Lewis F. Perkins

Lewis F. Perkins was born on March 27, 1840, in Onondaga County, New York, the son of Erastus (b. 1795) and Sally (b. 1804).

Lewis’s parents were married before 1827, presumably in New York where they lived for many years. By 1850 Erastus was working as a farmer and Lewis was living with his family and attending school with his two younger siblings in Syracuse’s First Ward, Onondaga County, New York. By 1860 Lewis was working as a mechanic and apprentice carpenter living with his older brother Horace and his family in Lyons, Ionia County, Michigan.

Lewis stood 5’5” with black eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion and was 21 years old and probably still living in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company E on May 13, 1861. (During the war his brother Horace would serve as Second Lieutenant in Company D, Twenty-First Michigan infantry and another brother William, would serve as First Lieutenant of Company E, First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics. He was probably related to both E. B. Perkins who served in Co. F, Sixth Michigan H.A. and William H. Perkins who served in Co. D, First Michigan infantry.)

He was wounded in the hand, probably at Fair Oaks, Virginia, on May 31, 1862, and subsequently hospitalized in Judiciary Square in Washington, DC. In early July he was listed as in good health and serving as a nurse. Nevertheless, he remained listed as sick and wounded until he was discharged for consumption on March 12, 1863, at Camp Convalescent, Virginia.

Lewis gave Lyons as his mailing address on his discharge paper, but by 1888 he was living in McBride, Montcalm County. He was still livng in McBride in 1894 and probably lived in McBride for most of his postwar life.

He was married to Eliza (1843-1906).

Lewis was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, as well as Grand Army of the Republic McCook post no. 434 in McBride.

In 1888 he applied for and received a pension (no. 547032).

Lewis died a widower of angina pectoris in Richland Township, Montcalm on December 2, 1916, and was buried in McBride cemetery.