[p. 393] justice of the peace and prominent citizen of Wampum, has been a resident of Lawrence County for the past twenty-seven years. He was born on the old home farm in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, June 26, 1849, and is a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Wilkin) Parshall.
The father of Justice Parshall was born on his father's farm, in Eastern Pennsylvania. He was a stone-cutter by trade and this he followed after locating in Mercer County for a period of thirty-seven years. Failing health led him to try a different climate and he went to Virginia City, Nevada, where he died in 1877, when aged sixty-five years. He had been married in Mercer County, where his wife died in 1875, aged fifty years. They had eight children, namely: Jennie, who is the wife of W. A. Munnell, lives on the old home place in Mercer County; Sarah, deceased, who married I. D. Kirk, also deceased; Mary, deceased; William, Jonathan, Clark, Dorcas, deceased, who married William Eddyburn, and John, who is deceased.
William Parshall was permitted to attend school until he was nineteen years of age, having early shown unusual quickness of intellect, and then went to Mercer, where he read law for two years with the firm of Griffiths & Mason, and was admitted to the bar in 1873. Mr. Parshall practiced his profession for six years at Mercer and then moved to Nebraska. After practicing law there for two years he returned to Lawrence County, and in 1881 he was appointed burgess of Wampum, to which office he was regularly elected in the following spring, and he served continuously for seven years. Other offices were tendered him and he ac- cepted that of justice of the peace, for which his previous training had so well qualified him, and is serving in his third term as such. He has been an active Republican ever since attaining his majority.
On February 26, 1874, Mr. Parshall was married to Eliza J. Nelson, who is a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Daniels) Nelson, of Scott Township, Lawrence County. Prior to her marriage, Mrs. Parshall was a successful teacher. Four children have been born to this union: Elizabeth, who is the wife of W. J. Miller, of the Wampum Milling Company, has two children, Ralph and Carl; Gibson, who is agent of the Erie Railroad at New Castle, married Florence Craven, and they have three children, Erma, Marie and Wilbur; Clark M., who is traveling representative of the Wampum Mill Company, married Bertha Wardman, and Elta Jane, who married Rev. Herbert W. Hunter, of Erie, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. They have three children, Harry, Elta and Helen.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
Previous Biography | Table of Contents | Next Biography
Explanation/Caution | Lawrence Co. Maps | Lawrence Co. Histories
Updated: 16 Oct 2001