Edward Parsons
Edward Parsons, (deceased), who was a pioneer of Brimfield Township, this county, was born in Northampton, Mass., March 14, 1797, son of Moses and Esther (Kingsley) Parsons, also natives of Massachusetts. The Parsons family is a very old one and the name appears often in the early history of the old Bay State. They were originally of English extraction. The subject of this sketch lived in his native village until a man grown, in the meantime learning the trade of his father, that of a carpenter and joiner. At this place, when about twenty-nine years of age, he made the acquaintance of Miss Clementina Janes, then teaching school at Northampton, a daughter of Peleg Cheney and Martha (Coy) Janes, of Brimfield, Hampden Co., Mass., where Mr. Janes was a large mill owner. The Janeses were of English extraction, and the Coys of Irish origin, though both families for generations previous were natives of Massachusetts or Connecticut. This acquaintance resulted in the marriage of Mr. Parsons with Miss Janes on January 1, 1828, and two years and a half afterward Mr. Parsons with his wife and son Edward A., born in Northampton, Hampshire County, Mass., January 25, 1829, moved to Ohio, and first settled at Brecksville, Cuyahoga County, for one year; thence went to Cleveland, remaining sis months, and finally, in the fall of 1831, took up their residence in the township of Brimfield, Portage County, Here Mr. Parsons worked at his trade at odd intervals, but never to any extent making farming his main occupation, at which he was very successful, for although buying only fifty acres at the start, he afterward became the owner of 200 or more acres near the village of Brimfield. He was one of the most substantial and highly respected citizens of the township. In 1868 he retired from active farming, and moved to Kent, where he resided until his death April 6, 1874. He was from early manhood a devoted member of the Episcopal Church (as was his wife), himself and a Mr. Cogswell being the founders of the first church organization of this denomination in his native village of Northampton, Hampshire Co., Mass., where he was Junior Warden. At Kent he took the same interest, and was one of the organizers of the Episcopal Church in the village, and for the erection of this house of worship he contributed liberally of his means and served as Church Warden for many years. In politics he was originally a Whig, and in sentiment a believer in liberty and the equal rights of man, and on the formation of the Republican party, he always acted and voted with that party. On the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, two of his sons volunteered and served in the Union Army: Timothy G., for four years, most of the time in the Quartermaster's Department; and William C, for ten months as an artilleryman. Mr. and Mrs. Parsons reared a family of six children: Edward A., born January 25, 1829; Timothy G., born September 17, 1832; Harriet J., born June 24, 1835, died October 2, 1876; Martha Kingsly, born April 1, 1838; William Cheney, born February 19, 1841; Clementina, born September 30, 1843. All the children were born in Brimfield, Ohio, except Edward A., who was born at Northampton, Mass. Mrs. Parsons is now eighty-two years of age, and is an exceedingly amiable and worthy lady, well preserved for her years, retaining all her faculties. She resides with her daughter, now Mrs. Clementina Barber, wife of Charles H. Barber, the present Postmaster of Kent.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885