When the location of the route of the northern portion of the Ohio canal was being debated in 1822, commissioners kept people guessing for three months as to where exactly the canal would run in the hope that landowners would offer the state free right-of-way. Simon Perkins (1771-1844), a surveyor, landowner, land speculator and banker from Warren, Ohio, was among those who owned land in this area and gave the state not only free right-of-way, but also two turning basins and one-third of the lots of the new town of Akron he and associate Paul Williams had proposed. The state agreed to his offer, which contributed to the development of this new town and to the personal enrichment of both associates.

The portraits of Simon Perkins and his wife Nancy Bishop Perkins (#81) are currently on display at The Perkins Stone Mansion and Grounds in Akron, a site of the Summit County Historical Society.