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Guide to the William Robertson Perkins Papers, 1903-1967

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Descriptive Summary

Title
William Robertson Perkins Papers, 1903-1967
Creator
Perkins, William Robertson, 1875-1945
Extent
ca. 5,712 Items
Repository
Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Language
English.
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Administrative Information

Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research.
However, patrons must sign the Acknowledgment of Legal Responsibility and Privacy Rights form before using this collection.
Also, all or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. Consequently, there may be a 24-hour delay in obtaining these materials.
Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library to use this collection.
Use Restrictions
The copyright interests in the William Robertson Perkins Papers have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information consult the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], William Robertson Perkins Papers, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.
Provenance
The William Robertson Perkins Papers were a gift to Duke University, ca. 1971 and 1980.
Processing Information
Processed by: Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library Staff
Completed March 24, 1982
Encoded by Stephen Douglas Miller
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
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Historical Note

Judge William Robertson Perkins (1875-1945), counsel for James Buchanan Duke, executor of his will, and Trustee of the Duke Endowment, is represented by a letter on the relation of a university (Duke) and its president (W. P. Few) to students. This copy comes from an original letter to Judge Perkins to be found in the William Preston Few Papers.
In the settlement of Item IV of the will of James B. Duke, a major role was played by Judge Perkins as executor. His son, Thomas L Perkins, sent to the Perkins Library a clipping frog the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, Oct. 10, 1928, in which Judge Perkins and Charles Evans Hughes are pictured during the final hearings on the settlement of the Duke estate under Item IV. In the James Buchanan Duke Papers are many letters and legal papers concerning the court battles in this settlement.
See the article on Perkins in the Duke Alumni Register (1942), p. 269.
Ca. 5,704 items and 5 vols. added, 3-24-82
When this large addition, primarily 1920s and 1930s, was added to the collection, the small original collection of three items was incorporated into the category, Perkins, William R. - Miscellaneous Papers.
William Robertson Perkins (1875-1945), attorney, practiced law in New York City for forty years. After a boyhood and early years as an attorney in Lynchburg, Virginia, he became, in 1913, personal legal counselor to James B. Duke and the Duke families. Perkins was a member of the law firm of Perkins and Daniels, which later became Perkins, Daniels, and Perkins when Perkins' son Thomas L. joined the firm. He drew the wills of James B. and Benjamin N. Duke and acted as executor of both their estates. Perkins' business connection with the Duke interests kept him in close touch with the affairs of Duke University. He drafted the indenture for the Duke Endowment and then served as trustee and vice chairman of the Endowment. As a result of his link with James B. Duke, Perkins was active in hydroelectric power development in Canada. He was both a director and counselor to the American Cyanamid Company, and also served as a director and vice president of the Duke Power Company in the Carolinas. Further biographical information is contained in Box 1.
The Alphabetical Files comprise the entire collection of thousands of legal papers (1903-1945) representing state and federal tax litigation of the Duke families, the George D. Haskell suit against the Aluminum Company of America, and the Haskell suit against the Duke estate. Note that several suits were carried on simultaneously in separate state and federal courts, thus there appear to be overlapping inclusive dates.
