Evora Bucknum Perkins

Evora Bucknum Perkins (born Evora Bucknam; November 12, 1851 – January 14, 1929) was an American educator, cookbook author, restaurateur, and missionary affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Active in the temperance and vegetarian movements, she worked as a teacher and lecturer on vegetarian cookery and hygiene, managed vegetarian restaurants, and collaborated with early Adventist health reformers. She conducted hundreds of public lectures, taught at cooking schools, and promoted vegetarian diets as part of her broader health advocacy. In 1911, she published ''The Laurel Health Cookery'', a vegetarian cookbook used in Adventist health education and missionary work.

Biography

Early life and personal life

Evora Bucknum was born on November 12, 1851 in Palmer, Michigan. Her father was Amasa M. Bucknum, a physician and her mother was Irene Jane (; ). She married Frank A. Perkins on 12 May 1901 in Lancaster, Massachusetts. He worked as a cook at the New England Sanitarium in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. The couple worked together in the sanitarium for 15 years.

Career

Perkins was a Seventh-day Adventist and was described as the first missionary nurse to operate on a self-supporting basis. Perkins worked closely with early Adventist health advocates such as Daniel H. Kress, Lauretta E. Kress, and Stephen N. Haskell.

Between August 21, 1889, and January 1, 1896, Perkins conducted 825 lectures and lessons on cooking, gave 20 talks on healthful dress, and instructed approximately 3,000 individuals. In addition to her missionary efforts, Perkins served as assistant teacher at the Battle Creek Sanitarium's Cooking School and participated in a cooking school led by Ella Eaton Kellogg at Bay View during the summers of 1891 and 1892. Since beginning her independent missionary work in 1892, Perkins focused primarily on teaching hygienic cookery to private students and nurses in Detroit. This instructional work became her main source of income. She also worked as a cooking teacher in Bay City, Michigan.

She contributed to the establishment of vegetarian restaurants in cities like Detroit, Washington D.C., and Boston, and played a major role in health and cooking schools. She also worked as manager of The Laurel Vegetarian Restaurant in New York City.

In her later years, she continued public missionary work, including distributing religious literature in Verona, New York.

''The Laurel Health Cookery''

Perkins published a vegetarian cookbook, ''The Laurel Health Cookery'' in 1911. Aimed at promoting vegetarian dietary practices, it includes 1,760 recipes compiled from her work as a cooking instructor in various schools and sanitariums across the United States. The book presents a wide range of vegetarian dishes and includes an introductory section with general health notes and guidance on cleanliness.

In the book, "True Meats" refers to plant-based protein sources such as nuts (including peanuts, pine nuts, and almonds), coconut milk, lentils, beans, and eggs. Dishes categorized as "Trumese" and "Nutmese" primarily utilize commercially processed nut products. One chapter is dedicated entirely to mushrooms. For those avoiding eggs—described as "parochial vegetarians"—egg-free alternatives are included. The text regards coffee, tea, and hot chocolate as unhealthy, instead recommending beverages like fruit nectars, lemonade, cranberry juice, and bran tea.

Death

Perkins died on January 14, 1929 in Montclair, New Jersey. She had contracted influenza and which then developed into pneumonia. She was buried at Lindenwood Cemetery, Stoneham, Massachusetts on May 13.

Publications

* '' The Laurel Health Cookery'' (Melrose, Massachusetts: The Laurel Publishing Company, 1911)

References

External links

*
*
The Laurel Health Cookery
' (web version)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Evora Bucknum
1852 births
1929 deaths
19th-century American educators
19th-century American women educators
19th-century American women writers
19th-century American writers
20th-century American educators
20th-century American women educators
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American writers
American cookbook writers
American food writers
American restaurateurs
American women restaurateurs
American Seventh-day Adventist missionaries
American women food writers
Christian vegetarians
Cooking educators
Deaths from pneumonia in New Jersey
Educators from Michigan
People from Marquette County, Michigan
Temperance activists from Michigan
Vegetarian cookbook writers
Writers from Michigan
Seventh-day Adventist writers
American Christian writers