Simon Perkins

General Simon Perkins (September 17, 1771 - November 6, 1844) was an early settler, businessman and surveyor of the Western Reserve of Connecticut, which would later become northeast Ohio. He co-founded Akron, Ohio with Paul Williams in 1825. He served as a brigadier-general during the War of 1812.

Simon Perkins was born on September 17, 1771, in Norwich, Connecticut. He was of mostly English descent though he also had small amounts of Scottish ancestry from his mother. He was the oldest son of Capt. Simon Perkins and Olive Douglas. His father died at age 41 in 1778 while serving in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Simon was descended from one of the oldest English Puritan families of New England, and his ancestry went back to John Perkins who came to the new world with Roger Williams in 1631. His mother was a descendant of William Douglas, one of the founders of New London, Connecticut. At a young age, Perkins learned how to survey and in 1795 he went to Oswego, New York where he surveyed and worked in land sales for three years. In late 1797, he was employed by the Erie Land Company to become the company's land agent in Ohio. The Erie Land Company was organized by General Moses Cleaveland and other members of the Connecticut Land Company. He surveyed the company's land holdings in 1798 and established his headquarters in Warren, Ohio, where he lived the rest of his life. He remained an agent of the Erie Land Company until 1831.

In 1801, he was appointed the first postmaster in the Connecticut Western Reserve, remaining in the position until 1829. In 1807, he established a mail route to Detroit by negotiating a treaty with Native American tribes after urging from Postmaster General Gideon Granger.

In 1808, Perkins became a brigadier-general in the Ohio militia. In the War of 1812, he defended the northwestern portion of Ohio from Native American and British attack after General William Hull's surrender of Detroit in the fall of 1812. He commanded approximately 400 men.

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