CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Bishop W. Perkins

American politician (1841-1894)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ866341 ↗
Source-derived summary

Bishop Walden Perkins (October 18, 1841 – June 20, 1894) was a United States representative and Senator from Kansas. Born in Rochester, Ohio, he attended the common schools and Knox College (Galesburg, Illinois). He prospected for gold through California and New Mexico from 1860 to 1862 and served four years in the Union Army during the Civil War as sergeant, adjutant, and captain. He studied law in Ottawa, Illinois and was admitted to the bar in 1867, commencing the practice of law in Princeton, Indiana. He moved to Oswego, Kansas, and continued practice; he was a local county attorney for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad for two years and prosecuting attorney of Labette County in 1869. He was a judge of the probate court of Labette County from 1870 to 1882, and became editor of the Oswego Register in 1873.

Perkins was elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1891. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress, but was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Preston B. Plumb, and served from January 1, 1892, to March 3, 1893, when a successor was elected and qualified. He resumed the practice of his profession in Washington, D.C., and died there in 1894; interment was in Rock Creek Cemetery.

References

United States Congress.

Editorial summary

“Bishop W. Perkins” enters the record as american politician (1841-1894). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bishop, Perkins and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1841, 1894, 1860, 1862—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1841-10-18. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Bishop, Perkins and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Bishop W. Perkins” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bishop, Perkins and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q866341. VIAF identifies the subject as 51265714. The Library of Congress control number is no94018228. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1841, 1894, 1860 and 1862.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bishop W. Perkins”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bishop W. Perkins primary sources, Bishop W. Perkins archive and Bishop research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bishop W. Perkins”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Bishop W. Perkins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.