General Simon Perkins (September 17, 1771 – November 6, 1844) was an early settler, businessman and surveyor of the Western Reserve of Connecticut, which would later become northeast Ohio.

Simon was descended from one of the oldest English Puritan families of New England, and his ancestry went back to John Perkins who came to the new world with Roger Williams in 1631.

He surveyed the company's land holdings in 1798 and established his headquarters in Warren, Ohio, where he lived the rest of his life.

In 1807, he established a mail route to Detroit by negotiating a treaty with Native American tribes after urging from Postmaster General Gideon Granger.

In the War of 1812, he defended the northwestern portion of Ohio from Native American and British attack after General William Hull's surrender of Detroit in the fall of 1812.

When he learned of plans for a canal system that would run from Cleveland to the Ohio River, he immediately began to make more purchases of more land in this area.

Also in 1825, he and Paul Williams (a settler from Connecticut) donated 100 lots of land to the state, thus founding the City of Akron.

Due to its location at the highest point on the new canal, Akron quickly became a prosperous town.

Col. Perkins also operated a large sheep farm and wool business, among other concerns, which for a time was managed by the abolitionist John Brown.

They had nine children, Simon, Anna Maria, Olive Douglas, Alfred, Martha, Charles, Joseph, Jacob and Henry Bishop.