116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Marshall Perkins
Black entrepreneur ran successful restaurants in downtown Cedar Rapids from 1886 to 1920s
Marshall Perkins found himself in police court on Jan. 16, 1886, accused of seducing “a German girl with an unpronounceable name,” according to that day’s Gazette.
Two days later, the court fined Perkins, who was Black, $50 and suggested he marry the young woman. Her father at first agreed but changed his mind, demanding he be paid $50 before giving his consent. He then took his daughter home.
There must have been a meeting of the minds, however, because a marriage license was issued Jan. 26, 1886, to Marshall Perkins, 21, and Louise Wekehaw, 18, both of Cedar Rapids. (Louise’s last name actually was Wehrhan. Her father, Henry, was born in Germany in 1844 and brought his family to America in 1885, settling in Iowa.)
Perkins decided to support his family by opening a restaurant he called Marshall’s in the Golden Eagle clothing store at First Avenue and Second Street SE. The first ad for the restaurant ran in The Gazette on Monday, Oct. 11, 1886.
After five years of serving first-class meals in what was described as “small and uncomfortable quarters,” Perkins moved to 43 First Ave. East. The building, owned by Addison Daniels, had formerly housed R.M. Floyd’s candy factory. The new Marshall’s opened for dinner Dec. 10, 1891.
“Those who want to take a good dinner in a quiet, well-ordered place should not fail to visit this well-known and popular eating house,” The Gazette reported.
The restaurant caught fire Nov. 1, 1894, with the fire going up through a rotted flue and spreading to the roof. It was easy to put out, but the roof collapsed. No one was hurt, and the restaurant reopened in two weeks.
The matter of race
Not everyone liked seeing a Black man succeed in running his own business.
In December 1894, the month after the fire, two men, saying they were detectives from Bertram, entered the restaurant, saying they were there to arrest Perkins.
When Perkins asked to see their warrant, they refused to show it. One grabbed Perkins and tried to choke him. Perkins knocked the man down. When the other “detective” waded in, two men came out of the kitchen, and “the two bad men were hammered and pounded until they looked like the underside of a harrow over a rough road,” The Gazette reported.
At the police station, the two men — J.E. Cook and J.H. Stoneking — “expressed a dislike for a country where” Blacks “run things,” though they didn’t say “Blacks,” according to The Gazette report. They were fined $5 each in the police court and released.
In April 1897, Perkins moved his restaurant to 205 Second St. SE. “New fixtures, new store, everything bright and clean,” read the article announcing the move. Two years later, Perkins began building a new home for his family on 10th Street West.
Perkins faced another group who intended harm in October 1898. A potential restaurant had sent runners into town to drum up trade and chose the street in front of Marshall’s. Perkins told them to move on. One person threatened Perkins with a butcher knife and was carted off to jail.
‘No color line’
The Des Moines Bystander, a newspaper that covered Black issues, reported in June 1900 that “Mr. Perkins is doing a splendid business. His rates are standard, his trade first class, and with him there is no color line, as his cooks, waiters and guests are of mixed. Indeed, Mr. Perkins is doing much to destroy race prejudice.”
Marshall sold that restaurant in April 1902 and opened a new Marshall’s at 212 Third Ave. SE. The new restaurant and waffle house served its first meal on April 24, advertising “wheat, buckwheat, Aunt Jemima and corncakes” served with creamery butter, maple syrup and coffee. The “pancake opening” became an annual thing.
In 1906, Perkins completed building another house for his family — a $2,000 eight-room home at 1212 Third St. NW. The article also said that Perkins had gone into partnership with his brother, French Perkins, in a carpet cleaning and duster shop.
On Feb. 5, 1911, Perkins headed home from the restaurant to find his house dark. When he entered the front door, he was startled by a strange movement. He threw up his hands, thinking he was about to be robbed. Instead, it was a surprise birthday party, with 70 friends gathered to wish him well.
Hotel added
In May 1913, Perkins was on the move again, this time to a new two-story building at Third Avenue and First Street. He opened his restaurant on the first floor and leased the upper floor so he could make its 30 sleeping rooms into a hotel.
“The rooms will be strictly modern, fitted with bath and running water,” The Gazette reported. The Marshall Hotel’s room rates ranged from 50 cents to $1 a night.
Perkins sold the hotel in May 1915. In June, he opened the Marshall’s New Restaurant at 221 First St. SE.
Perkins appeared to give up the restaurant business in 1926.
Perkins’ family
Perkins died Sept. 25, 1936, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. His wife, Louise, died in 1954 and was buried beside him. The couple had three children, including a daughter, Fannie, who married at 18, moved to Oklahoma City and died a few months later.
Their son, Fred Perkins, was interviewed by The Gazette in 1968 when he was 78 and was identified as the son of the first Black restaurant owner in Cedar Rapids and the grandson of a slave. He was born in a room over the first Marshall’s restaurant in 1889.
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