RICHARD F. PARMELY
Richard F. Parmely resides on the east half of the southwest quarter of section 11. He also owns a farm in Exira township, Audubon county. He settled here in 1866, purchasing the place of Calvert Strall. The only improvements were eighteen acres broken. He was born at Niles, Michigan, in September, 1836. He removed with his parents to Iowa, in 1847. They settled at Coltonville, Jackson county, which was then thinly populated, and the townships were not organized. Game, at that time, was plenty, including deer and elk. He was married in Audubon county, August 25, 1862, to Mary E. Johnson, who was born in Adams county, Illinois. They have four children -- Perry F., Rosella, Myron and Pearl A. The two eldest were born in Audubon county. As Mr. Parmely went to Jackson county in 1847, and to Audubon county ten years later, he has spent much of his life on the frontier. He built his house here in 1866, drawing his lumber for that purpose from Des Moines, a distance of eighty-six miles, by the wagon road. It took five days to make the trip. His father, Dennis Parmely, was a native of Erie county, New York, born in 1813. He removed to Michigan, where he was married, and, as before stated, came to Iowa in 1847. He now lives in Dexter, Dallas county. During the winter of 1860 and '61, two brothers-in-law of Mr. Parmely, Daniel and Luke Imus, started on foot to go from Hamlin's Grove, Audubon county, to Mount Ayr, in Ringgold county. Nearly the entire distance to Fontanelle, Adair county, was unbroken prairie. A terrible storm arose, during which the brothers perished on the prairie. One was found dead upon the prairie, the other succeeded in reaching a small, unoccupied house, where he was found frozen to death. They were buried in Hamlin cemetery, in Audubon county. The younger brother, Luke, is supposed to have died first, as he was found about six miles from the elder brother's body, laid out in proper shape for burial. A satchel was placed under his head and his shawl was wrapped about his head. Their bodies laid about three weeks on the prairie before discovered, and when found, the mice had eaten the flesh off the side of Luke's face, disfiguring it so that friends hardly recognized him. They perished between Morrison's Station and Fontanelle, at that time an unsettled prairie for twenty miles.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pp. 640.
