Thomas Handasyd Perkins.

Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, or T. H. Perkins, (December 15, 1764 - January 11, 1854) was an enormously wealthy Boston merchant and an archetypical Boston Brahmin. Starting with bequests from his grandfather and father-in-law, he amassed a huge fortune. As a young man he was a slave trader in Haiti, a merchant trading furs from the American Northwest to China, and then a major smuggler of Turkish opium into China. Image File history File links Thomas_Handasyd_Perkins_from_Memorial_History_of_Boston. ... Image File history File links Thomas_Handasyd_Perkins_from_Memorial_History_of_Boston. ... Boston is a town and small port c. ... Boston Brahmins, or simply Brahmins—sometimes also called the First Families of Boston—are a blue-blooded class of New Englanders who claim hereditary or cultural descent from the Anglo-Saxon Protestants who founded the city of Boston, Massachusetts and originally settled New England. ... Opium is atuls narcotic analgesic drug which is obtained from the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L. or the synonym paeoniflorum). ...

His parents, James Perkins and Elizabeth Peck, had ten children in eighteen years. When Perkins was twelve, he was in the crowd which first heard the Declaration of Independence read to the citizens of Boston. The family had planned to send Perkins to Harvard College, but he had no interest in a college education. In 1779 he began working, and in 1785 when he turned 21 he became legally entitled to a small bequest that had been left to him by his grandfather Peck. Harvard College is the main undergraduate section of Harvard University. ...

In 1785, when China opened the port of Canton to foreign businesses, Perkins became one of the first Boston merchants to engage in the China trade. He sailed on the Astrea to Canton in 1789 with a cargo including ginseng, cheese, lard, wine, and iron. On the trip back it carried tea and cotton cloth. In 1815 Perkins and his brother opened a Mediterranean office to buy Turkish opium for resale in China. There are multiple Cantons in China Canton City : Guangzhou Canton Province : Guangdong This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... This article is on the economy of Mainland China. ...

He was also a major industrial investor within Massachusetts. He owned the Granite Railway, the first American railroad, which was built to carry granite from Quincy quarries to the Bunker Hill Monument and Boston city buildings. He also held significant holdings in the Elliot textile mills in Newton, the mills at Holyoke and Lowell, New England canals and railroads, and lead and iron mines including the Monkton Iron Company in Vermont. In addition, Perkins was politically active in the Federalist party, serving terms as state senator and representative from 1805-1817. The incline section of the Granite Railway, photograph taken in 1934. ... Quincy is a city located in Norfolk County, Massachusetts and bears the nickname The City of Presidents. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 88,025. ... Bunker Hill Monument, 2001. ... State nickname: The Green Mountain State Official languages None Capital Montpelier Largest city Burlington Governor Jim Douglas (R) Senators Patrick Leahy (D) Jim Jeffords (I) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 43th 24,923 km² 3. ... The term federalist can refer to different ideologies, depending on the locale. ...

Perkins married Sarah "Sally" Elliott (1768-February 25, 1852) on March 25, 1788, in Boston, Massachusetts. They had three children: Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Jr. ("Short-arm Tom"); Elizabeth Perkins Cabot (1791-1885); and Caroline Perkins Gardiner (1800-1867). His nephew John Perkins Cushing was active in Perkin's China business for 30 years; the town of Belmont, Massachusetts is named for his estate. John Perkins Cushing (April 22, 1787 - 1862), called Ku-Shing by the Chinese, was a very wealthy Boston sea merchant, opium smuggler, and philanthropist. ... Belmont is a town located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. ...

In later years Perkins became a philanthropist. In 1826, he and his brother, James Perkins, contributed half the sum of $30,000 that was needed for an addition to the Boston Athenaeum, and the old Boston Athenaeum Gallery of Art was moved to James Perkin's home. The Perkins School for the Blind, still in existence in Watertown, Massachusetts, was renamed in his honor after he donated his Boston mansion to the financially troubled "Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind" in 1832. He was also a major benefactor to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, McLean Hospital, and helped found the Massachusetts General Hospital. Upon retirement, Perkins built a summer home on Swan Island, Maine and helped the island achieve independent municipal status by paying legal fees for its charter. The town was renamed Perkins, Maine in gratitude. Boston Athenæum is an historical independent library and museum in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. ... The Perkins School for the Blind is a learning center for people who are blind, deafblind, or have multiple disabilities. ... Seal of Watertown, MA Browne House. ... Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (Doù venons-nous? Que faisons-nous? Où allons-nous?) (1897). ... McLean Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. ... Main entrance of Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and biomedical research facility in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Perkins is a location located in Sagadahoc County, Maine. ...

Colonel Perkins died on January 11, 1854 in Brookline, Massachusetts, and is buried in the family plot at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Seal of Brookline, MA Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. ... Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery Hunnewell family obelisk Bigelow Chapel Civil War memorial Founded in 1831 as Americas first garden cemetery, Mount Auburn Cemetery is an Elysium where, traditionally, chaste classical monuments were set in rolling landscaped terrain. ...

References

• Thomas G. Cary, Memoir of T. H. Perkins, 1856.

• Carl Seaburg and Stanley Paterson, Merchant Prince of Boston. Colonel T.H. Perkins, 1764-1854, 1971.