Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons (Second): Parsons-Hoar; Parsons Springfield, Mass;, 1636, Hoar Gloucester, England, 1632 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons ...)
Excerpt from Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons (Second): Parsons-Hoar; Parsons Springfield, Mass;, 1636, Hoar Gloucester, England, 1632
From this last family, it is believed, have descended many of the name of Parsons in this country, and that by a moderate expenditure of money and labor the English connection could be clearly traced.
Prof. Theophilus Parsons, of Harvard University, in pre senting the writer in 1867 with a copy of his memoirs of his father, Chief Justice Parsons, wrote in it, over his name, From your friend and ki and stated that his family came from the same place in England as did= that of Cornet Joseph, only at a later date, emigrating first to, the Barbad'oes and thence Gloucester, Mass.
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Lewis Baldwin Parsons was an American military and lawyer.
Background
Lewis Baldwin Parsons was born on April 5, 1818 in Perry, Wyoming County, New York, United States. He was descended from Joseph Parsons, an emigrant from England, who settled in Springfield, Massachussets, in 1636, and later moved to Northampton. He was the son of Lewis Baldwin and Lucina (Hoar) Parsons. Christened simply Lewis, he later assumed the full name of his father at the latter's request. His early boyhood was spent in Homer, New York. At the age of ten, he moved with his family to St. Lawrence County, New York.
Education
Lewis Baldwin Parsons attended local schools, at sixteen began to teach country school, and two years later entered Yale College. After his graduation in 1840, he took charge of a classical school in Noxubee County, Mississippi, remaining some two years, then returned to the North and began the study of law in Cambridge, Massachussets. Lewis Parsons received the degree of Bachelor of Law from the Harvard Law School in 1844.
Career
Later, in 1844, Lewis Baldwin Parsons went West and began to practise in Alton, Illinois, first in partnership with Newton D. Strong and then with Henry W. Billings. From 1846 to 1849 he was city attorney of Alton. Moving to St. Louis in 1854, Parsons was persuaded by clients who had acquired a controlling interest in the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad to devote himself to its affairs. After a temporary sojourn in Cincinnati, first as attorney and financial agent and subsequently as treasurer, director, and president, he returned to St. Louis and in 1860 retired from active connection with the railroad. On May 1861, he served as volunteer aid to Francis Preston Blair at the capture of Camp Jackson. Recognizing the inevitability of war, he wrote to his personal friend, General McClellan, and offered his services. He went to Washington, was commissioned captain and assigned to duty in the quartermaster's department. Despite his ardent desire to join the fighting forces in the field, he was kept throughout the war in non-combatant positions in which because of his previous experience he was able to render exceptional service. He was ordered back to St. Louis and in December 1861 was given charge of all transportation by river and rail pertaining to the Department of the Mississippi, including a territory which extended from the Yellowstone to Pittsburgh and New Orleans.
For the first time in history, railroad transportation was a major factor in the prosecution of a great war. Parsons brought a semblance of order out of the existing chaos, drafting a set of regulations for rail transportation that became the basis of the general rules for army transportation adopted later, then turned his attention to systematizing river transportation. Promoted colonel of volunteers on February 1862, he was assigned as aide to General Halleck on April, and continued in charge of transportation in the Department until August 1864, when he was ordered to Washington and given charge of all rail and river transportation of the armies of the United States. In 1865, he was promoted to brigadier-general. After Lee's surrender, Parsons was retained in charge of the transportation of discharged soldiers. He was made a brevet major-general and mustered out on April 30, 1866. He spent two years abroad in an effort to regain his health, broken down by overwork, then returned to St. Louis in 1869.
In 1875, Parsons settled on a farm in Flora, Illinois, which was his home for the rest of his life. He was a trustee and patron of Parsons College, Fairfield, Iowa, the establishment of which had been made possible by a bequest of $37, 000 from his father. In 1900 he published Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons (Second); Parsons-Hoar. He died in Flora, Illinois, on March 16, 1907 and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis.
Achievements
Lewis Baldwin Parsons was an outstanding military. One of his most striking achievements as chief of transportation of the armies was the moving of General Schofield's army and all its equipment from Mississippi to the Potomac within a period of seventeen days. He was a director of several railroads and corporations and was also a president of a St. Louis bank.
(Excerpt from Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons ...)
Religion
Lewis Baldwin Parsons was active in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church.
Politics
In 1880 Lewis Baldwin Parsons was candidate for lieutenant-governor of Illinois on the unsuccessful Democratic ticket.
Connections
On September 21, 1847, in St. Louis, Missourri, Lewis Baldwin Parsons married Sarah Green Edwards, a niece of Ninian Edwards, former governor of Illinois. She died on May 28, 1850, leaving two children, both of whom died before their father. On July 5, 1852, Parsons married her younger sister, Julia Maria Edwards, who died June 9, 1857. There were two children by this marriage, both of whom survived their parents. On December 28, 1869 he married Elizabeth Darrah of New York City, who died in 1887, without issue.
