Biography

Frank Perkins descended from Black Mormon pioneers on both sides of his family tree. In fact, he was named after his paternal grandfather, Frank Perkins, who had married an enslaved woman named Esther in Missouri before being brought by their enslavers to the Great Basin. Frank’s maternal great-grandparents (Green and Martha Ann Morris Flake) were also enslaved when they arrived in Utah Territory. Frank’s mother, Martha, attended church and socials with her Latter-day Saint congregation while his father, Sylvester, supported the family in their church activity, although he was never baptized. This foundation of faith manifested itself in different ways among Frank and his siblings. While Frank did not always practice the faith of his youth, he did not ever leave it either. He maintained an association with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until the end of his life.

Frank was born on 28 June 1904 and grew up in a farming community on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. He was the second of four children born to Sylvester Perkins and Martha Stevens.[1] The Perkins had their own farm, and through hard work it produced well, providing a living for the family. While they raised peaches and grain, their main livelihood was the acres of black currant bushes they harvested each year. Frank and his siblings contributed as they worked through the hot summer months. They woke early and attended to some of the chores of the day, such as milking the cow. After breakfast, they spent all day in the currant bushes, picking and gathering the little berries that Frank’s sister described as “devilish.” After picking some currants, they would rub a tiny handful in between their palms to break up the bits of stems and leaves. Once separated from other debris, they put the berries in a jar. The children did this all day long. Their mother brought their lunches to them in the currant orchard as they worked until dusk. Although the children found the work tedious, it produced fruitful results. The currants sold well in the area and occasionally shipped out of state.[2]

In the autumn, Frank and his siblings would begin their school year. The pressures of school would replace any relief they may have felt to be out of the currant bushes. They attended the Wilford one-room schoolhouse and experienced the challenges of youth. As Black children, they also sometimes encountered the added pressure to prove themselves in comparison to their white counterparts. Sylvester and Martha had not had the same educational opportunities available to their children, but they supported them in their academics. As a result, Frank remained in school and completed four years of high school.[3]

The Perkins family maintained strong friendships with other families in the community. They attended socials, picnics up the canyon, ward activities, and dances in the church house. Lucille remembered when the adults were dancing, the children who had made beds on the floor and were supposed to be asleep would crack the door to watch the adults. “It was great fun to see them make fools of themselves with their dancing.”[4]

The LDS faith was prominent in the Perkins home. Frank’s mother, Martha, a descendant of Green Flake who was a member of the vanguard party of Latter-day Saints who had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on 22 July 1847, two days ahead of Brigham Young, chose to be baptized a year before the birth of her first child.[5] Once baptized, Martha ensured that her children learned the gospel as taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Sylvester and Martha oversaw their children’s growth in the faith. The children were blessed as infants, a practice the Church instituted in its early years and continues to practice today. It was an opportunity to present a newborn infant to the congregation, bless them, and enter their names and birthdates into the records of the Church.

The elders in Frank’s congregation blessed him on 7 August 1904, in the Wilford Ward, in Salt Lake City.[6] As Frank and each of his siblings reached the age of eight, they were baptized and confirmed members of the church. Frank’s baptism took place on 25 July 1912, also in the Wilford Ward.[7] Martha wanted her children to experience the blessings that came with membership. She ensured that her children were included in Church records and that they never missed Sunday School.[8]

Maintaining family connections was important to Martha. She often took the children to Idaho, where their grandparents spoiled them.[9] Yet, as with all families, children make their own way in life and do not always take the same path as their siblings or parents. Frank’s siblings remained close to home where they stayed involved with the church community of their youth. Frank, in contrast, moved out of state and made his own decisions regarding his faith and church attendance.

After finishing high school, Frank began working for the railroad.[10] He lived with his family in Salt Lake City until his first marriage in 1926. Frank eventually married three times. He married Carrie Washington twice, first in 1926 and then again in 1939. He also married Ellen Johnson in 1974 after Carrie passed away.

Carrie Washington was born in Texas in 1907 and moved to Pocatello, Idaho, with her family sometime between 1910 and 1917.[11] Frank and Carrie married in Idaho Falls in 1926.[12] In 1929, Latter-day Saint church records indicate that Frank moved to Pocatello, Idaho, where he worked for the Oregon Shortline Railroad. Frank does not appear in any Pocatello ward records after his move there and evidence suggests that he distanced himself from his childhood faith.[13] Evidence also indicates that Frank never fully left the faith of his youth.

