Plinny Perkins of Burlington, Wis.-- Part 1: A Saw Mill and Woolen Mill

From Find-A-Grave and other sources.

On April 24, 2018, I mentioned the woolen mill in Burlington, Wisconsin, which supplied wool cloth for Union uniforms during the Civil War.  The mill was owned by Plinny (also spelled Pliny) Merrick Perkins.

He was born in Oneida County, New York on January 24, 1812.  At age 22 he rode a horse from there to Joliet, Illinois, in 1834.  He moved from there to Burlington, Wisconsin, where he bought a half section of Government land from Moses Smith and built a saw mill..

In 1843, he expanded to include a woolen mill, the first in Racine County, if not the whole state.  This is the one that provided the cloth for the uniforms.

--Old Secesh