Arthur Perdue

Family and background In the 1600s, Henri Perdue, a Huguenot, left France for the Province of Maryland to escape religious persecution. Perdue settled in what is now Wicomico and Worcester Counties and his descendants continue to live in the area. By 1920, Perdue noticed that the chicken farmers on the Delmarva peninsula that were making money had shifted from selling chickens to selling table eggs. Perdue quit his job at the railroad and established his own commercial table-egg farm a few miles east of Salisbury, Maryland. He then expanded his egg market, including to New York.

The Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation was established to support the communities where Perdue Farms has facilities.

In 2017, the farmhouse Perdue built in 1917 and lived in was added to the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties.