Following is the History of the Parkinson Family, written by Katherine Parkinson Andrews and read at the First Annual Reunion held in Centralia, Illinois, on September 25th, 1912:Scotland, the land of the Scottish chiefs and of the brave Hugenots, was the home of the great grandfather of the present generation of Parkinsons. Hugh Parkinson and Katherine Brown, his wife, came over in a sailing vessel and after a voyage of 3 months, landed at Charleston, South Carolina, in the year of 1783. They settled on a farm in Abbeville District. Four children were born to them: John, Martha, Brown, and Hugh. The father and mother both died before the youngest child was 2 years old. The children met with the hardships of most orphans, their house being burned and $4000.00 in gold, which was secreted in it, missing, as there were no banks in those days. When John the oldest was grown, he married Elizabeth Clark and gave all a home. Taking them and his family, he moved to Lincoln County, Tennessee, where Martha married Samuel Sloan and Brown married Mary Moore. Many of their descendants live there yet, near Fayetteville. When Hugh, the youngest, was 19 years old, he enlisted in a South Carolina regiment and served through the war of 1812, until Packingham was defeated and slain and his body sent home to England in a casket of alcohol to be buried. When Hugh, my father, returned, he located his war claim near Fayetteville, gave his sister Martha Sloan 20 acres of it for a home, also gave 7 acres on which to build a church and a cemetery for the dead. The church house was called Prosperity and Prosperity it remains to this day, telling the good news, and the cemetery a resting place for the dead who are laid down, one by one, as the years go by.
My mother, Hugh Parkinson's wife, was Janet [Garner] Moore, her parents were from Ireland, John Moore and Martha Garner Moore. I should have said that our Great Grandparents were Scotch Presbyterians of the Old Covenanter faith, they were zealous in their observance of the Sabbath, preparing our food, baking bread, grinding coffee and blacking the shoes on Saturday. Father had a family of 9 children, all born in Tennessee, except Leander, who was born at Princeton, Indiana. He [our father] left Tennessee on account of slavery, moved to Princeton in 1835, from there to Walnut Hill, in Illinois, where my mother died December 4th, 1848. Their children were Martha, Mary, an infant that died, John, James, Katherine, William, Rebecca, and Leander.
Martha married Alexander McWilliams, they had 2 boys, Hugh and Silas, the father died, she afterwards married Miller Smith, they had 2 boys, Harvey lives in Kansas, Theodore and family live in Centralia, his boys were fine Railroad men. Hugh and Silas both enlisted in Co. C 11th Ill. Hugh died soon after the battle of Fort Donnelson, effects of exposure. Silas served 4 years an honored veteran, he married Rose Milburn, their son Hugh and mother live in Chicago, 2 little girls died. Silas was killed at Pana on I.C.R.R.T. in 1872.
Mary married William Cunningham, a resident of Walnut Hill, afterwards moved to Centrailia, with their 3 children, Theophilus, Henrietta, and Gertrude. H.T. married Eleanor Murphy, their only daughter, little Mary Gertrude, died. Henrietta married I. R. Randall, their 2 children, Louis and Mary -- Louis an engineer on the Rio Grande R. R. at Enid, Oklahoma, Mary and husband, Logan Thompson, live at Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Gertrude after giving her services as Home Missionary in the South, from the Baptist Church, died in Centralia, January 2nd, 1894.
John Parkinson married Sarah Jaynes, their children: Addia, wife of Frank Snyder, died leaving a family of children who live in this city; Annie, who with her husband Ely Craig, all live in Centralia. William T. married Clara Wright, they with their children are nearby farmers, honest tillers of the soil. John, the father, served 4 years, a veteran of the 11th Ill.
James Parkinson and wife, Ann Warren, had 4 children, Fred, T.X., James G. and Junia Warren. Fred married Kate Dupuy and with their children live near Waverly, Illinois. T. X. and James G. are Railroad Conductors on the I.C.R.R., and Junia, with her mother, lives in Centralia.
Katherine married S.S. Andrews. Rosa, their daughter (Mrs. John W. Larimer) lives at Salem, Illinois. George lives at Flora, Illinois, Charles at Seattle, Washington, Lulu (Mrs. H.T. Sweney) lives at Salem, Illinois, and Warren in Cincinnati, Ohio.
William married Sarah A. Cunningham, their children, Oscar and Zettie of Centralia, Illinois. Oscar and wife (Mora Bumgardner) and their boys, Chester and Vernon. William enlisted in the 11th Illinois, afterwards was made Captain of a Company in a Louisiana regiment and died at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana of sickness.
Rebecca married Dr. McKelvy of Sparta, Illinois, and both died leaving one son, who lives at Portland, Ore.
Leander married Clara Warren, she and 2 children, Mamie and Pella died. Afterwards, his second wife was Nettie Kell, their daughter, Mora, a graduate of Ann Arbor, Michigan and late of Mexico City, is with us.
Hugh Parkinson and wife and their daughter, Martha and her son, Hugh McWilliams, lie burried at the Old Covenanter Church and the other children of his family all lie at rest in the Silent City at Centralia, except the only survivor, Mrs. Andrews, of Salem, Illinois.
Of the Parkinsons, only 2 have been minister, Thomas, late of Fayetteville, Tenn., and Gilbert Parkinson, Professor at New Due West College, South Carolina. Nearly all are prospering Christians, the exceptions being the nicest kind of sinners.
State of Illinois
County of Macon
September 15, 1931
I hereby certify the foregoing two (2) typewritten pages, each bearing my notarial seal, as a correct copy of the history of the Parkinson family written by Katherine Parkinson Andrews and read at the first Annual Reunion held at Centralia, Illinois, September 25, 1912.N.P. [Nellis Paul] Parkinson, Notary Public.
©2006 C.S. Parkinson
