Articles on the Parsons of Broome County

Charles H. Parsons of Whitney's Point

Excerpt from the Smith's History of Broome County, New York. D. Mason & Co. Publishers, Syracuse, NY 1885 (p551)

CHARLES H. PARSONS, one of the leading merchants of Northern Broome, and prominently identified as such in the village of Whitney's Point, is a great grandson of Captain Jacob Parsons, who migrated to this place with his family from Richmond, Berkshire county, Mass., in 1792.

Captain Parsons was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and commanded a company at the battle of Bunker Hill, Bennington and other contests in that great struggle, and was also under General Stark in charge of his commissary department.

Captain Parsons, with his wife, Mrs. Lorene Sedgwick Parsons, and seven children, made the trip from Massachusetts to New York State with an ox team and located on lands now owned by his two grandchildren, Joseph and Horace Parsons. Captain Parsons, however, was one of the Boston Land Purchasers, and owned large tracts of land in Union, Lisle and other towns of this county.

His youngest child, Lorenzo Parsons, a prominent farmer and of political influence, at the time of the removal to this state, was but three years of age. He always resided in the town of his father's adoption, dying in 1879, nearly eighty-eight years of age. He was supervisor of his town, a colonel of a militia regiment and became identified with other offices, but only when pressed by his friends to accept such honors, as he was himself somewhat of a retiring disposition, and occupied his mind more with domestic affairs than seeking office. He was a prominent lumberman in this portion of the county, and became largely engaged in rafting lumber down the river to the more southern markets.

His wife, Miss Polly Stoddard, was daughter of General Orange Stoddard (who is mentioned elsewhere in the work). She bore him six children. Horace Parsons, the father of Charles H. (born in 1826), a leading farmer of Barker, is now president of Broome County Agricultural Society.

PARSONS

Excerpt from the Cutter's Genealogies and Family Portraits of Central NY, page 158

He beareth gules two chevrons ermine between three eagles displayed or; By the name of Parsons. Crest: An eagle's head erased at the thigh, standing on a leopard's head - gules." Such is the distinction which Charles I, in 1634, bestowed upon his faithful subject, Sir Thomas Parsons, bart., of Great Milton, or Gres: Torrington, the immediate ancestor of the founder of the family of that surname in America, and himself a descendant of an English family of great antiquity, dating to Walter Parsons, of Mulso, Ireland, 1290, and back of him in England to the time of the Conquest, for the Parsons of Ireland went there from England.

Cornet Joseph Parsons, son of Sir Thomas Parsons, bart., and said to have been an officer in the English army, sailed from Gravesend, England, July 4, 1635, in the barque "Transport," Edward Walker, master, for Boston, and next appears with William Pynchon's colony of planters who founded a settlement at Agawam, now Springfield, Massachusetts, in the year 1636. On July 15, of the same year, his name appears as witness to a deed of cession from the Indians of the Conncticut valley to Pynchon's company, conveying to them all the lands in the region of Springfield, for the "consideration of eighteen yards of wampum, 18 coats, 18 hatchets, 18 hogs and 18 knives": but the consideration was fair, for William was a just man and they who comprised his company of planters were all just and honorable men and non others were admitted inhabitants of his plantation. Cornet Joseph Parsons was born in Great Torrington, near Exeter, Devonshire, England, and on his voyage to New England was accompanied by his brother Benjamin and others of the family, but it is with him and his descendants that we treat particularly in these annals. He was a man of considerable importance in the plantation at Agawam and Springfield, and, in 1642, he wasone of the founders of the new plantation at Northampton and one of the first purchasers of Indian lands there in 1645. He was a fur trader and had the sole right of barter and traffic in furs in the valley, for which right he paid anually the sum of twelve pounds. He accumulated a large estate in lands and goods. He died October 9, 1683. He married, November 26, 1646, Mary, daughter of Thomas and Margaret (Ford) Elias, of Hartford, Connecticut. Children: Joseph, born November 1647; Benjamin, 1649, died same year; John, August 14, 1650; Samuel, January 23, 1653, settled in Durham, Connecticut; Ebenezer, May 1, 1655, killed by Indians in King Phillip's war, September 8, 1675; Jonathan, June 6, 1657; David, April 30, 1659, died young; Mary, June 27, 1661, accused with the heresy of witchcraft and tried before the court of assistants, Boston, May 13, 1692, and aquitted of the charge; Hannah, August 1, 1663; Abigail, September 3, 1666, married John Cotton; Hester, December 24, 1672.

(I) Timothy Parsons, a descendant of Cornet Joseph Parsons, was born April 7, 1801, died in the village of Maine, New York, April 18, 1877. He came to the above-mentioned village in 1837, from Otsego county, New York, and lived there most of his life. He was a farmer and wagon maker by trade. He married, May 24, 1821, Deborah Knott, born May 17, 1803, died March 1, 1881. Children: Eunice Amanda, born May 16, 1822, died March 3, 1879, married Abe Curtiss; Delos Timothy, October 5, 1823, died young; William Albert; Sally, February 5, 1827, died February 15, 1911; Henry, deceased; Walter, deceased; Maria, deceased; Melissa, married M.D. Newton, lives in Downey, California; Eva, October 24, 1847, married Frank M. Perry, lives at Whitney's Point, New York.

(II) William Albert, son of Timothy Parsons, was born in Butternuts, Otsego county, New York, May 4, 1825, died July 12, 1905; He removed with his parents to the town of Maine, Broome county, New York, when twelve years of age. He received a common school education and became a farmer. He was actively engaged in farming for about forty years, but during the later years of his life was retired. He also had a sawmill. In politics he was at first a Republican, and later a strong Prohibitionist. In religion he was a Baptist, as were all of his family. He married, January 27, 1848, Cynthia Maria, daughter of Adin and Emily I. (North) Ross, born in Candor, Tioga county, December 28, 1830, died March 30, 1904. Children: Clarence A., born June 3, 1840, married, in 1872, Adelaide M. Poole, of Oswego, New York; is a court stenographer in the United States cout, and lives at 415 West One Hundred and Fifty-fourth street, New York City; children: Harry K., deceased; Charles S.; Grace Isabelle, Clarence A., Eva Louise, Robert M., Florence Adelaide; 2. M. Eva, born June 22, 1855, a teacher in Ilion, New York. 3. Minnie R., born December 3, 1861, died July 23, 1891; married Andrew J. Doughty. 4. Son, born May 15, 1864, died in infancy. 5. Bert Ross, mentioned below.

(III) Bert Ross, son of William Albert Parsons, was born in Carolina, Tompkins county, New York, August 2, 1872, and was educated in the schools of his native town, the Candor Free Academy, and the Waverly high school. After leaving school he was for several years a bookkeeper. In 1894-95 he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Gamble, of Waverly, and, in 1896, entered the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1899. He then returned to New York and passed a successful examination in the University of the State of New York. In August 1899, he removed to Marathon, New York, and commenced the practice of his profession. He has made his home there since. He has been coroner of Cortland for nine years. He is a member of the Cortland County and State Medical societies. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the Free and Accepted Masons, of Marathon, also of several college fraternities. In politics he is a Republican, and in religion a Methodist. He married, October 4, 1899, Rosabelle Springer, of Tioga county, daughter of George and Ruth Elizabeth (Stevens) Springer. Children: Harry D., born March 8, 1904; Russel G., September 25, 1907.

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