Dr. R. D. Parsons

PARSONS, BLACKWELL, HARRISON, PRATT, BURR

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 3/21/2017 at 09:57:20

26 May 1932 - The Tipton Advertiser

Dr. R. D. Parsons, Former Tipton Pastor, Summoned Tuesday

Rev. Rufus D. Parsons, age 94 years, oldest minister in the Methodist conference and assistant custodian and treasurer of the historical society of the Upper Iowa conference, beloved by all who were privileged to enjoy his acquaintance, died at his home in Mount Vernon Tuesday, where he had lived since his retirement in 1907.

Funeral services are being held this afternoon at the Methodist church in Mount Vernon, where the body will lie in state from 3:00 to 4:00 o'clock. At four o'clock funeral services will be conducted by Dr. Frank Cole, vice-president of Cornell college, assisted by Prof. Charles Keyes. Prof. Horace Alden Miller of the Conservatory of Music will be at the organ. The guards of honor will be J. Bruce Eyestone of Mount Vernon, and Otis R. Moore of South Bethel, sons of the G. A. R. comrades, of which Dr. Parsons was a member. Members of the American Legion are to be pallbearers. Interment will be made in the Mount Vernon cemetery.

Dr. Parsons was born in Massachusetts and came to Iowa with his parents, who were pioneer settlers of Cedar county.

Dr. Parsons graduated from Cornell college in 1867, being one of the three living members of that class residing in Mount Vernon, the other two being Mrs. Alice Fellows Rigby and Mrs. Mary Neff Ford. Two years later he was ordained to the ministry and has served charges in Clinton, Tipton, Cedar Falls, Iowa City, Mason City, Mount Vernon, Osage, Marion, Vinton, Manchester, Maquoketa, Lyons and Clarence.

From 1864 to '65 Dr. Parsons was a sergeant in Co. D 44th Iowa Regiment during the Civil War. *** sons and his wife, Hannah Pratt Parsons, who is the granddaughter of the founder of Waterloo, celebrated their fifty-fifth wedding anniversary. Besides his widow he is survived by four daughters and three sons: Miss Mary Parsons, assistant librarian at Cornell college; Mrs. Fred Blackwell and Miss Maude Parsons of Mount Vernon; Mrs. Harry P. Harrison of Kenilworth, Ill.; Frank R. Parsons of Washington, D. C.; Captain Rufus A. Parsons of Fort George Meade, and Lester Parsons of Eau Claire, Wis.

Lester Parsons and Miss Maude Parsons were children of Dr. Parsons by his first wife, Flora Burr, whom he married in 1867, and who died in 1875.

*** Lines are missing in the paper from which this is copied.