Benjamin Parkison and Olivia Rodgers

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Husband Benjamin Parkison ^{1 2 3}

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         Father: William Parkison (      -      ) 4 5 6
         Mother: 

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       Marriage: 1796 7

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Wife Olivia Rodgers ^{1 3 7}

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         Father: James Rodgers (      -      ) 4 7
         Mother: 

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Children

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1 F Jane Parkison ⁸

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2 F Margaret Parkison ⁸

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3 F Olivia Parkison ⁹

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            AKA: Alevia Parkison 8
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           Died: 10 Jul 1886 9
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         Spouse: Capt. Robert Phillips (1817-      ) 9
           Marr: 26 Mar 1836 9

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4 F Ann Parkison ³

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            AKA: Anna Parkinson 10
           Born:  - Washington Co, PA
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         Spouse: John Johnston (      -1871) 3 10
           Marr: Jun 1839 10

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5 M William Parkison ⁸

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           Born:  - Allegheny Co, PA
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           Died: Bef 1893
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         Spouse: Catherine M. Rodgers (      -      ) 7

         Spouse: Sophia Playford (      -Aft 1893) 7

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6 M James Parkison ⁸

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7 M Mortimer Parkison ⁸

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General Notes: Husband - Benjamin Parkison

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He was born in England but raised in Ireland. He and his wife emigrated to the United States and located where Monongahela City would later be located. There he was a distiller, having in operation five or six stills at the time of the Whiskey Rebellion, and he was also the owner of a grist mill. [GPHWP, 894] This source seems to confuse this Benjamin Parkison/Parkinson with his uncle.

He was an extensive mill owner at the mouth of Mingo Creek. [HWC 1882, 567]
About the beginning of the 1800s he threw a dam across the river at Mingo and erected two flouring-mills (one on either side), a fulling-mill, and a saw-mill. [HWC 1882, 579]

He was described as a proud, stately man, very fond of personal adornment. Every morning his hair was powdered, and on special occasions silver buckles were worn; and when he rode, his horse was elegantly caparisoned, with mane and tail braided, as was then the style. Mrs. Parkison was no less remarkable for her love of display, and they were known as an unusually handsome and distinguished looking couple.
He was accustomed to make annual trips with flour to New Orleans and the French settlements in Louisiana, and the silver obtained for each barrel of flour would, it is said, sometimes cover the top of the barrel. When making these trips by flatboat he took a horse on which to ride home, a distance of 1,200 or 1,500 miles. On one occasion, while crossing a bend of the Mississippi, he was taken prisoner by Indians, but a thunderstorm so terrified his captors that he was enabled to escape the same night.
One who often visited at his house says that Mr. Parkison frequently carried a large amount of silver and gold coin from the mills in a bandanna handkerchief, and would playfully empty it into his wife's lap.

Benjamin Parkison (a nephew of the Benjamin Parkison who was an active participant in the Whiskey Insurrection) was born in 1720 [sic], near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He erected the river mills opposite Mingo, the location of which there is nothing yet remaining to indicate, although pilots on the steamer point daily with the course of the boats the "old chutes," which are now submerged by slack water, but yet afford the deepest channel. These dams were constructed with a long cribbing of logs filled in with stone, extending up stream on both sides of an opening in the dam, through which keels of flatboats could pass up or down. This was the "chute," and "running the chute" is an expression yet used on the river, though one looks in vain to see any break in the current. The dam itself was not more than three feet in height, and the power was obtained by placing an underchute or breast-wheel of about thirty inches in diameter immediately below the comb of the dam in such a position that the current striking it on the upper side, passed under it. These wheels were sometimes twenty-eight feet or more in length, and so great was the power obtained that no machinery attached ever stopped their movement. If it became disarranged, or choked and clogged, the trundle-shaft, ten or twelve inches in size, constructed of the strongest wood, was instantly twisted off, while the wheel continued to revolve in the current. As the smaller mills were stopped during the dry weather, the settler came from a distance of many miles to the river mills. They were often compelled to wait several days for their turn, meanwhile camping out or staying with the hospitable mill owner. Night and day, week in and week out, was heard the incessant clatter of the mill, and the swash of the wheel constantly mingled with the movement of the hurrying stream. Stories of wild animals, Indians, or the ghostly banshee furnished an unfailing supply of material for the many blood-curdling tales with which the men were wont to beguile their waiting hours. Thrice was the old Parkison mill torn from its foundations by ice gorges in the river, only to be rebuilt. Finally a boat load of salt was wrecked on the dam, and an interminable lawsuit followed, which was many times more expensive than the original value of the salt. This affair so impoverished the owner that when the ice again destroyed the mill it was never rebuilt, and thus this historical landmark faded forever. Several years later the old Parkison homestead, a large brick house of fourteen rooms, was burned, and many valuable relics and papers were then destroyed. Among the former were the remains of an English pipe-organ, and through the scattered reeds the wind drew weird music, so that those who heard the eerie strains declared the place to be haunted. [CBRWC, 1355]

1 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 567.

2 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 531.

3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 894.

4 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 566.

5 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 1355.

6 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 530.

7 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 1356.

8 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 895.

9 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 1146.

10 John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. III (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), Pg 171.