John Perrin was a member of the team of carpenters who built the Keyhole House in Smiths Falls in 1892. During its construction, he left his signature on the back of a door frame in a second-floor bedroom. The following year, John married Annie Weekes. Tragically, seven months later at the age of twenty-seven, John was dead. He is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery, along with his parents and siblings.

In Canada during the 1890s, the average life expectancy was 50. Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death among adults, followed by Typhoid from contaminated water. Forty percent of deaths were infants under the age of one. John’s obituary made the front page of the December 21, 1893 edition of The Rideau Record. It read: “After a long and painful illness Mr. John L. Perrin succumbed to the call of death on Wednesday morning. The deceased young man was a zealous worker in the Methodist Church and had always taken a deep interest in the Y. M. C. A. He was only twenty-seven years of age and a young wife is left to mourn the loss. The funeral took place this morning at 10:30 o’clock to the public cemetery.”