Schoharie County NYGenWeb Site

submitted by Richard Bouvia

The school marm is a woman named Lula ? She was the dearest friend of a relative of mine Leila Felter who was born and raised in Eminence.

This Lula May is my great, great Aunt who helped raise my grandmother, Inez Burnett Parsons Freeman Conrow in Jefferson on Dyer Road. The family is buried in the Jefferson Evergreen Cemetery and Stamford Cemetery. My father was born and raised in Jefferson. That school house was located on Eminence Road in Eminence/Jefferson where the Bulka’s now live. The Bulka’s lived in the school house when it burned down. Some of the Felters are buried in the cemetery right down the end of the road from where the school house was located. I took a photo of the Bulka’s house last year and you can see it’s the same location as the school house post card photo – the tree line is exactly the same. My sister and I make trips back there to do more research. Our Parsons Family Bible is in the Old Stone Fort Museum. Lula May received it from her father, Norman Abel Parsons (son on Abel Parsons). Lula May’s signature is on the back cover of the bible in faint pencil. My grandmother, Inez Burnett Parsons Freeman Conrow gave the Bible to a Gerald Parsons who was a genealogist in 1963. After she died, he brought it to the Old Stone Fort Museum where we found it serendipitously under God’s grace.

Lula May Parsons was born to Norman Abel Parsons and Mary Jane (Cornell) Parsons (buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Jefferson). Lula May was born in 1873 and died in 1940 at home on West Fulton Road, Warnerville, NY. Her husband, whom she married at age 40, was Stephen Cornell.

It’s interesting to note that the Parsons Family is very famous – the line traced back to 1574 in Beaminster England. They founded Northampton, Mass & co-founded Springfield Mass (w William Pynchon) in the 1600’s. Unbeknownst to us who moved to this area (my father/mother in 1950), this is exactly where the Parsons began before migrating to upstate New York around 1800. The Parsons cousins founded many institutions and towns. There are books written on them in the Springfield Library, Springfield, MA.

Laura Pisano

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