Durham-Orange-Wake County NcArchives Biographies.....Parrish, Edward James 1846 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 23, 2008, 11:13 pm

Author: Leonard Wilson  (1916)

EDWARD JAMES PARRISH

NO man of to-day in North Carolina is more highly esteemed by the people of that
splendid State than Colonel Edward James Parrish, of Durham, for many years past
one of the most prominent figures in the business life of the State, and who has
been honored by a unanimous election to the Presidency of the North Carolina
Agricultural Society. This position has been filled by many of the most eminent
of North Carolina's citizens, but it is safe to predict that none of them has
made a greater record of good accomplished than will be made by the present
incumbent. In every generation the "Old North State" has been rich in good men
who seem to have increased their ability and to have secured better results for
the State. The strong men of the present day in North Carolina have made of it
the most progressive State of the Cotton Belt. To that result probably no man of
the day has contributed more largely than Colonel Parrish, and certainly no man
has labored more faithfully or more unselfishly for the good of his native
commonwealth. The record of his useful life should be an inspiration to every
young man who has his own way to make in the world. That record shows what may
be accomplished by the man who has a spirit unafraid, whose principles are fixed
and true, whose energy and industry are boundless, whose heart is clean, and who
lives up to the Scriptural injunction, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

    Colonel Parrish was born near Pound Hill Post Office, then in Orange County
(now Durham County), on October 20, 1846, son of Colonel Doctor Claiborn and
Ruthy Anne (Ward) Parrish. His father had the peculiar given name of Doctor
because he was a seventh son, in accordance with the old belief that the seventh
son has the gift of healing. D. C. Parrish was himself a remarkable man. Born in
1807 he reached the ripe age of seventy-six, secured the unbounded esteem and
affection of the people of his section, and was, at the time of his death, Mayor
of Durham. The son inherited a double portion of the gift possessed by his
father of acquiring the good will of people.

    Young Parrish attended school at Pound Hill, Knap of Reeds, South Lowell and
Cedar Grove. He then entered the sophomore class at Trinity College, under the
presidency of the late Dr. B. Craven. Enforcement of what was known as the
"reserve act," passed by the Confederate Congress, forced the youth to leave
college and go to Raleigh, where he became mailing clerk on the "Spirit of the
Age," a newspaper, later merged into the "Conservative," when he became bookkeeper.

    His father had served as colonel under the old flag, and he was stronly
averse to taking up arms against it. His friends secured for him a position in
the Roll of Honor office, under Major James H. Foote, thinking he would be thus
exempted from military service, and his exemption was claimed by Governor Vance
as a necessary State officer. Arriving at the age of eighteen, he found it
necessary to make a choice, either to enter the service or desert his people. He
met that dilemma as he has met every other in life, with courage and decision.
However much he loved the Union, he loved North Carolina better, so he asked to
be assigned to Company "K," 4th North Carolina Cavalry.

    This regiment was commanded by Colonel Ferrebee, and Company "K" was
commanded by Captain Ward. Although young Parrish was in the service only the
last six months of the war, he was in several engagements, and his company
suffered great losses, so much so that before reaching Appomattox there were
only two or three men left of the company outside of Captain Ward and himself,
and these were assigned to another company and the roll call of Company "K" was
dispensed with.

