Edward Martineau Perine was born at Southfield, Staten Island, New York

Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...

 a son of Edward and Addra Guyon Perine, and a descendant of Daniel Perrin

Daniel Perrin

Daniel Perrin was one of the first permanent European inhabitants of Staten Island, New York. Known as "The Huguenot", he arrived in New York Harbor from the Isle of Jersey on July 29, 1665 aboard the ship Philip, under the command of Philip Carteret...

, "The Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

". Moved to Cahaba, Alabama

Cahaba, Alabama

Cahaba, also spelled Cahawba, was the first permanent state capital of Alabama from 1820 to 1825. It is now a ghost town and state historic site. The site is located in Dallas County, southwest of Selma.-Capital:...

, and became a merchant and wealthy plantation owner. Was the owner of a mercantile, on the west side of Vine Street in downtown Cahaba who later, became one in the firm of Perine & Hunter. Anna M. Gayle Fry, writing in her book Memories of Old Cahaba, describes E. M. Perine as "a merchant prince of ante-bellum days, a Northern gentleman of the old school who was universally beloved by all who knew him."

He first married Mary Eliza Snow (1816–1838) of Providence, Rhode Island

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

, September 13, 1836 in Milledgeville, Georgia

Milledgeville, Georgia

Milledgeville is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is northeast of Macon, located just before Eatonton on the way to Athens along U.S. Highway 441, and it is located on the Oconee River. The relatively rapid current of the Oconee here made this an...

. Died at Cahaba, Alabama, from complications of child birth. Child; Mary Eliza Perine. In describing her father, Mary Eliza Perine wrote in an autobiography; “My father! It is said I am especially fond of gentlemen. Why should I not be? My father was a gentleman; and, judging all men by him (my standard of a true, honorable, noble image of the Almighty's master-piece) how can I keep, if simply out of respect for my father, from loving his sex? My father! That one word contained my child-world. He was to me all-mother, father, sister, brother, and everything except grandmother; for I had a grandmother…”

His second marriage was to Frances E. Hunter (1825 - ????) of Sparta, Alabama, on August 6, 1846. Children; Sarah , Addra, Frances, and Anna Perine.

In the 1850s, E. M. Perine built a palatial twenty-six room brick mansion located at the foot of Vine Street. On the grounds of the estate were a conservatory, vineries, and an artesian well, with a flow now estimated at 1,250 gallons per minute. At the time it was the deepest known well in the world at nine hundred feet deep. It had a stream of water gushing and falling into a large cemented basin, from which it was channeled off through the grounds in cemented branches to the pastures beyond. Water from this well was also forced through pipes into the mansion, making it the first air conditioned home in Alabama.

Died at Pleasant Hill, Dallas County, Alabama.