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September of that year. He served nine
months overseas with the Fourth Corps,
of the Third Army, and was commis-
sioned major of engineers, November I,
1 918, as a reward for service. Major
Pease is a member of the college fra-
ternity Delta Kappa Epsilon.
On May 10, 1920, Mr. Pease married
Barbara Moore, daughter of E. Allen
Moore, of New Britain.
PARSONS, Charles Henry,
Head of Important Business.
Charles Henry Parsons, of New Britain,
Connecticut, came of an ancestry of a
sturdy, self-respecting character which
led to a high place in the regard of the
communities in which the Parsons dwelt,
and made of them citizens of known
worth and integrity.
The family name is derived from Parson
or Person, a term applied to those
having dignity or authority, the final s
being added to denote that the bearer of
the name was a son in direct succession
to the bearer of the title. The members
of the family have been distinguished by
their independence of thought and action,
dominated by a rigid sense of justice, a
kindliness of attitude towards others, and
a desire to deserve whatever of good
might come to them—and these character-
istics were all predominant in Charles H.
Parsons. He was an excellent example of
a race fast disappearing of men whose
character and ability formed the founda-
tion on which New England's greatness
has been reared.
His father was Charles Henry Parsons,
a carpenter-contractor in New Britain,
then a thriving village with a population
of about 3,000. It was before the days of
the advent of the foreign element, and
there were few social cleavages or differences
in standing except those caused by
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
412
personal worth and ability. The factories
were in their beginnings, and were operated
by village people supplemented by
the young people from neighboring farms
who found the regular wages of a shop
attractive. The young contractor and his
wife stood well in the community, and
owned their own home and the house be-
side it, both standing south of the present
site of the South Church, and classed as
among the better residences. Here
Charles Henry Parsons was born on April
11, 1847. Three years later his father
died, soon followed by his mother, leaving
Charles H. and his older sister Emma
doubly orphaned.
An uncle, John Brainard Parsons, was
made the guardian of the children and
took them into his own home, where they
were reared as members of his family, and
where they remained until Charles H. was
fully grown. He attended the New
Britain public schools and high school,
and to more fully fit himself for his career,
finished with a course in Eastman's Busi-
ness College.
Mr. Parsons' first venture into the
world of affairs was made in the New
Britain Post Office, which he entered at
the age of nineteen. It soon became ap-
parent to him that this place did not
afford an outlet into bigger things, and at
the end of a year he resigned to take a
position in the office of Landers, Frary &
Clark as a salesman. Here he remained
for seven years, and it was while he was
in this employ that he and his sister decided
to have a home of their own and
built the house on Franklin street, where
they lived for a number of years. It
was here that Mr. Parsons brought his
young wife, Isabelle Seymour, daughter
of Ira B. Smith, a prominent grocer of
New Britain. It was here, also, that three
of his sons were born, the fourth arriving
after the removal of the family to the resi-