Arthur William Perdue was an American businessman from Maryland.
Background
He was born on August 8, 1885 in Whitesburg, Maryland, United States, the second son of Levin W. Perdue and Martha Ellen Adkins. Perdue's father was a lumberman, a millman, and then a farmer at the age of fifty-eight.
As a boy, Perdue worked in his father's sawmill, feeding logs and shoveling sawdust into the furnace. Once a tract of lumber was used up, the family moved to another small town near a new tract. Their first move was to Libertytown, Maryland, when Perdue was twelve years old. The following year he left the mill and tried his hand at farming, but failed.
Education
He moved to Salisbury, Maryland, at the age of twenty-three to enroll in the business program at Eastern Shore College. He received his diploma on June 18, 1908.
Career
He used to work from early childhood and as soon as possible he began to do the tasks of a grown man, such as firing boilers, also worked as the lever-man behind the sawyer, who set the pace for the mill. When the family moved to Friendship, Maryland, Perdue became a sawyer, and ran the mill until he was twenty-one years old. His father paid Perdue $1. 50 for a ten-hour day, 50 percent more than he paid his other employees. Perdue's father stopped operating the sawmill in 1909, when he decided to become a full-time farmer.
While at business school, Perdue worked in a men's clothing store in Salisbury. One of his clients, a Dr. C. C. Ward, who owned a drugstore in nearby Crisfield, offered Perdue free room and board if he would work for him. Perdue agreed, and the two became good friends. Though Perdue learned about medicine in his job at the drugstore, it was only a matter of time before he grew restless. He wanted to meet more people and earn more money. Ward promised him a Maxwell car if he would stay on, but Perdue refused and headed back to Salisbury when he was twenty-five.
In Salisbury, Perdue got work as a messenger for the Adams Express Company, which later became Railway Express. Within a year, he began working for the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railroad as well. His job took him to a number of cities linked to Baltimore. The next year, he transferred to the Norfolk-New York City line, where he worked for four years. He was then promoted to cashier in the Salisbury office. Two years later, he was placed in charge of the office.
Perdue got his first inkling of the larger possibilities poultry could offer when he noticed increasing numbers of chickens and eggs being loaded on the Norfolk-New York railroad line. He talked with poultry men in the Salisbury area and noticed they were all financially prosperous. In 1917, Perdue decided to enter the poultry business. But he stayed with the express company for a few more years, in part because he wanted to earn enough money to purchase a house for his wife. Once they had a house, Perdue bought twenty-three laying hens, and he and his wife began the business. Pearl ran their chicken house while Perdue continued to work on the railroad. In 1925, they built their first hatchery, with a 5, 400-egg capacity.
Because his father had been in debt until two years before his death, Perdue decided to begin his business slowly, on a cash basis, and never to borrow money. His conservative approach paid off during the Great Depression. With no debts, and his house, hatcheries, chickens, and feed all paid for in cash, Perdue did not suffer as much as many others. In 1933 he was able to add two incubators and hire his first full-time employee.
His son officially joined the company in 1939, and though Franklin was more ambitious and fast-paced than his father, there was said to be no rivalry between the two. In 1940, they ventured into the broiler business, and in 1944, when Franklin became a full partner, the company name was changed to A. W. Perdue and Son.
Franklin officially took over guidance of the company in 1948. When he was not working, Perdue was often in the garden, tending his rose bushes, or collecting and writing poetry. In his late eighties, he spent part of each day visiting friends in nursing homes.
He died in Salisbury, Maryland.
Achievements
Arthur William Perdue was the founder of the company A. W. Perdue and Son and became extremely successful. Together with his son he ventured into the broiler business, built their first large hatchery, which produced 50, 000 broiler chicks per week. They built it into an integrated broiler operation, and their business was financially prosperous for years.
Religion
Perdue was a strict Methodist. No one in the business worked on Sundays. No eggs were packed, and no chickens were fed on that day for many years. Perdue described himself as having a "deep faith in God. " "I know, " he once said, "that a greater Power than mortal man has been at work throughout my life. "
Personality
His deep sense of certainty was matched by his unassuming, humble manner and what one friend described as "gentlemanliness. " Perdue's self-discipline, constant attention to detail, and frugality set the tone of his business. He worked from dawn to dusk with a one-hour lunch and a twenty-minute nap every day. After dinner he might read a poultry magazine or listen to the radio, but he would check the chickens before bed.
Connections
He married Pearl Parsons on May 23, 1917. Their only child, Franklin, was born in 1920. Perdue and his son were known for their unusually close relationship.
Pearl Parsons Perdue died of tuberculosis in 1942. Perdue married his brother Lawrence's widow, Edith Dennis Perdue, on December 3, 1945.