    Captain Ward was at this time in command of the regiment and young Parrish
was acting as courier for him. The greatest loss sustained at any time by the
company was in making a mounted charge, composed of Companies "I" and "K." At
another time when part of the Brigade was separated from the 4th North Carolina
Cavalry, General Roberts being in command of the Brigade and being present with
the 4th North Carolina Cavalry, saw that the 16th Battalion was about to be cut
off by the enemy, he asked Captain Ward to send a messenger and bring the
Battalion out by a different route from which they had instructions to go. The
enemy already in sight, it was necessary for the messenger to go down a lane
fence to get to the Battalion. Captain Ward called for volunteers to run this
gauntlet, no one responded, when he said that he was sure that young Parrish
would bear the message, which he promptly did. He was exposed to the fire of the
enemy in getting to the Battalion, but succeeded without harm to himself. Always
discharging his military duty with that fidelity which has characterized his
performance of duty through life, he returned home at the end of the struggle to
find his father had paid the penalty in common with all other Southern property
owners, and that a new start had to be made, with nothing but the naked land and
the naked hands. He went between the plow handles and took up the work like the
man that he is. Even then he must have foreseen that a better day was coming
when there would be a larger reward for business capacity than could be earned
by a farmer working under adverse conditions and without operating capital. He
went to Raleigh and became a salesman in a dry-goods store. His natural courtesy
and kindly manners made him many friends, and he speedily became recognized as
one of the best salesmen in the city. He changed from the dry-goods business to
a government position, which he filled in an admirable way, and men began to
recognize that the young man possessed superior capacity as a business man and
financier. It was at this period of his life that he married, on October 5,
1870, Rosa, the youngest daughter of Captain Elias Bryan, of Haywood, Chatham
County. In January, 1871, he resigned his government position, moved to Durham
and opened a grocery and confectionery store. Durham was then a small railroad
station, not much more than a wide place in the road. Naturally, the volume of
business going to the grocery and confectionery store was small, so in May he
added to that business the duties of autioneer in the first tobacco warehouse
opened in Durham, of which Henry A. Reams was proprietor. As these sales
occurred only about twice a week, it did not interfere much with his little
store business. He remained with Mr. Reams until 1873, when the Farmers'
Warehouse was completed, and he formed a partnership with J. E. Lyon, under the
name of Parrish and Lyon, to conduct that warehouse.

    The panic of 1873 struck the young firm a hard blow, and they lost all that
they had made. The warehouse was temporarily closed. Undismayed, Colonel Parrish
decided to resume business. Mr. Lyon concluded to withdraw, and during the next
three years he built up a lucrative trade and a good name in business circles.
In 1870 the Durham Warehouse was rented at auction for a term of three years,
and was bid off by Colonel Parrish at a rental of $2,000 per year, which looked
to the people of that day a very large sum. His indomitable energy caused his
business to grow to such an extent that he sought out a more eligible location
and built a warehouse which marked an epoch in the history of the town. This
building was completed, and the opening sale occurred August 29, 1879. The first
day's sale amounted to 80,000 pounds of tobacco, for which $15,000 was paid. The
prestige gained by this day's business never deserted the house, and the
business constantly grew. On April 1, 1880, J. W. Blackwell was admitted as a
partner in the business, under the style of Parrish and Blackwell, which firm
continued in business until the first of January, 1881, when Mr. Parrish bought
out Mr. Blackwell's interest, paying him for said interest $80,000 in cash.
During this partnership they had added enormously to the area of their warehouse
and press houses. Some idea of the extent of the business done may be gained
from the fact that in three years, 1881, 1882 and 1883, they sold over twenty
million pounds of tobacco, which realized about two and one-half million dollars.

    Eighteen hundred and eighty-four found him a young man of thirty-eight, but
already one of the commanding figures in one of the greatest tobacco markets of
the world. He had then, as he has now, the gift of drawing men to him.
Unassuming and kindly, always courteous, not without dignity, but not making his
dignity oppressive, and full of love for humanity, men thronged to him for
advice, encouragement and assistance. Singularly tenacious in his attachments
both to individuals and to causes, he never deserted the one or the other, and
through life has been ever ready to stand by a man as long as there was a
glimmer of hope for his betterment.

