Plinny Perkins, Burlington, Wis.-- Part 2: Abolitionist

Plinny Perkins was one of the early residents of Burlington.  He and others were attracted to the area in southeast Wisconsin because of the fertile fields for agriculture and the availability of water power from the Fox and White rivers.

He was a shareholder in the abolitionist newspaper The American Free Man which was published in Milwaukee and later Waukesha.

He died 21 August 1889 and is buried at Burlington Cemetery in section E.

His house still stands at 565 W. State Street.

Quite the Entrepreneur.  --Old Secesh

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