James Parkison

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Husband James Parkison ^{1 2 3}

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         Father: William Parkinson (      -      ) 3 4
         Mother: 

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• Family History: Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910).
To read a brief sketch of the Parkinson family, click here.

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Wife

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General Notes: Husband - James Parkison

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Between the years 1768 and 1770 five Parkison brothers-Joseph, Benjamin, Thomas, James and William-came from Virginia to the Monongahela Valley in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

... we have learned from the venerable Capt. Ira H. Butler (who obtained his information from Joseph Parkison himself) that the Parkisons before removing to this [Washington] county had been members of the Conococheague settlement. As our readers will learn by scanning maps and historical works, the "Conococheague settlement" was a very early one, and the English, Scotch, and German emigrants who first located there supposed that their settlement lay wholly within the domains of Lord Baltimore. However, by a subsequent arrangement between the proprietors of the two provinces (an arrangement though not at all satisfactory to a majority of those who were thus transferred from the rule of Lord Baltimore's officers to those of the Penns'), the present line between the States of Pennsylvania and Maryland was finally established considerably to the southward of the line called for in Lord Baltimore's grant, and thus the original Conococheague settlement is embraced by what is now known as Washington County, Maryland, formed from Frederick in 1776, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, formed from Cumberland in 1784. The Parkisons were of English or Scotch descent. [HWC 1882, 566]

It is tradition as well as a well authenticated fact that the Parkinsons came from the old Conococheague Settlement, a very early one, composed of the English, Scotch and German emigrants who first located there supposing their settlement lay wholly within the domains of Lord Baltimore. However, by a subsequent arrangement between the proprietors of the two provinces, the territory in which the Parkinsons found themselves was within the boundaries belonging to the Penns.
(They) removed from their home in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, near Carlisle, about 1769 or 1770, to the mouth of Pigeon Creek, on the west bank of the Monongahela River, where Monongahela City is now located. The five brothers took up some 5,000 acres of lands among them in Washington County along the waters of Pigeon and Mingo Creeks from 1769 to 1791. [TCHWWC, 530]

He was a carpenter by trade and one of the most skilled millwrights of his day. He built a mill on Pigeon Creek which became known afterwards as the McFarland Mill, which he sold to his brother, Thomas Parkinson, who later sold to James McFarland. He also built the first brick house ever erected in that region in the year 1785, which still stood in 1910, and was known as the VanVoorhis Homestead. The workmanship of his own hands could be seen to that day in a good state of preservation, and the old colonial house was a model of good architecture. James Parkinson left Pennsylvania some time prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century and located in Virginia.

James Parkison, by virtue of a warrant dated Jan. 22, 1797, became the owner of a tract of four hundred and one acres, known as "Parkison's Green," situated on the waters of Pigeon Creek and Dry Run. Subsequently this tract was purchased of James Parkison by Joseph Parkison, and by him transferred to Benjamin Parkison, Sept. 27, 1791.

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

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

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

4 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 834.