There are estate tax litigation papers for Angler, Benjamin, Doris, James, and Nanaline Duke from eight states and the federal government (Boxes 1-11). Particularly detailed to show the Duke family holdings in stocks and bonds are the New Jersey, New York, and federal estate tax cases (1925-1934), which involved the Doris Duke trust, Duke Farms Company (a personal holding company which James Duke organized), and the Duke Power Company (Boxes 6-7).
On July 13, 1931, there was a decision for the Duke estate before the U.S. Board of Tax Appeals, which the Board appealed. Perkins then won the Duke estate federal tax case in the 3rd Circuit Board of Appeals on January 10, 1933. The Board took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Finally, and again under Perkins' leadership, on October 23, 1933 federal taxes of $9,000,000 assessed against the Duke estate were disallowed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ALCOA Chronology file (Box 11) is a guide to most of the events leading to the Haskell suits against ALCOA (Boxes 11-20). George D. Haskell, a small businessman from Massachusetts, claimed that there was a joint venture with James B. Duke in early 1924 to establish an aluminum enterprise on the Sanguenay River in Quebec, that Duke broke this agreement by "selling out" to ALCOA, and that the Haskell suit was an attempt to recover for gains from Duke. Haskell alleged he would have made these gains had his agreement with Duke been realized. The Haskell suit for $15 million damages against the Duke estate began in 1926 in a New Jersey District Court and ended in the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of the Duke estate in 1929 (Boxes 20-21). Throughout the litigation teams of lawyers were guided by the counsel of Perkins from either New York or Lynchburg.
Evident throughout the papers is the business acumen of James B. Duke, Perkins, George Garland Allen, Arthur Vining Davis, George D. Haskell, and William States Lee. Many of their signed letters are included. Also in the papers are newspaper articles in 1925 on James B. Duke's proposed extension of the Piedmont and Northern Railway from Charlotte to Winston-Salem, as well as on building the connecting link between Gastonia and Spartanburg, South Carolina, a matter which would cost from twelve to fifteen million dollars (Box 7).
Included in the Perkins files (Boxes 22-25) at the end of the collection are his early cases with the British-American Tobacco Company and the P. Lorillard Company litigation. Also, a volume consists of an "Abstract of Title to the Proposed Site of the Jamestown Exposition." This abstract was presented to Judge Perkins in 1938 in a silver canister. The abstract is signed by Theodore J. Wool and O.D. Batchelor, General Counsel for the Jamestown Exposition Company, and dated March 10, 1904. With the abstract is Wool's letter to Perkins on April 18, 1938, in which he reveals that Perkins had compiled the abstract and that it had been preserved by Wool since the close of the Exposition in 1907. A signed copy of Perkins' reply also appears in the collection.
Also in the Perkins files are papers of a personal nature such as an itemization of Perkins' estate in two ledgers as well as a detailed genealogical study of his ancestors and descendants from 1656 to 1943. Other volumes are leather-bound memorial resolutions adopted in memory of Judge Perkins by the American Cyanamid Company, the Duke Endowment, Duke Power Company, and P. Lorillard Company. These resolutions contain much biographical information.
Since this collection has not been cataloged in detail, the entries made for the Autograph file may be incomplete. Only general subject entries have been made for the collection. An inventory of the collection is filed in the first box.
Description from the the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library Manuscript Card Catalog.
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Subject Headings

