Caroline Erickson Perkins (1835-1919)

Friends and Acquaintances of Emily Sibley Watson:

Caroline Erickson Perkins was the wife of Gilman Hill Perkins, father of Gilman Henry Hubbell Perkins, Emily Sibley Watson's niece Marie Louise Atkinson's first husband. Mrs. Perkins was a neighbor of the Sibleys, living across East Avenue in what is now the Genesee Valley Club.  She is best known as the reinvigerator of the Rochester Historical Society, which was founded in 1861 and renewed by Mrs. Perkins' efforts beginning in 1888.

In a letter to her daughter written on 1/23/1893, Elizabeth Sibley describes a series of performances at the Lyceum Theater to benefit the Historical Society, at which Elizabeth's piano, which had come to Rochester via the Erie Canal before her marriage, was featured.  "I presume it will be a great success," she writes, "Mrs. Perkins is nearly worn out in getting it up."