T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Bill Perkins, center, celebrates his 106th birthday Lisa Heath, from left, activities director at Astoria Place of Barnesville, and family members Richard Durr, from left, Perkins’ niece Marilyn Durr and grandson Will Gianfrancesco.

BARNESVILLE — Bill Perkins had much to be thankful for as he celebrated his 106th birthday with family and friends. He was born Nov. 25, 1917.

Perkins has deep roots in the area as a farmer from a family of farmers. He was originally from Belmont and was one of seven siblings raised by mother Etta Mae Perkins after their father, Walter Perkins, was killed in a farming accident.

He was lively during his party Friday. He credited “the good Lord” for his long life.

“I worked hard all my life,” he said, recalling his 284-acre farm. “Farming, we had cattle and horses, pigs and chickens. Baled hay. On the tractor, filled three barns with hay every year.”

Perkins’ youngest sister Barbara Hopper, 95, of the Cincinnati area is his only surviving sibling. She was unable to attend, but wrote a statement.

“Bill has always been a hard worker, especially on the farm when we were growing up. He loved gardening and continuing to grow vegetables and berries until 2015 when he was 98 years of age. That’s when he moved to Astoria Place in Barnesville,” she wrote.

“During his gardening years he entered tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables in the Pumpkin Festival, winning several ribbons over the years,” she wrote, going on to say he would be found out in the berry patch, picking berries no matter the temperature.

“Bill was born with a ‘wild’ imagination that was in use almost every day of his life,” she wrote. “He loved walking and used to spend hours walking on the road and in the woods. He was still cutting down dead trees, cutting the wood to the size for woodburners for friends and family. He split the logs by hand until he was about 92 or 93 years old.”

His niece Marilyn Durr and her husband Richard Durr, of Lore City, and grandson Will Gianfrancesco of Colorado attended the party.

Marilyn Durr said longevity also seems to run in the family.

“The whole family was long-lived,” Marilyn Durr said.

Richard Durr said hard work in everything he did characterized Perkins.

“That’s all he’s ever known, that’s all he ever does,” he said.

“They worked hard on the farm, through the Depression and everything. Bill just grew vegetables on the farm,” he said.

“We have some woods at our place, and at 92 Bill came over and helped me cut trees down out at the woods, to cut them up for firewood, and he out-worked me,” Durr said. “I said: ‘Hey Bill, let’s take a break. We’ve been working for three hours and cutting trees.’ He said: ‘OK, if you need to.'”

Gianfrancesco recalled his grandfather once out-woodcutting an 18-year-old.

Richard Durr also noted Perkins’ healthy living.

“Good food. Home-grown food his whole life. He never used the preservatives and all that store-bought. He grew his own food, and that’s what he ate his whole life,” he said.

Marilyn Durr said the family learned self-reliance at an early age.

“They didn’t even know there was a Depression, according to what they all told me. They just lived the way they did before the Depression. They had members that went into the service. Uncle Bill didn’t because he was the last one on the farm, that last male,” she said. “It was a hard-working family. … It was a hard life, but they didn’t think it was. They didn’t want for anything. They grew what they needed, butchered the meat they ate. Grandma traded eggs at the local store for things she couldn’t make or they couldn’t grow.”

She said her memories of Perkins all involve activity, whether he was on a tractor or workhouse, milking cattle or in his garden.

Perkins was never a King Pumpkin winner at the Barnesville Pumpkin Festival, but he always made a respectable showing.

“He was really proud when he won first place for some of his potatoes and peppers, tomatoes, different things that he grew,” Marilyn Durr said. She added Perkins had a sizable potato patch and would often give the produce to people in need.

She said one of his popular crops was domesticated black raspberries.

“You couldn’t find weed-one in that berry patch. Same way with the potato patch, but he never used chemicals. He would go out and pick out the potato bugs by hand,” she said.

He worked at a toy company in the Wheeling area and would often show his ingenuity.

“He would bring home broken dart guns and different things that they were going to get rid of,” she said. “He would make things out of them and give them to all of his brothers and sisters’ kids.”

Richard Durr added that Perkins was an avid member of his local sportsman’s club and volunteered his time.

“He took care of it and mowed it and kept it up,” he said. “They would play cards. He would go up and play poker.”

Perkins now looks forward to bingo games with other residents. He was also a regular churchgoer until recently. He has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Marilyn Durr said Perkins’ doctor told her he expected him to live to 110 or 115.

“He said he’s just ornery enough to do it,” she said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he made it to 115.”

Activities director Lisa Heath said Perkins is her oldest resident.

“I’ve known him for 13 years,” she said. “He loves bingo, coming to bingo and watching Westerns on TV. … He still votes in our elections.”

She posted news of Perkins’ coming birthday on Astoria’s Facebook page and he received almost a dozen birthday cards.

Heath shared other memories.

“COVID was here, and he got pneumonia before the COVID. Then he got the COVID and made it through all of it. It’s kind of slowed him down, but he still likes his bingo,” she said. “He used to try to tell me how to grow tomatoes outside. I always bought the wrong kind or I didn’t do something right. … He’s very particular. We love him though.”