BIOGRAPHY: Francis J. PARRISH, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 354-5
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FRANCIS J. PARRISH, who for almost a quarter of a century has been justice of 
the peace in the borough of Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, is a son of Thomas A. and 
Mary (Storm) Parrish, and was born in Munster township, Cambria county, July 24, 
1832.
     The Parrish family is of English extraction, the great-grandfather having 
been born in England. Joshua Parrish (grandfather) was born in the Conewago 
settlement, this State. He was a millwright by trade, and through the influence 
of Rev. Dr. Gallitzin was induced to remove to this county to take charge of a 
mill owned by that gentleman. He located in Munster township, where he cleared a 
large tract of land, and, with his entire family, was converted to the Roman 
Catholic faith. He died in 1839.
     Thomas A. Parrish (father) was born February 20, 1804, in what is now 
Bedford county, Pennsylvania, but was reared in this county, where he received 
his early education in the old subscription schools. He followed the pursuits of 
a farmer, and owned and cultivated a large farm, located one mile east of 
Loretto. He was a man of unimpeachable reputation, honored and respected by his 
neighbors, and died September 11, 1876, at the advanced age of seventy-two 
years.
     John Storm, the maternal grandfather, was a native of Berks county, 
Pennsylvania, and located in Gallitzin in 1799, where he built and operated the 
first grist-mill in this county. He was of German extraction, and was one of the 
early settlers of the county. His daughter, Mary Storm, who is the mother of the 
subject of this sketch, was born in Gallitzin township, September 14, 1802, and 
became the wife of Thomas A. Parrish. She died December 22, 1870, at the age of 
sixty-eight years.
     Francis J. Parrish was reared on his father's farm in Allegheny township, 
and educated in the common and subscription schools of Loretto. He remained on 
the farm until 1861, when he removed to Gallitzin, where for three years he was 
in the employ of the Pennsylvania railroad. In 1864 he engaged in the hotel 
business, which he conducted for seven or eight years; at the close of this 
period he again entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad company. For the 
last nine years he has been a clerk in the general store of Taylor, McCoy & Co., 
of Gallitzin.
     In politics he affiliates with the Democratic party, and has filled the 
office of justice of the peace continuously since 1873, and for many years 
served as borough assessor.
     Mr. Parrish is a man of considerable literary ability, and frequently 
indulges his literary tastes by contributions to the local papers. He has been 
twice married. His first marriage, which occurred in 1858, was with Miss Mary 
McConnell, a daughter of Hugh McConnell, of Allegheny township, this county. She 
died April 26, 1878, leaving two sons and two daughters: Louise, now the wife of 
Frank P. Gillin; Jerome W., of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Frank J., a druggist in 
Oil City, Pennsylvania, and Mary J., who, as Sister Annie, is a member of the 
Convent of St. Joseph, located in Altoona. In 1880 he married, as his second 
wife, Mrs. Mary J. (Shaffer) Murphy, of Oil City, and to this union have been 
born two children: Beatrice and Edmund.