Bio-Sawyers
SURNAMES: QUACKENBUSH, SWANEY,
was born in Cato (now Ira), Cayuga County, New York, August
13, 1822. His father, Moses Perkins, was a native of Saratoga Springs, New York.
Removed with his family to Logan, Michigan, in 1831, about six years before it
became a State. The place where he located is now in Lenawee County, of which
Adrian is the county seat. He located on a farm of 193 acres four miles west of town.
The subject of this sketch lived in Michigan until 1852, when he came overland
to California. He was six months less six days making the trip. He at once went
into the mines and opened a store at Diamond Springs, and remained there until 1855, when he sold out and went to Coon Hill and bought a claim with the
intention of working it, and built a house, but hired a man to work the claim.
He found a good many difficulties in this task. About this time, in company with
others, he built a flour mill on Weber Creek, between Diamond Springs and
Placerville, called the "Mountain Mills," and supplied the surrounding country
with flour. In 1862 he sold his interest in the mill and went back to Michigan,
where in February, 1864, he bought a combined flour and saw mill with his
cousin, Wilson Perkins. The mill was run by water, and was situated two miles
south of the town of Hudson. Selling out the next year he removed to Portland,
Ionia County, and went into the hardware business with H. G. Stephens, and
continued in the business for six years under the firm name of Stephens &
Perkins, when he sold out to Stephens and bought a stock of goods, groceries,
and crockery, and opened a store and ran it a year. Then he sold out and moved
back to Hudson, where his father lived, and bought in the store owned by his
brother, N. M. Perkins. Was with him between two and three years, when he sold
out again and rented and ran a mill for about a year.
After settling up his business he came to California, in 1878, and located in Los Gatos July 5 of that year. December 15, 1881, he opened a general store, which he afterward sold, and in the fall of 1885 opened his present stock of hardware, etc. Was elected President of the Board of Town Trustees of Los Gatos when the town was incorporated, and served as a member for one year. Was married October 6, 1847, in Adrian, Michigan, to Alida C. Quackenbush, a native of New York. They have two children, viz.: Emma L., wife of H. A. Swaney, and Fred. W., who is also married and in business with his father, under the firm name of Perkins & Son.
During the
Revolutionary War the grandfather of the subject of the above sketch,
Christopher Perkins, moved from Rhode Island to Saratoga County, New York,
placing his wife, child, and all his household goods upon the back of one horse.
He settled on the west bank of the Hudson, where he soon heard the guns of some
of the most important battles. His own cabin was made a hospital. He died in
1813, leaving a wife and seven dependent children. She moved into Cayuga County,
New York, and saw hard times. At one period they had to subsist upon leeks and
milk ! The mother rode two days to obtain some flour, and all she obtained was
used at once baking!
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Pg. 603-604
SANTA CLARA COUNTY The Valley of Heart's Delight