Genesee County MI Archives Biographies.....Parsell, Henry 1812 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 13, 2007, 10:31 pm

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

HENRY PARSELL, one of the oldest settlers in Genesee County, and who may be
called the oldest business man in Flint, as he was in business for some
forty-five years, has now retired from active life. He was born in Clarence,
Erie County, N. Y., March 20, 1812, and is a son of Robert Parsell and a
grandson of Robert Sr., both New Yorkers by birth. Our subject remained in his
native home until he was sixteen years old and he remembers seeing about the
year 1818, the only house that stood in Buffalo, after that city was destroyed
by fire in 1812, his father pointing it out to him. The father gained his title
of Major in the War of 1812, as he was a Fife Major and a fine performer upon
that instrument. His fife was one which he had plowed up from the ground and
must have been lost there during the Revolutionary War. The family is of Dutch
descent, and the mother, Olive Geer, was a native of Herkimer County and the
mother of six sons, of whom our subject is the only survivor.

  Two months a year was about all the schooling that Henry Parsell received in
his boyhood, and at the age of sixteen he went to Lockport and for five years
served an apprenticeship to the harness-maker's trade and afterward served as a
journeyman in various cities. In 1837 he enlisted in the Patriot War and served
under Gen. Win field Scott, for which he received a land warrant for one hundred
and sixty acres of land which he sold for $160 in gold.

  In 1840 our subject came to Michigan and located in Flushing, this county, on
a farm of one hundred acres and began housekeeping in a shanty. This property he
sold in 1846 and located in Flint. Here he purchased a store and a house and
manufactured the first harness and the first saddles that were made in Flint. He
enlarged his business and at one time had ten men in his establishment. The
first handsome store building built by Mr. Parsell was destroyed by fire, as was
also the second which burned in 1862 at a great loss. To this was added the loss
by fire of a mill which he had bought at Dry den and in all he lost about
$17,000 in these disasters. Throughout the time that he was active in business
he was considered the best harness-maker in the State, and he now owns various
handsome pieces of property in Flint and has dealt much in real estate. He has
also been largely interested in mines in Colorado, and has a valuable property
near Ouray, Col. In 1886 he closed out and sold his property, retiring from
active life on account of ill-health.

   Mr. Parsell was married in Erie County, N. Y., in 1836, to Miss Mary Mead, a
native of Cayuga County, who became the mother of nine children. The two eldest
have died, namely: Loretta, and Adelbert, who was for ten years Deputy Sheriff
of this county and acted as Sheriff in Colorado for seven years previous to his
death in October 1888. He had served his country for some three years in the
First Michigan Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics. His death interrupted a
brilliant career in Colorado where he was rapidly becoming one of the foremost
men in the State.

  The children next in age are: Arlone, who is now Mrs. Lee, of Detroit;
Clarence H.; Isabella, deceased; Homer, who enlisted as a drummer boy at the age
of fourteen, in the Twenty-third Michigan Infantry in 1862 and served until the
close of the war; Florence, now the wife of Mr. A. Edwards, of Detroit; Viola,
Mrs. H. Lamb, of Imlay City and Nellie, who died young. The family is connected
with the Episcopal Church which Mr. Parsell helped materially to build and he is
a prominent Democrat, being a frequent delegate to county and State conventions.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892

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