DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Now, every good house has layers, and this one in Rusk, Cherokee County, is no different. The one-story portion of this residence was erected by Attorney James N.
Thomas, born in 1816, and he had it done before 1851. Think about that. Before 1851, those walls were already standing, already holding stories.
Then comes 1893, and a man named James I. Perkins walks in and purchases the property. Perkins, born in 1847, wasn't content to leave well enough alone.
He built two-story wings onto what Thomas had started, and he added Victorian detailing while he was at it. The place grew upward and outward, the way ambition tends to do. And James I.
Perkins had plenty of that. He served as district attorney. Then district judge.
Then a member of the State Legislature. Head of a leading Rusk family, the marker calls him, and the Perkins family would go on to own that home for ninety-four years. Now, the story doesn't stop with the man who expanded the house.
His son, James I. Perkins, Jr., born in 1887 and gone by 1952, and his daughter-in-law Morinne, born Taylor, born in 1905 and gone by 1974, they shared a law practice together. And they held offices in city and county government, both of them.
One family, one house, one law practice, and a whole lot of public service stacked up inside those Victorian walls. Some houses just have a way of producing that kind of thing.
What the marker says
Attorney James N. Thomas (b. 1816) erected the one-story portion of this residence before 1851. James I. Perkins (1847-1923) built the two-story wings and added Victorian detailing after he purchased the property in 1893. Head of a leading Rusk family who owned the home for 94 years, Perkins served as district attorney, district judge, and a member of the State Legislature. His son James I. Perkins, Jr., (1887-1952) and daughter-in-law Morinne (Taylor) (1905-1974) shared a law practice and held offices in city and county government.