    His warehouse business prospering, in September, 1886, Colonel Parrish
bought the Z. I. Lyon Company's factory and engaged in manufacturing "Pride of
Durham" tobacco. In October, 1886, a fire broke out a block or two away, which
spread until it reached his warehouse, destroying that together with his steam
plant and other buildings on the other side of the street, involving a total
loss of $140,000. His net loss, above insurance, was about $35,000. He did not
immediately rebuild, but gave his whole attention to the smoking tobacco
factory. The leaf tobacco trade fell off and in a year or so the Board of Trade
passed a resolution requesting Colonel Parrish to rebuild his warehouse, which
he did, and he resumed that feature of his business. On November 13, 1888, the
financial cataclysm struck Durham, which was known in local history as the
"Black Friday." The Bank of Durham, W. T. Blackwell, Colonel Parrish and other
prominent business men were forced to the wall. There happened immediately
thereafter an incident which illustrates the value of character. A prominent
citizen, W. W. Fuller, later Chief Counsel for the American Tobacco Company,
asked Colonel Parrish what he planned to do. He answered Mr. Fuller that he
hardly knew what to do, as he did not like to ask anyone to go on his bond under
the circumstances. Mr. Fuller then said to him that he and other friends would
give the required bond of $10,000 at the First National Bank, and that he could
go on with his warehouse business as before. This was done and he was thus
enabled to continue business notwithstanding his losses. In 1897, however, while
engaged in the warehouse business, and in the manufacturing of smoking tobacco,
the Blackwell's Durham Tobacco Company, though in a sense a competitor, engaged
him as head buyer for that company, for the purchase of leaf tobacco, at a
salary of $6,000 per year, with the privilege of continuing his warehouse and
factory. Two years later, in 1899, the American Tobacco Company, now known all
over the world, tendered him a salary of $15,000 to go to Japan and take charge
of their business in the Orient. The offer was a munificent one but involved
severance of life-long ties, residence in a far distant and unknown country for
a term of years among people speaking a different language, with which he was
totally unfamiliar.

    But there were cogent arguments on the other side. When the great failure
occurred in 1888, his property inventoried $108,000 more than his liabilities,
but owing to the great shrinkage in value when it was sold, it lacked $30,000 of
paying his indebtedness. He went to Japan owing that money. He remained there
six years. Each month he took half of his salary and applied it to the payment
of his debts, until when he came back to Durham he had paid off the $30,000 with
6 per cent interest. On the occasion of his leaving with his family for Japan,
the leading people of Durham, in a gathering at a prominent hotel, gave Colonel
Parrish an ovation of a character that would pay any man for a life time of
service. The speaker of the occasion, Rev. J. N. Cole, delivered a most eloquent
address, iu which he recited the services of this man to Durham. One paragraph,
which is a sort of summing up, is entitled to reproduction. He said:

    "Durham has probably not had a worthier citizen, a braver spirit, a wiser
leader of her people in paths of safety and of virtue, a harder worker for her
interest, a man who carried himself more nobly, a more generous, a more gallant,
a more kingly man."

    Before touching upon Colonel Parrish's work in Japan, there is an incident
in his business life in Durham which is too good an illustration of his feeling
towards his people to be passed by. While in the warehouse business he loaned
many thousands of dollars to farmers of the district without interest. When
"black Friday" struck Durham, the farmers owed him many thousands of dollars.
When the claims were put up and sold, Colonel Parrish bought them in and never
afterward attempted to collect a single dollar. Another instance: A patent was
secured by a party for covering plant beds with cloth. This patent caused much
confusion among the farmers, and much litigation was imminent when realizing the
importance of the plant beds being covered, Colonel Parrish, in order to relieve
the situation, bought the patent rights and publicly advertised that every
farmer was authorized to use same without charge.

