Concrete proof: The Perrins were – and are! – here

© Alane K. Dashner

If you enjoy strolling around Lodi’s many tree-lined sidewalks, you’ve likely seen the “Jules Perrin Cement” stamp that was pressed into our wet concrete a hundred years ago. Here is the Perrins’ story, gathered from newspapers of the day and lively discussions with living descendants.

The Perrin story starts with a different gold rush

As a young man in 1850s Québec, Joseph Perrin heard the siren song of “Gold in Australia!” He traveled halfway around the world and was prospering on his claim when one day he slipped and trapped his leg between two boulders. For days he shouted for help but attracted only one scoundrel who demanded Joseph’s gold and the deed to his claim in exchange for freeing him. Joseph would limp for many years, but he got right back to work digging more gold for his passage home.

Back in Québec, Joseph married Luce Delorme and they began raising 12 children, several of whom would shape Lodi, California.

Henry was a high-spirited pioneer

Joseph and Luce’s second son, Henry Perrin, inherited his father’s sense of adventure. When Henry was 19 he left Québec for North Dakota.  He claimed squatter’s rights, with the closest settlement 100 miles away. He fought for his life against a sandhill crane, nearly died of blood poisoning when a muskrat bit him, and at times slept outside with his rifle ready in case of attack.

The extended Perrin family soon joined Henry in this “wilderness paradise.” Two brothers, Henry and Jules Perrin, married two sisters, Mary and Mary Anne Cote.

Henry and Mary moved their growing family to Idaho, where Henry learned to fabricate a new-fangled building material: concrete blocks, made by pouring a mixture of sand, water, rocks, and cement into molds.

Jules’s doctor: “Find better weather, or die”

Back in North Dakota, Jules was plagued by respiratory infections worsened by the harsh winters. Ever the adventurer, brother Henry aimed for sunny California in 1902, searching for a good site for the next Perrin migration. When Henry and Mary arrived in Lodi, our real estate was booming and few builders knew about concrete blocks. His parents, Jules and Mary Anne, and many other Perrins soon arrived.

While Jules recovered his health, Henry started a concrete block manufacturing yard on the SW corner of E Locust and N Stockton Streets.

“Bulging moonscape” with “toothpaste squeeze”

Several designs for block molds were available, and Henry and Jules chose one resembling a “bulging moonscape.” Between their rows of blocks they laid a horizontal, “toothpaste squeeze” mortar line – that’s the Perrin look you’ll see on many house foundations around Lodi, on the former Buchanan Hospital at 408 E Pine Street, and on the Henderson Bros. building at 217 S Sacramento Street.

By 1911 the Perrin Brothers were building Lodi at a dizzying speed, employing two14-man crews to create foundations, entire buildings, drains, sidewalks, and streetlights from Ham Lane to Cherokee Lane, many of which are still in use today.

Lodi’s oldest visible references to Perrin Brothers work are the two “1912” marks written into the sidewalk apron at 412 W Walnut Street.

Injuries were part of the job

Construction work is difficult and dangerous, but the Perrin family was tough.

In 1913 Henry’s teen-aged son Joseph was hauling sand from the river and slipped in front of the front wheels of his wagon. The mules startled and dragged the wagon over his body. Joseph lay in the sun for an unknown time, then pulled himself up into the wagon and drove home where he received many stitches to cover his chin bone.

One Saturday in 1916 Henry was working on the F&M Bank building (the NE corner of School and Elm). A timber with a protruding nail fell, piercing close to his left wrist. The wrist was temporarily paralyzed, but he was back at work Monday morning.

In 1919 Jules was knocked unconscious while working on the new high school (now Hutchins Street Square) – a shovel was lying on the ground and a horse stepped on one end. The other end flew up, striking Jules. The newspaper described this as “no serious injuries.”

Henry’s body began to give out. He had one surgery, and then a second to correct the first, after which in 1919 he signed over Perrin Brothers to Jules. Taking it easy, Henry bought one vineyard, and then another and another, and succeeded in the grape industry too.

Jules continued at a furious pace, marking his work with the “Jules Perrin Cement” stamp we see all around Lodi today. In 1924 City trustees authorized Jules to charge property owners directly as he repaired “toe-catcher” sidewalks at his discretion.

Life at home for the Perrins

The tight-knit Perrin women were as busy as their men. They gave birth to multiple new Perrins every year, with St. Anne Catholic Church confirmations celebrated in batches. Each year Lodi’s Catholic Fair was powered by many women answering to the name “Mrs. Perrin.” In 1906 one of the Mrs. Perrins won a prize at the Lodi Opera House masquerade ball when she dressed as the Lodi Sentinel, wearing a dress that had been run through the newspaper press.

The Perrins were devoted to St. Anne

The Perrins’ good works included donating land for the first church, building the original school at cost, and donating the sidewalks. Luce Perrin donated the statue of St. Anne still inside the church today and Joseph had his remaining Australian gold formed into a rosary that was draped from the statue’s hand. The family credits St. Anne with healing Joseph’s limp late in his life.

It’s too bad that years ago a stealthy thief lifted Joseph’s gold rosary from St. Anne’s hand.

The Perrins today

In 1942, with his children running car dealerships and other modern concerns, Jules closed the concrete business. Today, some Perrin descendants still live locally – including Michael and David Phillips of Michael David Winery – but only Henry’s great-grandson Steve Perrin and his descendants carry the proud Perrin name.