Dr. John W. Perkins, division surgeon for the Kansas division of the union Pacific Railroad since 1887 and a physician ‘and surgeon of pronounced ability, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, July 1, 1860, a son of David and Hannah (Dunn) Perkins, who were natives of New Hampshire and of Maine, respectively. The father was contractor and builder who devoted his life to the business following his marriage, previous to which time he had been a sea captain, sailing out of Boston to the West Indies and in the coastwise trade. He came of a family of seagoing people, but after his marriage, preferring to be with his family, he took up building operations in Boston.
His son, Dr. John W. Perkins, completed a course in the Boston Latin school and then entered Harvard, in which he completed his classical course by graduation in 1882 with the Bachelor of Arts degree, while in 1886 he won the M. D. degree. He later served as house physician in the Boston Children’s Hospital and was after ward house surgeon for a year and nine months in the Boston City Hospital. On the expiration of that period he was appointed surgeon for the Union Pacific Railway at Kansas City and removed to the middle west in 1887. He has since acted in this capacity, or for a period of more than a third of a century. He has his headquarters, at the university Hospital, where he specializes in surgery. The railway division of which he is the head covers about a thousand miles. At one time he took his cases to St. Joseph and St. Margaret Hospitals, but now all are treated in the university Hospital, where the most modern facilities are at hand and where the most scientific care is given to patients. During the World war period he not only had his railway cases but took care of any government cases that needed his attention.
Dr. Perkins was married in 1889, in Kansas City, to Miss Julia Eunice Dutton representative of one of the old families of New York. Their children are three in number, Stuart, Louise and Roland, all of whom are now married. Roland was in the service during the World war but did not get overseas, being held in the training camp at Oklahoma City.
Politically Dr. Perkins is a republican, having given stalwart allegiance to the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. Fraternally he is a Mason. He belongs to the Massachusetts Medical Society. the Jackson County and Missouri State Medical Societies, the American Medical Association and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.