Ruth E. Perrin, Postmaster of Potsdam, 1934-1949

Ruth E. Penny, daughter of Captain Alanson C. Penny of the US Life Saving Station No. 72 at Shinnecock, Long Island, graduated from the Scientific Course at The Normal in June, 1897. After a year of teaching in Atlantic Highlands, NJ, she married Thomas Howe Perrin of Potsdam, son of Philander W. Perrin, a prosperous blacksmith who made his home at 74 Elm Street.  Thomas H. Perrin, along with John L. Brown, purchased the drug store business of Dr. H.D. Thatcher, apparently on very favorable terms.  The drug store at 19 Market St. sold everything from varnish to ice cream.  T.H. died in 1921 of diabetes complications.  Ruth continued the drug store with her son Walter Gilbert Perrin, but soon became involved in real estate on her own account, and became heavily invested in local and state politics.  She was friends first with Al Smith, becoming an alternate delegate at the 1928 National Democratic Convention in Houston.  It was probably in Houston that she met Eleanor Roosevelt, and subsequently became a close friend of both Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt.  After Roosevelt became governor of New York, Ruth was a frequent visitor at the Executive Mansion, along with her teen age daughters Ruth Louise and Mary Elizabeth Perrin. Upon FDR's election to the presidency, Ruth became Postmaster at Potsdam, holding the position until shortly before her death in 1949.  Existing correspondence at the Roosevelt Archives at Hyde Park indicate that Ruth acted as a direct link to the White House on federal matters concerning Potsdam's citizens and businesses.  This previously unpublished photograph is one of her wedding pictures, taken in Good Ground (now Hampton Bays) on Long Island, in 1898.  Photo copyright 2010 by Tom Perrin.  For a pending biography of Ruth, we would love to hear of anyone who has any memories, documents or photographs pertaining to her.  The T.H. Perrin & Co. drug store was later sold to B.O. Kinney.  A photo of the storefront is published in The Potsdam Public Museum's book on Potsdam published by Arcadia.