Dr. Robert F Parsons

PARSONS, DRAPER

Posted By: Lynn Hilty Sewell (email)
Date: 8/28/2006 at 05:39:56

I have found the follwoing regarding my husband's great grandfather Dr. Robert F Parsons. Any information that can be found would be most helpful.
1. 1880 census Warren,Wayne,IA, Robert F Parson( not Parsons)
55,Physician, ME, Lucinda, wife, 50 ,OH,Keeping house,Albert,son, 25, OH, Lawyer,Ella M ,dau 17, A, at home, Fredrick H, son,12, IA, Mary, dau, 20, at home
1860 Census,Brighton,Washington,IA,Robert F Parsons39,M,W, Drugist and Physican,5,000,5020,NH,Liviana,wife,41,OH,Keeping house,Albert E,son,16,Clerk-Druguist
3. From the The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Iowa volume. Robert Fernale Parsons, twenty-four years a medical practitioner in Iowa, is a native of the Granite State, being born in Effingham, Strafford county, on the 13th of April, 1821. His parents were Charles Moody and Martha Fernale Parsons, both of English descent. The Parsons family were early settlers in Maine. The maternal grandfather of Robert was in the continental army, and his paternal grandfather was a sailor, and commanded a privateer in the second struggle with the mother country.
In 1836 the family came as far west as Painesville, Ohio, where the subject of this notice attended an academy for about two years. In 1841 Robert moved to Coshocton county, and the next year commenced the study of medicine with Dr. E. Mast, of Rochester, in that county, subsequently attending lectures in the medical department of Western Reserve College in Cleveland; commenced practice in 1848 at Rochester, Coshocton county; followed the profession there and in Independence, Richland county, until 1854, when he removed to Iowa and located at Brighton, Washington county. There he was in practice for twenty-two years. Washington county was sparsely settled at the time Dr. Parsons located there, and his rides extended over a radius of fifteen or twenty miles. During this long period at Brighton his labors were very trying to his physical system, and in 1876, with health partially impaired, he removed to Allerton and started the drug business, intending to go out of the country practice. This he has done, but has a fair practice, all that he could desire, in the city of Allerton. He has a pleasant homestead of sic acres, selected two years ago, on the western line of the city, and is preparing to raise all kinds of small fruits. He is making it an Eden of beauty.
Dr. Parsons was originally a whig; gave enthusiastic support to Mr. Lincoln, both by vote and voice, during the civil war, but latterly has affiliated with the democratic party.
He is very liberal in his religious views. He is a member of the blue lodge in the Masonic fraternity.-,member of Free Masons Lodge in WASHINGTON CO. IA
In March, 1849, he was united in marriage with Miss Lucinda Draper, of Rochester, Ohio, and they have had eight children, only five of them living. All are single except Alice, the eldest daughter, who is the wife of O. H. Wood, of Albia, Iowa. Albert E., the eldest son, is a graduate of the literary and law department of the Iowa State University, and an attorney in Allerton. The other three, Ellen T., Fred and Ernest are being educated at home.