{{Short description|American writer and teacher (1799-1884)}} {{notability|1=Biographies|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox person | name = Julia Shepard Perkins | image = Julia Anna Shephard Perkins.jpg | caption = Portrait of Julia Shepard Perkins at age 30, frontispiece to ''Early Times on the Susquehanna'' (1870) | birth_name = Anna Shepard | birth_date = {{Birth date|1799|11|11}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1884|01|24|1799|11|11}} | alma_mater = Litchfield Female Academy }}
'''Julia Shepard Perkins''' (1799–1884) was an American writer and educator. She was the author of ''Early Times on the Susquehanna'' (1870),<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Litchfield Ledger - Student |url=https://ledger.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/ledger/students/6243 |access-date=2022-09-09 |website=ledger.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Perkins |first1=Julia Anna Shepard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_hYzAQAAIAAJ |title=Early Times on the Susquehanna |last2=Perkins |first2=Mrs George A. |date=1906 |publisher=Herald Company of Binghamton, printers |language=en}}</ref> a history of the Susquehanna River Valley in Pennsylvania. She was also a teacher and alumnus of Litchfield Female Academy.
== Life and education == Julia Shepard Perkins was born Anna Shepard<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Perkins |first1=Julia Anna Shepard |url=http://archive.org/details/earlytimesonsusq00perk_0 |title=Early times on the Susquehanna |last2=Elmer |first2=Sarah Perkins |date=1906 |publisher=[Binghamton, N.Y.] The Herald Company of Binghamton, printers |others=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center}}</ref> in Athens, Pennsylvania<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heverly |first=Clement Ferdinand |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-kVqUlK52wQC&q=julia+perkins&pg=PA182 |title=History and Geography of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 1615-1924: Designed for the Public Schools and General Use |date=1926 |publisher=Bradford County Historical Society |language=en}}</ref> on November 11, 1799.<ref name="Smith">{{Cite web |title=A Sketch of the Life of Julia Anna Shepard |url=https://joycetice.com/families/juliashe.htm |access-date=2025-11-28 |last=Smith |first=Deborah Huntington |website=joycetice.com}}</ref> Her father was John Perkins, the founder of the Pennsylvania Academy in Athens, where she was educated as a child.<ref name=":0" /> When Perkins was five years old, her mother died, leaving John Perkins to care for Anna and her six siblings.<ref name=":2" /> John Perkins remarried six years later.<ref name=":2" />
After a visit to the family by Julia Prentice, the name 'Julia' was added to Perkins' name. She was henceforth known as Julia Anna.<ref name=":2" />
In 1818, Perkins moved to Litchfield, Connecticut, to continue her education at Litchfield Female Academy under Sarah Pierce.<ref name=":0" /> In an 1818 letter to her father and stepmother, Perkins described her life at Litchfield, writing, "I am now in my dear little chamber, where I spend the most of my time studying and knitting. It is indeed a pleasant place, a little out of the bustle of the village, where we have a beautiful prospect, and a fine society of little girls."<ref name=":2" />
Perkins became an assistant teacher at the academy in 1819 and relocated to Ithaca, New York, later that year, where she also worked as a teacher.<ref name=":0" /> In Ithaca, she met George Apollos Perkins (1798-1884), a pharmacist and fellow Athens native.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Litchfield Ledger - Student |url=https://ledger.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/ledger/students/6244 |access-date=2022-09-09 |website=ledger.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> The couple married on May 1, 1823, and had five children together.<ref name=":0" /> She was reportedly a devoted Christian throughout her life, and was involved in missionary efforts to convert Native Americans to Christianity.<ref name=":1" />
Perkins died on November 11, 1799.<ref name=":0" />
== ''Early Times on the Susquehanna'' == Perkins published ''Early Times on the Susquehanna'' in 1870. The book details the history of the Susquehanna Valley from the time just before European colonization until the mid-nineteenth century.<ref name=":1" />
Perkins wrote in the Introduction to her book, "It is natural for the intelligent to wish to learn all they can about the history of their ancestors, and the place of their own nativity; and if this sketch can afford any gratification to the living, or be useful to those who may come after, the object will be accomplished."<ref name=":1" />
In 1906, the volume was republished by Perkins's daughter, Sarah Perkins Elmer, through the Herald Company of Binghamton in Binghamton, New York.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />
In her preface to the reprint, Elmer wrote, "Year after year, interest increases in the past history of our lovely valley, and it is most important to foster with care every item of correct information. The little volume written by Mrs. George A. Perkins (my mother), containing so much which, except for her, would have been lost, is sacredly preserved."<ref name=":2" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Julia Shepard}} Category:1799 births Category:1884 deaths Category:Writers from Pennsylvania Category:People from Bradford County, Pennsylvania Category:Writers from Ithaca, New York Category:19th-century American women writers Category:American historians