ROBERT T. PERRIN, VICTORIA TOWNSHIP.
The farming community of Victoria township has no more substantial figure than the above subject, who is a native of Oswego township, N. Y., born July 14, 1843. His parents were Alfonzo and Sarah (Thompson) Perrin, both also natives of the Empire State. The father was a blacksmith all his active life, and died in New York about 1855, at the early age of forty-five. His wife survived him until 1892, when she passed away at the venerable age of eighty-two. At her decease she had been three times married -- first to James Hurd; second, to Mr. Perrin, and third, to A. Stevens. By her second union she had two sons -- Robert T. Perrin and Marcus C., the latter being a resident of the State of Washington.
The paternal grandfather, Samuel Perrin, was a native of Pennsylvania, and likewise a blacksmith by trade. When he migrated to New York State and commenced the improvement of a small tract of land, the Indians were still in possession of some of their famous hunting grounds. Grandfather Perrin died in the Empire State, and of his family of six daughters and one son but one is now living.
Robert T. Perrin was reared in York State, where he remained until he was twenty-four years of age. In 1867 he moved to Woodford county, Ill., where he farmed until 1882. During that year he located in Victoria township, this county, where he purchased the first "eighty" of the 160 acres which constitute the area of his present fine homestead. For nearly a quarter of a century he has been improving his land purchases by all the methods known to progressive agriculture, and his residence and farm buildings are of the most approved construction. Neither has he neglected to plant and maintain groves of trees, which serve as beautifiers of his property, as wind breaks and as preservers of moisture and fertility. In this respect he is in line with the best farmers of Cass county and the West.
In 1877 Robert T. Perrin was married to Annie Pawley, who as a child was brought to this country from her native England, and at the age of nine years adopted by a family named Pawley. They have become the parents of six sons -- Charles T., Marcus G., Edward R., Ralph J., Chauncey B. and Robert E. Mr. and Mrs. Perrin are members of the Christian Church. Mr. Perrin is independent in politics, is affiliated fraternally with the I. O. O. F., and has earned the general esteem of his associates.
From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 464-465.
