My Genealogy Hound
Below is a family biography included in The History of Morgan County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889. These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary. Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more. There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.
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W. S. Parsons, a native of Missouri, was born on the place where he now resides, in the year 1855. At the age of twenty-three he went to California, and farmed one year in Sonoma County. He then went to San Francisco, and from there to Portland, Oreg., by steamer, visiting in turn the cities of Vancouver, Dallas City and Walla Walla. Later, taking a mustang pony, he crossed the country, going north, at that time a veritable wilderness. He finally arrived at Spokane Falls, where he stayed about nine months, and after traveling through part of Idaho and the northeastern portion of Washington Territory, and finding no land to suit him, he returned to San Francisco, and from there to Healdsburgh, from which place he returned home to the old farm. His father, who came to Missouri in 1839, married Miss Sarah A. Wilkerson, daughter of James G. and Elizabeth (Smith) Wilkerson, pioneers of Cooper County. His grandfather, Thomas Parsons, who died in 1851 in Kentucky, at the age of one hundred and two, served in the Revolutionary War under Gen. Washington. Our subject is one of a family of six children: Betty (Baughman), Andrew, Sallie, James, W. S. and Joseph. In politics Mr. Parsons is a Democrat. He is a member of Lodge 117, A. F. & A. M., at Versailles.
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This family biography is one of 120 biographies included in The History of Morgan County, Missouri published in 1889. For the complete description, click here: Morgan County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps
View additional Morgan County, Missouri family biographies here: Morgan County, Missouri Biographies
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