At the age of eighteen, he had a religious experience and enrolled at the Westfield Academy,[1] going on to graduate with honors from Amherst College in 1829.

[4] Only one child, Henry Martyn Perkins, survived Persia and moved with his parents to the United States, where he later wrote a memoir about his father.

[6] Perkins was taught by Qasha Auraham and Mar Yohannan, the latter the Assyrian Church of the East bishop of Urmia.

These included a magazine Rays of Light, which was devoted to "Religion, Education, Science, Missions, Juvenile Matters, Miscellany and Poetry", and which would continue to be produced until his death.

The high esteem in which he was held by both the Muslim and Christian populations made it possible for him to acquire various older documents which have been very valuable to scholars over the years.

Following his example, Americans concentrated on improvements in education, book and periodicals publishing, and especially in establishing the first medical college in Iran (1879).

Perkins and other missionaries in the active Protestant mission in Urmia were probably among the first to present lectures about Iran in the United States as well as being the first Americans with whom the general Persian population had contact.