In 1860, John Perkins, his wife, and their two daughters lived in a square-timber cabin on a hill one-tenth of a mile to the northeast. By the mid-1890s, a small community had formed here, and the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad depot and post office both bore the name Perkinston, short for "Perkins Town," after the early settler. Perkins died on November 21, 1901, after being struck by a G&SI R.R. locomotive.