Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

self, natives and residents of this city.
Naaman Parsons was a Baptist clergyman,
and when his son, George S. Par-
sons, was seven years of age took charge
for a time of the Baptist church at Put-
ney, Vermont, where he and his family
resided for a time. Later he went to East
Long Meadow, Massachusetts, and here
was in charge of a church for a number
of years. His wife is a daughter of Lemuel
and Sarah Abbe, Mr. Abbe having
been a farmer in the region of Enfield,
where the Abbe family has long been
prominent. Mr. Parsons, Sr., served as
a private in the Twenty-first Regiment of
Connecticut Volunteer Infantry for nine
months during the Civil War.
Born July 21, 1873, at Hartford, Connecticut,
George Simonson Parsons was
the youngest of a family of three chil-
dren. His elder brother, Frederick Parsons,
is now a resident of Brooklyn, New
York, where he is in charge of the rolling
stock of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
Company. The other child was a daughter,
Lizzie, who became the wife of Benjamin
Simmons, who is associated with
the manufacture of woolen goods at
Ware, Massachusetts. The first seven
years of Mr. Parsons' life were spent in
his native Hartford, and he then accompanied
his parents to Putney, Vermont,
where his father had been called to take
charge of the Baptist church. Here it
was that he began to attend school and
passed through the grammar and high
school grades there. He was then taken
by his parents to East Long Meadow, but
did not remain there a great while, as in
1892 he left the parental roof and made
his way to Cleveland, Ohio. Here the
young man secured a position with the
Electric Street Railway of that city and
worked for five years at wiring street
cars. In 1897, however, he returned to
Connecticut, where he purchased about
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231
forty-five acres of excellent land, not far
from Thompsonville, and engaged in the
tobacco-growing business. He now raises
some twenty-eight acres of the best
shade tobacco, a crop which is always
sure of having an excellent market, and
is one of the most paying in Connecticut.
He has been highly successful in this
venture, and some years ago purchased
the Thompsonville Hotel, which he now
runs in a modern and up-to-date manner.
Here, too, he has met with marked suc-
cess and made his hotel very popular with
the traveling public. Mr. Parsons has
always been keenly interested in local
affairs and has taken a very prominent
part in them. In politics he is a Republi-
can, and has been elected to a number of
important offices on that party's ticket,
among which should be mentioned a
membership on the Board of Relief and
that of assessor. In 1917 he was elected
to represent his district in the State Leg-
islature and is now a member of that
body. Mr. Parsons is a member of the
local lodge of the Modern Woodmen of
the World, and of Friendship Lodge, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, of
Thompsonville. He is a member of the
German Club of Springfield. In his religious
belief Mr. Parsons is a Baptist and
attends the church of that denomination
at Hartford. He is very active in its
work and has been a deacon thereof for
some years.
George Simonson Parsons was united
in marriage, July 30, 1903, at Brooklyn,
New York, with Cora Belle Lyman, a
daughter of Fordis and Viola (Badger)
Lyman.
PARKER, George Amos,
Representative Citizen.
George Amos Parker, of Hartford,
traces his descent from many old and dis-