My Genealogy Hound

J. M. PARKINSON, post office West Elizabeth, is a son of Washington and Sarah (Kinney) Parkinson, and was born in Nottingham township, Washington county, Pa., in 1826. His family were of Scotch and Irish descent, and his grandfather, Benjamin, was a native of Virginia. He removed to Washington county, Pa., where he was engaged as a distiller, and where Washington, the father of our subject, was born. At the beginning of the whisky insurrection he expended the price of one farm to escape from the army, and the soldiers made a critical examination of his premises to find him, but without success. Washington Parkinson married and settled in Nottingham township, where he was appointed justice of the peace for life, and was a stockholder, director and president of the Williamsport and Wheeling turnpike. His children were Eliza (now Mrs. Joseph Pollock, of Washington county), Rachel R. (now Mrs. H. H. McElhaney), Sarah (now Mrs. Henry Heath), Mary Jane, Washington (who died at the age of eighteen), John L. (now of Meigs county, Ohio) and J. M. (who remained with his parents until their decease). Previous to that event our subject married Lydia A., daughter of William Peterson, of Jefferson township, and they have nine children: Eveline, George W., Sarah R., Nancy A., W. Y., L. Belle, Sidney M., Margaret H. and Boyd M. Sarah R. is the wife of C. A. Stokes, a resident and real estate broker of Braddock. Mrs. Parkinson died Nov. 19, 1874. Mr. Parkinson sold to Mr. O’Neil a tract of land, and together they laid out what is now the town of Jefferson in or about 1871. Our subject began his career as a farmer, later engaged in mercantile pursuits, and at present is a merchant doing business on a part of the old farm.