It is unclear how long Frank’s first marriage to Carrie lasted. Although documentation of a divorce or annulment has not been found, they likely separated or divorced shortly after they wed, as they were married a second time in 1939 in Weber County, Utah. After their 1926 marriage, they may have spent a few years together, but by 1929, Frank was noticeably alone in the Pocatello city directory and without a permanent address.[14] Work on the railroad may have been what kept Frank and Carrie apart, but if it were just a separation, they would not have needed to marry again. While Frank’s residences are unknown between 1929 and 1939, Carrie lived alone in Pocatello.[15]

Frank and Carrie finally united again in 1939, this time in Weber County, Utah, where they were married by a reverend in the Wall Avenue Baptist Church.[16] Later that year, they moved to Boise, Idaho, and Frank began work at the Owyhee Hotel.[17] The Owyhee was built as an upscale hotel in Boise in 1910, and Frank worked there as both a clerk and a waiter. By the 1940s, the hotel had fallen into disrepair and was forced to close for renovations.[18] This, along with the approaching birth of their first child, prompted a move back to Salt Lake City in 1941.[19] Frank Jr. was born that same year.[20]

While in Salt Lake City, Frank strengthened his ties to his family. He and Carrie lived with his mother and his brother George’s family. In fact, he listed his mother as his nearest relation on his World War II draft registration card.[21]

Frank and Carrie stayed in Salt Lake City for a few years; their second child, Shirley, was born there in 1946. Shortly after the birth, they moved their family back to Idaho, this time settling near Carrie’s family in Pocatello.[22]

Frank worked for the railroad following his return to Pocatello. He first found work at the Griffin Wheel Company, a manufacturer of railroad wheels, and then for the Union Pacific Railroad, where he remained until his retirement in 1974.[23]

After several years in Pocatello, Frank and Carrie moved back to Utah and established a home in Ogden.[24] During this time, they attended the Wall Avenue Baptist Church, which was where their second marriage had taken place.

Activity in the LDS Church was challenging for Black members. African Americans were barred from entering certain “white only” establishments in broader society, and these restrictions sometimes extended into Latter-day Saint congregations. Frank’s sister Lucille recalled that she had felt welcome at church in her own community in Wilford, but when she tried to attend a Latter-day Saint ward in downtown Salt Lake, the congregation barred her from entering.[25] Black members who lived in segregated cities sometimes stopped attending the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints altogether as a result of such prejudice. Many African Americans, including members of the LDS church, gathered in Black churches instead.  Frank and Carrie fit this mold; they attended the New Zion Baptist Church on Wall Avenue in Ogden. Their involvement in the church extended to their children as well; Frank Jr. and Shirley considered themselves members of New Zion.[26]

On 13 May 1961, tragedy struck the Perkinses when their son, Frank Jr, died at only twenty years of age.[27] While travelling from Salt Lake City towards Ogden, the driver of the car in which Frank Jr. was a passenger lost control of the car. Frank Jr. and another man were both thrown from the vehicle. A reverend from the New Zion Baptist Church officiated at Frank Jr.’s funeral.[28]

Frank experienced loss again over a decade later. His wife Carrie passed away in 1974. Her obituary is the only record found in which she is mentioned in connection with the Latter-day Saint faith. She is described as a Latter-day Saint and the bishop of the Ogden Ninth Ward officiated at her funeral. Carrie must have converted sometime after the death of Frank Jr. in 1961. Her conversion also likely marked Frank’s return to the faith of his youth. He rekindled his connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and found community with the members of the Ogden Ninth Ward.[29]

Carrie died in September 1974, and by November of that year, Frank had moved to Boise, Idaho, and remarried, this time to a woman named Ellen Johnson.[30] Ellen was born in Arkansas, and her family moved to Idaho in 1937. She had been married to Frank’s cousin, George Melvin Stevens, but had been widowed for nearly ten years when she married Frank. Ellen belonged to the St. Paul Baptist Church and actively participated in many of its programs.[31] The quickness of Frank and Ellen’s marriage speaks to the closeness and interrelatedness of the Black families residing in northern Utah and Idaho. Ellen enjoyed living in Boise and recalled that the Black community was very close. There were house parties and luncheons, and they all took care of each other, helping out wherever and whenever needed. She said work was always easy to come by in Boise: “You may not find exactly what you want, yet you can find work here,” she stated.[32]

Frank and Ellen lived in Boise for three years before Ellen had what she described as “quite a shock in ’77.”[33] Ellen did not go on to explain precisely what happened, though Frank passed away in 1977 which was likely the shock of which she spoke. Ellen asked for memorials in his behalf to be made to the Mountain State Tumor Institute.[34] He may have participated in some of the activities at St. Paul Baptist Church with Ellen, but his association with the Latter-day Saints was reiterated once again at his death. The bishop of the Boise Sixth Ward conducted his funeral, a clear indication that he maintained contact with his Latter-day Saint congregation.[35]

It is possible that Frank’s affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was stronger than surviving records indicate. Frank’s association with the Church may have diminished when he reached adulthood; however, the fact that local Latter-day Saint leaders officiated at both he and his wife Carrie’s funerals demonstrates the measure of importance he placed on his faith as well as an ongoing association with Latter-day Saints in both Ogden and Boise. It further indicates that even if thin at times, he never entirely severed his ties to the faith of his youth.

