Parsons family.

George Parsons was born in 1826 in Alfred, Maine, the son of William and Mary Parsons. Before the Civil War George and his older brother Edwin became cotton merchants. After the war they turned their business interests toward railroads and mining. Edwin Parsons died in 1895. In the 1880's George entered the street railway business in the Savannah, Georgia, area. In 1902 he became interested in the development of Sheffield, Alabama, and in 1903 formed the Sheffield Company which built an interurban railway, a power plant and a waterworks. In 1865 he married Sarah Elizabeth Eddy of Fall River, Massachusetts. They had seven children. George Parsons died on December 4, 1907; Sarah Parsons died on October 28, 1918.

Henry Parsons, the eldest son of George and Sarah, was born in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1866. He was very active in the various business interests of his father. Sometime in the 1920's he seems to have begun to spend longer and longer periods at the family home in Kennebunk, Maine, entering into the life of the town and contributing to its civic and charitable organizations. He never married and died on December 8, 1954.

William Usher Parsons was born in Kennebunk, Maine, in 1873. Known as Usher to his family he studied law at Columbia from 1895-1897, was a clerk at a law firm in New York City, 1897-1900, assistant United States Attorney in New York, 1900-1902, and practiced law independently in New York from 1902 to 1907. He then entered various family businesses. He married Katharine Corbin in 1897 and lived in Ardsley, Irvington, New York. They had three children. Usher died in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 30, 1933.