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664 New York city. In 1880 he endowed the public library of Gloversville, N. Y., with $6,800, and $1,000 worth of books and engravings, and subse- quently he gave Union college $50,000 for the sup- port of students from Fulton and Montgomery counties. Union gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1881. See " Memorial Address," by Rev. William E. Park (Gloversville, N. Y., 1888).

PARSONS, Lewis Baldwin, benefactor, b. in Williamstown, Mass., 30 April, 1798; d. in Detroit. Mich., 21 Dec, 1855. He accumulated a large fortune in business in Buffalo, N. Y., and was a generouscontributor to benevolent and educational enterprises. By the terms of his will he bequeathed funds to found Parsons college, a co-educational institution in Fairiield, Iowa, under the care of the Presbyterian church. — His son, Lewis Baldwin, soldier, b. in Genesee county, N. Y., 5 April, 1818, was graduated at Yale in 1840, studied law at Har- vard, and settled in Alton, 111., where he was city attorney for several years. He removed to St. Louis, Mo., in 1853, and became president and treasurer of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad. At the beginning of the civil war he was one of a com- mission to examine into the administration of Gen. John C. Fremont in Missouri. He became colonel of volunteers, and was assigned to the staff of Gen. Henry W. Hal leek in 1862, with the charge of rail and river transportation in his department, which was subsequently extended to cover the entire country west of the Alleghanies. In 1864 he was placed in charge of all railroad and river army transportation in the United States. In January, 1865, by order of the secretary of war, he personal- ly supervised the transfer of Gen. John M. Scho- field's army of 20,000 men from Mississippi to Washington, D. C, a distance of 1,400 miles, in an average time of eleven days. For this service he was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, 11 May, 1865. In April, 1866, he was brevetted ma- jor-general of volunteers.

PARSONS, Mosby Monroe, soldier, b. in Vir- ginia in 1819; d. in Camargo. Mexico, 17 Aug., 1865. He removed to Cole county. Mo., early in life, practised law, was attorney-general of Mis- souri in 1853-7, and subsequently became a mem- ber of the state senate. He was a captain in the U. S. army during the Mexican war, and received honorable mention for his service at Sacramento. At the beginning of the civil war he acted in con- cert with Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson in his endeavor to draw Missouri into the Confederacy, was active in organizing the state militia, and raised a mounted brigade which he commanded at Car- thage, Springfield, and Pea Ridge, with the rank of brigadier-general, subsequently serving under Gen. Sterling Price until the last invasion of Missouri in 1864. The next year he went to Mexico, joined the Republican forces, and was killed in an engage- ment with the imperialists.

PARSONS, Theophilus, jurist, b. in Byfield, Essex CO., Mass., 24 Feb., 1750 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 30 Oct., 1813. His father, Moses, was a Congrega- tional clergyman and pastor of the church in By- field for more than forty years. Theophilus was graduated at Harvard in 1769, and admitted to the bar of Falmouth. Mass. (now Portland, Me.), in 1774, but his career was interrupted by the almost total destruction of that town by the British the next year, and he returned to Byfield, where he received the assistance and instruction of Judge Edmund Trowbridge, and laid the foundation of his vast legal learning. Settling in Newburyport, Mass., he acquired a lucrative practice, which gradually embraced all the New England states. He possessed much influence as a Federalist leader and filled a number of important public posts. In 1778 he formed one of the " Essex Junto," a body of citizens of Essex county who opposed the adoption of the state constitution that had been previously framed by the Massachusetts legisla- ture. He was the au- thor of the pamphlet called the " Essex Re- sult," which contrib- uted largely to the rejection of the con- stitution. This was re - published in the memoir of the author by his son. He was a delegate the next year to the body that framed the constitu- tion that was finally adopted, and in 1788 to the convention to ratify the constitution of the United States, which he actively supported. He was the author of the proposition that was offered by John Hancock, ratifying the in- strument and recommending certain amendments known as the " Conciliatory resolutions." He sub- sequently was occasionally in the state legislature,, but took no active part in public affairs, although he remained a consistent Federalist. He removed to Boston in 1800, and from 1806 until his death was chief justice of the supreme court of the state. Judge Parsons was a classical scholar and a mathe- matician of ability. His legal decisions threw much light on the laws of pleading, marine insurance, and real property, and he rendered substantial service to the community by discountenancing delays and expediting the trial of causes. He possessed a re- markable memory, and was no less famous for his wit than for his attainments. Chief -Justice Lemuel Shaw said of him : " No person was probably more versed in the early history, laws, institutions, man- ners, and local usages of the settlers of New Eng- land, and the public are deeply indebted to him for much that has been preserved on these subjects in the reports of his judicial decisions." See a memoir of him by his son (Boston, 1859). A collection of his opinions was p)ublished under the title of " Commentaries on the Laws of the United States " (New York, 1836). — His son, Theophilns, author, b. in Newburyport, Mass., 17 May, 1797; d. in Cam- bridge, Mass., 26 Jan., 1882, was graduated at Har- vard in 1815, studied law, and after a tour abroad settled fi_rst in Taunton and afterward in Boston. For several years he engaged in literary pursuits, and founded and edited the " United States Free Press." From 1847 until his death he was Dane professor of law in Harvard, and he received the degree of LL. D. from that institution in 1849. He was an early convert to the New Jerusalem church, and wrote much in defence and exposition of its doctrines. He published the memoir of his father already mentioned (Boston, 1859), and several works on Swedenborgianism, including three vol- umes of " Essays " (1845) ; " Deus Homo " (1867) ;. "The Infinite and the Finite" (1872) ; and " Out- lines of the Religion and Philosophy of Sweden- borg " (1875). But it is as a legal writer that he is best known, and his publications on that subject include " The Law of Conscience " (2 vols., 1853 ; 5th ed., 3 vols., 1864); "Elements of Mercantile Law " (1856) ; " Laws of Business for Business Men " (1857) ; an elaborate and comprehensive