Her father was John Perkins, the founder of the Pennsylvania Academy in Athens, where she was educated as a child.

[1] 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.

[1] In Ithaca, she met George Apollos Perkins (1798-1884), a pharmacist and fellow Athens native.

The book details the history of the Susquehanna Valley from the time just before European colonization until the mid-nineteenth century.

[2] 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.