both ends of the trip. After Leonard was born, Ben established Mary Ann in Monticello, and took Sarah back to Bluff from Mancos. Ben determined he would become a farmer and settle down. These moves were completed before 1893.
To supplement his anticipated farm income, Ben continued to carry the mail. From at least age three until he was twelve, Leonard lived in Bluff with his mother and sisters. Sarah's family lived in a log cabin just across the road to the south of the Bluff Co-op store (not the log-house where Mary Ann and family had lived). This was a time of development in Bluff, and income from ranching allowed stone homes to replace the log cabins. While Ben built a brick home for Mary Ann in Monticello, Sarah remained in the log-cabin without complaint.
Leonard attended the public school in Bluff until he was twelve. Then, Ben took Leonard to Monticello to help him with the mail runs. It seems likely that Leonard continued school during the winters, and rode the lonely road Monticello-Bluff-Monticello three days a week when the country was dryer and warmer, allowing passage over wintertime snow-bound or muddy roads, and as he attended at least one semester at the Agricultural College in Logan before his marriage in 1913.
Pressure on plural families wained, and Ben felt it would be easier for him to provide if Sarah and her family were also in Monticello, so here the family moved to Monticello in 1907 or 1908. He moved them into a home by the courthouse, then again into Mary Ann’s home after her death in 1912, and only later did he build her a brick home of her own.
When Leonard was eighteen, sixteen year-old Ada Hunt moved into Bluff, coincidentally from Mancos. Whether his mail travels had taken him to Mancos or not, is unknown, but the two met in Bluff. Leonard was described by a friend as “courageous, optimistic, deeply religious, affectionate, and had the most perfectly muscled up and beautiful body…the marvel and envy of every fellow that ever went into a dressing room with him.” (2) Ada was “a petite, happy, black-haired miss, with hazel eyes.”
The Grand Valley Times, of Moab (May 30, 1913) holds this article: “Monticello. The following couples will leave Monday for Salt Lake, where they will be married in the Temple: Leondard Perkins of Monticello and Miss Ada Hunt of Bluff; Harry Ranney of Bluff and Miss Lucretia Lyman of Grayson. Corry Perkins will also leave, and will meet Miss Kisten Adams in Salt Lake, where they will be married. Mrs. Sarah Perkins and daughter will accompany Leonard Perkins.”
While Leonard’s stated profession was “farmer,” the Moab newspaper accounts make it clear that he continued to travel between Moab and Bluff carrying freight and mail. Two of the accounts (Nov 13, 1913 and Feb 20, 1914) state that Ada travelled with him. One account (June 5, 1914) includes his involvement in “the stage line” business. Another describes his outfit as a six-horse team and that muddy roads had brought freighting to a near standstill. It seems clear that Leonard had taken over much of his father’s freighting and mail contract.
His known freighting partners include his half-brother, John, and cousins, H. Corry Perkins and George W. Perkins. All young men at that time had to register for the Draft (World War I) and when Leonard did (1917) he described himself as a self-employed farmer, of medium height and stout build, with brown eyes and brown hair.
Leonard served as a counselor in the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association in Monticello. He participated as a member of Monticello Ward’s basketball team and as a sprinter for their track team in the San Juan Stake tournament in at least the year 1915. The news report for this tournament lists his sisters Minerva, Vilate, Sarah (Sadie), Alberta and Ruth among those in the cheering section. Monticello’s winning score against Moab was 89-11. Moab took track, dance and music in the same competitions.
Leonard and Ada first lived in a small log house in Monticello. After some time, they moved into “ a neat white frame building on the north of town” which years later became enclosed by the Navajo Motel. It was in this frame house that Ada died of complications with childbirth in 1921. Sarah’s home was adjacent, but through a field. Sarah brought the children into her home at that time. Ada's youngest daughter, Elaine, did not understand and frequently toddled through the field back to her own house crying, “Mama, Mama!”
Leonard, too, was devastated by the tragedy. He did everything he could to compensate for Ada’s loss. He never stopped working, his sister Sadie told Elaine. However, he took time to be with his little children as often as he could. He took Doyle everywhere he went. Each Easter he took his children by buggy over or around Blue Mountain near Newspaper Rock to a favorite outing spot, the Vegas, a tributary stream in present-day Canyonlands, where they enjoyed climbing on the rocks.
He knew his own health was declining. He suffered from constant headaches. He was diagnosed with some sort of kidney problem, later to be identified as Alport Syndrome. None of the usual remedies were of any help. Worry over farming indebtedness added to his distress. Early in 1924, Erma was sent to Salt Lake City for a goiter treatment and to have her tonsils removed. In late April, he went to Salt Lake both to visit Erma and seek his own medical help. He took Doyle with him for company. Intending to stay at his sister Irene’s home he visited the doctor who immediately ordered him to the hospital. Ignoring this, he obtained Erma’s release and took her and Doyle to Aunt Irene’s. Doyle broke out with measles. The house was quite empty as Aunt Irene and Uncle Edward were moving to Blanding at the time. Erma may have gone with them. In a letter dated May 10 he wrote that he and Doyle were “batching it” at Edward’s out of money and out of food. Leonard was now sick in bed.
About the time of this letter, his sister Lell, who was visiting a daughter in Bingham, came to assist him at Irene and Edward’s home, ‘Bob’ (Minerva) also came from California to be of assistance. Lell stated: “In spite of all that was done for him, Leonard didn’t respond to any treatments and lingered until the 23rd of May, fighting desperately for life, with no word of complaint or discouragement.”
Before leaving for Salt Lake and fearing the inevitable, he left a letter with his parents giving instructions to leave it unopened unless he did not return In this letter he wrote out his last intentions. Unable to follow his directive to keep the children together, they were placed with relatives and a neighbor — Freeda went to live with Ione (Perkins) and Marion Hunt (Leonard's sister and Ada's brother) until time for high school, Doyle went to Sadie (Leonard's sister) and George Barton’s, but ran away during 9th grade not to return and eventually became a cowboy, Erma was placed with the district court judge, Fred Keller and his wife, Mabel, and Elaine was kept by Grandma Sarah Perkins.
Sources:
1. Lyman, Albert R. Fort on the Firing Line, (reprinted 2012, BYU Print Services), p. 175.
2. Walton, Elaine Perkins. “Rememberings,” privately published. 1992.
3. Utah Digital Newspapers (using exact search for
'Leonard Perkins', and other family names
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Leonard in the wagon; sisters and mother behind
George Spencer and Leonard Perkins at A.C. in Logan
Leonard Perkins (standing center) with Ada (behind in white) on wedding day