Ute V. Perkins came to the Moapa Valley at ten years of age with his father, Ute Warren Perkins, in the year 1880. Since there was no school, Ute Warren organized the families so they could hire a school teacher. He found Martha Cox in Southern Utah and hired her as a teacher. The school was held under a cottonwood tree with sawed cottonwood logs as benches and a cutting board for a black board. This preceded a one room school house that School Board President Ute Warren Perkins helped build. Ute V. Perkins attended these schools.

Beginning as a boy of 14, Ute V. rode "Pony Mail" from St. Thomas, Nevada to White Hills and Chloride in Arizona. He was large for his age, and riders were hard to get, so he was hired below the age limit. The Postmistress hated to lose him when he had to quit two years later. He had been one of the most dependable riders she had.

Due to the pioneer conditions in his youth, Ute V. Perkins did not get all the education he would have liked to have had, but he didn't settle for that. He devoted his entire life to improving his mind and any spare moment was used to read and learn. His library was extensive and he even taught himself to type. He did a lot of writing, including histories of the area and poetry. However, a house fire at Warm Springs destroyed all these things a few years before he died. He read aloud to his children a great deal and instilled the love of learning in most of them.

Ute V. Perkins helped in pioneering both the upper and lower Moapa Valley. All his adult life he owned property in and around Overton where he reared eleven of his twelve children - one child died in infancy. In the 1920's he acquired property in the upper valley at Warm Springs near the town that was then called Moapa. Some of the younger children attended elementary school in Moapa while the older ones continued high school in Overton.

Ute V. Perkins was always interested in improving the quality of learning for the children of the area. He was instrumental in forming Educational District #1 which covered both the Moapa Valley and the Virgin Valley. He served on the School Board for many years, part of the time as President.

Ute V. Perkins wife, Lovina Ellen Whitney Perkins, was born in Panaca, Nevada. Her grandfather's family settled there in 1863, a year before Nevada became a State. The families roots are deep in settling the Southern Nevada area as many moved to Clark County from Lincoln County.

Ute V. and his wife were a real team as parents. They backed each other and what one said was never refuted by the other. Respect for others and their property began in their large family.

Ute V. was a kind and patient teacher. He taught all his kids to really like work. He always worked with them, showing them the right way and how to take care of the tools and equipment before and after finishing the work. "A place for everything and everything in its place" was a rule he used. He was neat and clean and expected them to be.

He had a great respect for people as people. He never looked at anyone as anything but a child of God. He went out of his way to help the underprivileged or anyone who was having to struggle.

He loved our country and thought that freedom was a sacred obligation. He believed that everyone should have the opportunity to learn, and he pursued the cause of education for himself and others his entire life.

He loved to sing and often entertained his children with songs.

He would be pleased with our schools citizenship building activities. His own private creed took its theme from a poem which said, "Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man."

Ute V. Perkins was a man of great character and integrity.