PARSONS FAMILY
1. Charles Parsons was living on the Eastern Shore, in Maryland, in 1769. His first wife was a Miss Chestnut. After this, he migrated to the banks of the South Branch of the Potomac River, and about 1786, as the record goes, to the Fort on the Buckhannon River. The actual date may likely have been earlier, as the Bush Fort, which it probably was, was destroyed by the Indians, in 1782.
There is a tradition that the Parsons and Carney families were in the fort when it was taken.
It is commonly the belief handed down by word of mouth that they lived on the Buckhannon River, and I have no doubt it is correct.
The next recorded move was about 1796 or 1797, to Warth’s Bottom.
Whether he came with his son, or later, is not known, but they probably moved at the same time.
He lived afterward on Sycamore above the bridge, probably he came there about the same time William located on the present site of Ripley.
He had moved to the farm owned by John Duke at Frozen Camp, before March, 1818. I take this date from patent to H. F. Knopp, land which calls for line of land owned by Charles Parsons, but does not say he lived on it. Date of patent, 1818.
He made the first improvement on the Upper Mill Creek Bottoms above the mouth of Frozen Camp, building his cabin near where Duke’s barn now stands.
He owned one hundred acres there, extending down to the mouth of Big Run, up the creek to Knopp’s farm, and up Big Run indefinitely far enough to make one hundred acres, largely bottomland, for that was the way they took up land in those days, leaving the hills for hunting grounds.
Joseph Parsons, a squatter, lived in a cabin below the mouth of Little Creek, but as he only “camped” there, it could not be called an improvement.
Charles Parsons was a hunter and Indian fighter, as were most men of his day. His ancestry was from England.
He married, probably in Maryland, and raised seven children. His wife dying, he married again, it is almost certain, after moving to Warth’s Bottom, and raised five children more.
Of these, Elias was born about 1798, and was the oldest child. Charles was born in 1804, and may have been the youngest.
https://www.wvgenweb.org/jackson/JohnHouse/lowmill3.htm