    We come now to his record in Japan, which demonstrates his remarkable
business sagacity as perhaps no other feature of his career does. He was without
experience in foreign trade. He had been sent there by The American Tobacco
Company to get business. After getting a grip on the situation, he decided to
deviate from the old and accepted methods of operating through established
foreign agencies, and proceeded to establish selling depots throughout the
Empire, placing Japanese in charge. He followed that up by doing his business
through Japanese banks, making his deposits with them and his collections
through them. Many foreigners thought his policy a great mistake and warned him
that their losses would be great. His idea was, and in this he was supported by
the management at home, that the company had gone to Japan for the purpose of
selling to the Japanese people, and it seemed to him that the logical way to do
this was through Japanese employees and banks. The result justified this
judgment for when the business was wound up, the net losses were less than
one-half of 1 per cent, which proved that the Japanese purchasers paid up as
well as the buyers of any other country. This business, it must be understood,
was done on short time. It is a painful fact that American business houses, as a
rule operating in foreign countries, have not succeeded so well as German and
British houses. The exceptions have been the American Tobacco Company and the
Standard Oil Company, operated all over the world, W. E. Grace and Company, of
New York, operating in Chile and Bolivia, and possibly one or two others. These
concerns largely follow the policy which Colonel Parrish pursued in Japan. Aside
from the mere buying and selling, this policy had another result. It placed his
company in high favor with the Japanese officials, bankers, business men, and
people generally, so much so that Colonel Parrish had conferred upon him by the
Emperor of Japan the "Third Order of Honor," and was decorated with the "Medal
of Sacred Treasure." During his incumbency for the American Tobacco Company, he
also represented The British-American Tobacco Company. The business ran into
millions and he was succeeding admirably when the war between Japan and Russia
brought about an entire change of conditions. The Japanese government decided to
take over the tobacco business as a government monopoly. This resulted in a very
difficult situation, but after considerable negotiation, Colonel Parrish was
able to dispose of the interest of his companies to the Japanese government on
terms highly satisfactory to his employers, and the story is told, which is
probably true, that, owing to the breakdown in foreign exchange, he was
compelled to bring home a great part of the purchase money in a valise. One can
imagine him sitting up nights to watch that valise.

    On his arrival in New York he was offered a position in Mexico, or Cuba or
New York, but he preferred to retire. Durham was no longer home, but his
affections were so strongly bound up with the city which he had done so much to
help to make, that he gravitated back and set up his household goods among his
old friends. Since then, he has been engaged, to a considerable extent, in real
estate operations and in the development of his beautiful farm home, Lochmoor,
five miles out from Durham. After his return to Durham he was elected manager of
the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company for the North Carolina division, but not
caring to take up the heavy work involved by service for another big
corporation, he declined this position. His activities, however, have not waned,
and he finds abundant work for brain and hand in looking after his private
interests while as heretofore he is giving himself generously to everything
contributory to the public welfare.

    During his busy life Colonel Parrish has neglected no interest that had for
its purpose the public welfare. In fraternal circles he has been an active
Mason, Knight of Pythias, Odd Fellow, and member of the Elks, and the brethren
of those great orders have the highest sense of appreciation of the excellent
work he has done in the fraternal line. He holds membership in the Commercial
and Commonwealth Clubs and for many years lias been an exemplary member of the
Trinity Methodist Church. In 1884 he was elected captain of the Durham Light
Infantry even before he had become a member of the company. Five years later,
January 23, 1889, he was commissioned by the Governor as colonel of the Third
Regiment of the North Carolina National Guard. A Democrat in political
affiliations he has never held a purely political office, though he was
compelled to decline a nomination to the General Assembly. He served, however,
as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Executive Committee for several
years. He has held many public positions of honor and trust, such as trustee,
commissioner, Mayor of Durham, director of the First National Bank, and at the
present time is vice-president of the Durham Loan and Trust Company.

