GILMAN HILL PERKINS (341) was born in Geneseo, March 4th, 1827. He died November 16th, 1898. His mother dying when he was four years of age, he was sent to his grandmother in Bethlehem, Connecticut, in the spring of 1832. On his return to Geneseo he went to the district school and from there to the Temple Hill Academy.
Mr. Perkins came to Rochester March 19th, 1844, and entered immediately into the employ of E. F. Smith & Company, where he remained until the spring of 1847, leaving on account of ill health. In 1848 he re-entered the service of Smith & Perkins, wholesale grocers, as clerk, and was taken in as partner January 1st, 1852. A thorough business man, Mr. Perkins did not confine his abilities or energies to the grocery business alone. In addition to being President of the Smith, Perkins & Company firm, he became identified with a number of Rochester's important institutions. Since 1858 he had been an officer and director of the Union Bank; a trustee since 1879 of the Rochester Savings Bank; a trustee of the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company since 1888; since its organization a trustee of the Security Trust Co.; a director of the Genesee Valley Railroad Company, and a director of the Rochester Gas and Electric Co.; a member of the Hemlock Water Works Commission, which built the city's first pure water supply system. He was also a trustee of the Reynolds Library; a member and one of the founders of the Genesee Valley Club, and at one time its president; treasurer of the Deaf Mute Institute since its organization; trustee of the Industrial School, and of the Board of Trustees of the City Hospital.
In religion Mr. Perkins was an Episcopalian. He was vestryman and warden in St. Luke's Church for forty years. He was married to Miss Caroline Erickson, a daughter of Aaron Erickson, July 17th, 1856.
Mr. Perkins was a staunch Democrat and though averse to public office he was in 1892 a Presidential Elector in the Cleveland-Harrison campaign.
Mr. Perkins was an ideal merchant. His probity was a tower of strength to himself and to all who dealt with him. Commercial