A Union veteran of the Civil War will be honored at Lake Preston Cemetery at 10
a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6. The event is open to the public.
When he died in July 1938, James K. Preston was the last Union Civil War soldier
buried in Kingsbury County. A special marker will be placed at his grave at the
Oct. 6 event. Also, Kingsbury County and city governments have proclaimed Oct.
6 “James K. Perkins Day.”
The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War is spearheading the upcoming
commemoration. Cliff Hadley of Huron is a member of the group.
“Our mission since we were founded in 1882 is to keep alive the memory of those
who fought to keep the country together and end slavery,” Hadley said.
“Recognizing the last Civil War veteran in each county nationwide has been a
good way to honor them and remember the sacrifice of the more than 2 million
men who served in the Northern army.”
The Civil War raged from 1861 to 1865 between the 23 states of the North and the
11 states that seceded in the South. While Dakota Territory had minimal
involvement in the war itself, its role was huge afterwards, as veterans flocked to
the prairie to start new lives and get away from the awful memories of battle. At
one time, 75 union veterans lived in Lake Preston.
In 1861, Mr. Perkins was living in Michigan when he enlisted in the 36th Illinois
infantry army at 17, likely lying about his age.
“Like so many young men, he had a spirit of adventure, and so he went off to
war,” Hadley said.
He was wounded in his right arm at Chickamauga in September 1863 and captured
by Confederate troops. He escaped twice, but was recaptured both times and spent
the last 20 months of the war in the notorious Andersonville prison.
The prisoners were fed corn meal riddled with maggots and drank from a stream
that was also the latrine. There was one type of meat available.
“They could eat all the rats they could catch,” Hadley said.
After the South surrendered in the spring of 1865, as Mr. Perkins was waiting in
Vicksburg, Miss., to take a huge paddle-wheel steamboat up the Mississippi River,
he was reunited with his brother, whom he thought had perhaps died.
After the war, Mr. Perkins and his new wife, Alice, moved to Iowa, then in 1882 to
Lake Preston, where they homesteaded 4 miles south of town. In 1895, it was hard
times for farmers, so they again loaded up their wagons and left for Missouri, but
soon returned to Lake Preston lived in town, where Mr. Perkins was a painter and
paper-hanger, and did property tax assessments for the county. Newspaper
accounts in the Lake Preston Times noted how townspeople commented on the
quality of his vegetable and flower gardens.
A highlight toward the end of his life was traveling by train to Gettysburg, Pa., in
July 1938 for the 75th reunion of Civil War soldiers. Only a relative handful of
soldiers on both sides could attend. Sadly, Mr. Perkins caught a cold on the trip
home and died shortly after that event.
School choirs from Arlington, De Smet, and Lake Preston will participate in the
Oct. 6 ceremony. Others contributing include the American Legion Porter L. Rich
Post 63 honor guard and Civil War reenactors in uniform from Sioux Falls and
Nebraska. The minister at Mr. Perkins’s home church, the Rev. Kris Larson, will
provide the prayer. The Kingsbury Genealogical Society provided much of the
research about Mr. Perkins.
It’s not known if Mr. Perkins has any relatives in the area.
“I urge them to come to the commemoration if they can, and we’ll be happy to
recognize them,” Hadley said.
People who come to the ceremony should bring their own chairs.
Commemoration events similar to Lake Preston’s will take place at the same time
in Yankton, Lincoln, Clay, and Union counties.