    Mrs. Parrish was Rosa Flora Bryan, born in Chatham, daughter of Captain
Elias and Catherine McKay Bryan. Her father was a member of the Bryan family,
one of the most distinguished of our Southern Atlantic States. Branches of this
family settled in Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, everywhere furnishing a
number of splendid men, both to the public service and to the ranks of private
citizenship. Mrs. Parrish's mother was of that Scotch stock which has a larger
foothold in North Carolina than in any of our States. Their only daughter, Lily,
is the wife of Professor R. L. Flowers, of Trinity College, North Carolina. They
have two children, Rosa Virginia and Sybil Parrish Flowers. The English center
of the Parrish family was in Yorkshire, and while frequent references are found
in old records of different members of the Parrish family, these references are
so disconnected and isolated that it is practically an impossibility to make
anything like a connected history. Some things, however, are reasonably certain.
The four original emigrants were Thomas Parrish, who came to Virginia on the
ship Charity in the year 1622, settled in Elizabeth City, survived the Massacre
of 1622, and was in Thomas Spilman's muster in 1625. He was followed by Edward,
who came over in 1635 and obtained a grant of land in Elizabeth City. The next
was Thomas, who came over on the ship Increase in 1635 and settled in New
England and was the founder of a family in that section. The last was Captain
Edward Parrish, sea-captain, who in the early years of the Maryland Colony
abandoned the sea, settled in Maryland and obtained a grant of 3,000 acres,
where Baltimore is now, and became Surveyor General of Maryland. The
distinguished Parrish family of Philadelphia which furnished so many eminent
physicians and chemists is descended from this Captain Edward Parrish. Thomas
and Edward in Virginia were evidently the progenitors of a numerous family, for
as early as 1740 we find John Parrish a juror in Perquimons County, North Carolina.

    In the Revolutionary period there were twelve heads of families in Virginia.
In both Virginia and North Carolina they furnished numerous soldiers to the
Revolution. In North Carolina the roster shows Stephen, Joseph, Bussey,
Claiborn, John and Jacob. Joel was a member of the Committee of Safety in
Wilmington in 1775. In Virginia John was a member of the Brunswick Militia.
Tolley was colonel and Sherwood was second lieutenant of the Goochland Militia.
In 1758 Joseph was a soldier in the old French war from Spottsylvania County,
and that same year another Joseph appears as a citizen of Brunswick County. This
may have been the same men moved southward. Joel died in Spottsylvania in 1791,
leaving by will his property to his sons, John, Joel, Henry, Timothy and James.
John and Timothy each secured land grants for 400 acres of land in Goochland
County in 1734. James secured a grant for 296 acres in Halifax in 1760. John was
a vestryman in Cumberland parish, Lunenburg County, about 1760. Allen Parrish,
grandfather of Colonel Parrish, in 1790 lived in the Hillsbough district of
Orange County.

    There was evidently a movement of these Parrish families from southern and
eastern Virginia southwardly. That they were all descended from Thomas and
Edward, two early immigrants, cannot be doubted, for there is no record of any
other men of this name coming in among the early immigrants. It is a fair
presumption that Colonel Parrish's father was a grandson of Claiborn Parrish,
the Revolutionary soldier who probably lived in Granville County.

    The Parrish Coat of Arms is described as:

    "Gules three unicorns' heads couped argent, Crest: A unicorn's head erased
argent."

    If in this sketch the reader has gathered the meaning of this man's life, an
excellent purpose has been served. With the qualities which he possesses had he
been moved solely by ambition, he might have been a great political leader, or a
great railroad president or at the head of some great corporation, but he
possessed moderate desires in-so-far as material accumulation is concerned, and
uninfluenced by selfish personal ambitions, his great energy and capacity have
been turned in the direction of a life of useful service. It is pleasant to be
able to report that he has his reward in the affectionate esteem of a
constituency as wide as the State of North Carolina. Even now he is adding to
his good record by making of his beautiful farm home an object lesson to the
farmers of the State by showing them that a beautified and well improved farm
not only adds to the comfort of the owners but also to the value of their
material possessions, and so, to the end of the chapter, he is continuing even
as he has lived.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

MAKERS OF AMERICA
BIOGRAPHIES OF LEADING MEN OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

THE MEN WHO CONSTITUTE THE BONE AND SINEW OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND LIFE

VOLUME II

By
LEONARD WILSON,
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ASSISTED BY PROMINENT HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITERS
Illustrated with many full page engravings
B. F. JOHNSON, INC.
CITY OF WASHINGTON, U. S. A.
1916

Copyright, 1916
by
B. F. Johnson, Inc.

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