By Shannon Miller

[1] United States, 1920 Census, Utah, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City,  Precinct 3.

[2] Lucille Bankhead, MS O453, Interviews with Blacks in Utah, 1982-1988, Interview 1 by Leslie Kelen, 4, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[3] United States, 1940 Census, Idaho, Ada County, Boise.

[4] Lucille Bankhead, Interview 1 by Leslie Kelen, 8.

[5] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Wilford Ward, part 1, 1907-1941, CR 375 8, box 7640, folder 1, image 41, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[6] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, CR 375 8, 7640, 1, 79.

[7] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, CR 375 8, 7640, 1, 118.

[8] Lucille Bankhead, Interview 1 by Leslie Kelen, 10. “Perkins,” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1915 and 1920 censuses, Family History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[9] Lucille Bankhead, Interview by Leslie Kelen, 13.

[10] United States City Directories, 1822-1995, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1921 (716), 1922 (703), 1923 (746), 1924 (763), 1925 (395), 1926 (350).

[11] United States, 1910 Census, Texas, Travis County, Precinct 2; United States, Idaho, Bannock County, World War I Draft Registration, 1917-1918, Charles Washington, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

[12] Idaho, Bonneville County, Marriages, 1924-1928, Frank Perkins and Carrie Washington, 16 February 1926. Idaho, Bonneville, Marriage Affidavits, 1926, Frank Perkins and Carrie Washington, 16 February 1926. Idaho, Bonneville, Register of Marriages, 1911-1937, Frank Perkins and Carrie Washington, 16 February 1926.

[13] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, CR 375 8, 7640, 1, 269.

[14] United States City Directories, 1822-1995, Pocatello, Idaho, 1929, 186.

[15] United States City Directories, 1822-1995, Pocatello, Idaho, 1934 (171), 1936 (187), 1938 (205).

[16] Utah, Weber County, Marriages, 1871-1941, Frank Perkins and Carrie Washington, 5 June 1939; “Issued,” Ogden Standard Examiner (Ogden, Utah) 6 June 1939, 14.

[17] United States City Directories, 1822-1995, Boise, Idaho, 1939 (360), 1941 (397).

[18] Owyhee Plaza Hotel, The Idaho Architecture Project, Archives, Properties, www.idahoarchitectureproject.org.

[19] United States City Directories, 1822-1995, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1942, 690.

[20] Utah, Department of Public Health, Utah State Deaths, box 118, files 39-42, series 81448, 1961, Frank Perkins Jr, 13 May 1961; “Ogden Miss will Marry,” Ogden Standard Examiner (Ogden, Utah), 16 October 1966, 38; Shirley Lucinda Perkins, G2X1-JVM, FamilySearch.org.

[21] United States City Directories, 1822-1995, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1942, 690. United States, Utah, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1947, Frank Perkins, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

[22] United States, 1950 Census, Idaho, Bannock County, Pocatello. Shirley Perkins birth is estimated from the 1950 Census.

[23] “Frank Perkins,” The Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho) 14 October 1977, 4.

[24] United States City Directories, 1822-1995, Ogden, Utah, 1956 (464), 1957 (485), 1958 (460), 1960 (365).

[25] Lucille Bankhead, Interview 1 by Leslie Kelen, 10.

[26] “Funerals, Perkins,” The Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) 15 May 1961, 15; “Ogden Miss Will Marry,” The Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) 16 October 1966, 38.

[27] Utah, Department of Public Health, Utah State Deaths, box 118, files 39-42, series 81448, Frank Perkins Jr, 13 May 1961.

[28] “Ogden Man Killed When Auto Skids,” Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) 13 May 1961, 12; “Frank Perkins Jr.,” Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) 13 May 1961, 9.

[29] “Carrie W. Perkins,” Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) 6 September 1974, 23.

[30] “Frank Perkins,” The Idaho Statesman.

[31] “Ellen Stevens Perkins,” The Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho) 1 October 1996, 7.

[32] Ellen Perkins, Interview with Ellen Perkins, by Mateo Osa, December 16, 1980, 9, Idaho State Historical Society Library and Archives, Boise, Idaho, Digital Copy, Washington State University, Libraries Digital Collections, OH 561, Pullman, Washington.

[33] Ellen Perkins, Interview by Mateo Osa, 5.

[34] “Frank Perkins,” The Idaho Statesman; Utah, Department of Public Health, Utah State Deaths, box 118, files 39-42, series 81448, Frank Perkins Jr, 13 May 1961.

[35] “Frank Perkins,” The Idaho Statesman.

Documents

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