These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
List of Series in Collection
Biographical Information
Alphabetical Files
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Detailed Description of Collection

Biographical Information

This information is filed in the first box of the collection. It includes a vita, letters, articles, clippings, and other items. Box 1 also contains an inventory of the collection.

Alphabetical Files

Box 1

Biddle, Mary Duke. Appointed Attorney; Income Tax 1929, 1932

Duke, Angler Buchanan:
Estate 1924-1931
Estate. Briefs 1925-1932
Estate. Miscellaneous Papers 1912-1931
Estate. Newspaper Articles 1926
Estate. Proxies 1923-1924
Estate. South Carolina Taxes 1924-1928
Box 2
Estate. Trust 1925, 1927
Estate. Waiver on Assets 1923-1927

Duke, Benjamin Newton. Estate 1929-1935, undated

Duke, Doris. Lawsuit Involving Real Estate 1909, 1925-1927

Duke, James Buchanan:
Bio-Data 1925
Canadian Papers 1903-1925
Box 3
Canadian Papers 1926-1931, undated
Correspondence 1908-1925
Estate. Appraisal 1925-1926
Estate. Distribution 1925-1928
Box 4
Estate. Federal Estate Tax. Briefs 1932-1933
Estate. Federal Estate Tax. Correspondence 1925-1931
Box 5
Estate. Federal Estate Tax. Correspondence 1932-1933
Estate. Federal Estate Tax. U.S. Board of Tax Appeals Proceedings 1932
Estate. Inheritance Tax 1925-1926, undated
Estate. Intangible Property Tax 1927-1928, undated
Box 6
Estate. Intangible Property Tax. Briefs 1926-1928
Estate. New Jersey Probate 1925-1932
Estate. New Jersey Tax 1925-1934, undated
Estate. New Jersey Tax Cases 1834-1939
Estate. New York Probate 1926
Estate. New York Tax 1925-1927, 1933, undated
Estate. North Carolina Taxes 1926-1934
Estate. Rhode Island Real Estate 1926, undated
Estate. Texas Tax Case 1927, undated
Federal Estate Tax Litigation 1925-1930
Box 7
Federal Estate Tax Litigation 1931-1934, undated
Piedmont and Northern Railway Extension 1925
Will 1917, 1924-1925

Duke Farms:
Executors, Payments to 1929-1931
IRS Adjustments 1925-1927
IRS Field Report 1926
Box 8
Miscellaneous undated
Petitions. Tax Years, 1922-1927 1922-1927
Box 9
Tax Case 1909-1929
Box 10
Tax Case 1930, undated
Box 11
Tax Case. Stipulation 1930

Haskell, George D., vs. ALCOA:
ALCOA Chronology 1912-1925
ALCOA Correspondence 1916-1922
Aluminum Report 1924
American Cyanamid Co. Correspondence 1918-1924, Jan.-Mar. 1925
Box 12
American Cyanamid Co. Correspondence Apr.-Oct. 1925, undated
American Cyanamid Co. Correspondence. Landis Correspondence Not Introduced in Trial 1925
American Cyanamid Co. Correspondence. Landis Knowledge of Aluminum Prior to 1924.1923-1924
American Cyanamid Co. Correspondence. Norton Co. 1924-1925
American Cyanamid Co. Correspondence. Parties in London 1925
American Cyanamid Co. Correspondence. Third Persons 1922-1925
Box 13
Brief for Defendants - Appellants 1928
Brief for Defendants - Appellees 1928
Burrage Litigation 1920, 1925
Checks and Vouchers 1925-1930
Box 14
Correspondence 1925-1930
Correspondence with Norsk Aluminum Co. 1917-1928
Box 15
Defendants' Arguments 1927-1928, undated
Deposition of Haskell 1926
Devez. French Guiana 1925
Digests of Testimony 1924-1928, undated
Box 16
Exhibits. P 1 - P 353. D 1 - D 6 1924-1925
Interviews 1924-1927, undated
Box 17
Joint Adventure 1928, undated
Legal Cases Cited in Haskell Suits undated
Legal Cases. Multiple Damages undated
Litigation 1925-1927
Box 18
Litigation 1928-1929, undated
Box 19
Litigation. Charles Evans Hughes' Original Draft of Assignments of Error Sent to Printer. undated
Memoranda of Edward F. McClennen 1925
Muscle Shoals Report. 2 Vols. 1917-1923
Opinion, Summons, Deposition 1926-1928, undated
Box 20
Plant Locations 1920-1925
Subpoenas 1927-1928

Haskell, George D., vs. Duke Estate:
Claims, Answers, Summons 1926
Correspondence 1926-1930
Box 21
Litigation 1927-1928, undated
Memorandum of Law on Conjectural Damages undated
Box 22

Perkins, William Robertson:
"Abstract of Title to the Proposed Site of the Jamestown Exposition" 1904, 1938
Ancestors and Descendants 1943
Bio-Data (see Box 1)
Estate. Ledger. Vols. 1 and 2 1945-1949
Box 23
Legal Cases 1905, undated
Memorabilia 1867-1945
Memorabilia. Daguerreotype of Judith Clough Robertson ca. 1883
Box 24
Memorial Resolutions 1945
Box 25
Miscellaneous Papers 1925-1967, undated
P. Lorillard Litigation 1931
Will 1943, 1945