David Hastings Parsons was born October 22, 1801 in Springfield, Massachusetts the son of Hosea Parsons and Sally Upham. His father Hosea was a gunsmith who died in New Orleans, Louisana in 1803 of yellow fever. David Hastings Parsons arrived in Knox County sometime prior to 1850 as he is listed as a resident in the 1850 census. He and his wife Lydia Taylor Warren are the parents of 8 boys and one girl. My Great Great Grandfather Franklin B. Parsons picture above being their third born. We have journals from David Hastings Parsons somewhere at my mother's house. She is attempting to find them. When you start looking at ancenstry records things can get confusing. Some are trying to indicate that David Hastings Parsons was a Civil War veteran. I found that unlikely as at the beginning of the war he would be 60 years of age. He had a son named David H. Parsons, Jr. who was born in 1828 and died in 1868. He appeared to be a likely candidate but the David Parsons who enlisted in the Illinois 124 Infantry did so in Aurora, Illinois and listed his occupation as farmer. David H Parson, Jr. was listed in the 1860 census as living in Knox County and working as a carpenter. A couple of hours work looking at Civil War records on line finally revealed that the Civil War veteran was David W. Parsons and to the best of my knowledge at this time no relation. The next bump in the road was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The majority of ancestry records available are due to work by the Mormon Church. They baptize the dead by proxy in order to ensure their entrance to heaven. They indicate that David Hastings Parsons was a member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints endowment date January 8, 1846 at the Temple Nauvoo, Illinois. Their records indicate his spouse was Lydia Taylor. While I intially had doubts about this when given some thought it seems the most likely outcome. I had questioned if it could have been his son David Jr. It would seem more probable it was him based on a couple of things. Prior to this in 1840 David Sr. had been living in Ohio. He clearly came west to Illinois and eventually settled near Henderson. He could have gotten caught up in the religious fervor of the 1840's and been in Nauvoo. Since Joseph Smith was killed in the area and the church went west to Utah he may have decided to stay in Illinois. His journal may help solve the issue. The last thing I will note about David H. Parsons, Sr. is that he died January 18, 1899. So a very long life for the times.
Franklin B. Parsons and Sarah Bullard were married in 1849 and were the parents of 4 boys and 5 girls. My Great Grandmother Mary Emma Parsons was the second youngest. She was born in 1866 and died in 1952. Franklin DeWitt Parsons in the photograph above was their third child and second son. When we lived over at the farm in my grandparents house. The home built by my Great Grandfather John James Sutor, Sr. and Mary Emma Parsons we came across an envelop. Inside were several small folded pieces of paper with names written on them. Inside those folded pieces of paper were small snippets of hair. Two of the daughters of Franklin and Sarah died in infancy, They were Sarah Lucinda Parsons and Effa Manermia Parsons. One sister older than Mary Emma and one sister younger. Photographs were expensive in the 1860's so those little bits of hair were kept by her parents to remember her siblings.
Franklin D. Parsons ended up living in Kansas. It may explain why some of my Great Grandfather John James Sutor, Sr. siblings ended up in Kansas. They were the subject of a prior blog. The information I have on Gary V. Parsons is slim at this time. He appears to have gone by the name Guy and was a farmer in Kansas later in life. More research is needed to fill in those blanks.
My advice is to join Ancestry.com and get to digging around. There is lots to learn.
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