Isaac Parsons

Isaac Parsons (January 7, 1814 – April 24, 1862) was an American planter, politician, and military officer in the U.S. state of Virginia (now West Virginia). Parsons served as a Justice of the Peace of Hampshire County's District 3 from 1852 to 1853. He later served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing Hampshire County from 1854 until 1857. Parsons was the grandson of Virginia House Delegate Isaac Parsons (1752–1796), the great-grandson of Colonial Virginia military officer William Foreman (died 1777), and the grandfather of First Lady of West Virginia, Edna Brady Cornwell (1868–1958).

Parsons inherited his family's Wappocomo plantation north of Romney. In 1855, fugitive slave Jacob Green escaped from Parsons' Wappocomo plantation to Pennsylvania along with several other slaves. Parsons and his nephews went north to pursue the escapees, resulting in the arrest of his nephew, James "Zip" Parsons III (1831–1893). The arrest and trial of Parsons' nephew caused a dispute between the states of Virginia and Pennsylvania over the latter's refusal to execute the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Following the trial, a dispute ensued between Parsons and Charles James Faulkner over legal fees in 1857. At the time of the dispute, Faulkner was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia's 8th congressional district. Parsons declared that Faulkner had originally offered his legal services at no cost during his nephew's trial.

Following the onset of the American Civil War, Parsons served on Hampshire County's "committee for safety". Parsons received permission to raise an independent company of mounted infantry to provide defense along the border. He served as a military officer in the Huckleberry Rangers and Company K of the 13th Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Confederate States Army. Parsons died of natural causes following a skirmish with Union Army cavalry at Grassy Lick Run in 1862.

Early life and family Isaac Parsons was born on January 7, 1814, in Hampshire County, West Virginia (now West Virginia). He was the third son of James Gregg Parsons (1773–1847) and his wife Mary Catherine Casey Parsons (1773–1846). Parsons' paternal grandfather, of which he is a likely namesake, Isaac Parsons (1752–1796) served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing Hampshire County from 1789 until his death in 1796; and operated a public ferry across the South Branch Potomac River. Through his mother, Parsons was a great-grandson of Colonial Virginia military officer William Foreman (died 1777). Parsons was raised through childhood to adulthood on his family's Wappocomo plantation north of Romney. and in 1861 he undertook a two-story stone expansion to the main house at Wappocomo. Parsons served in this office alongside David Gibson, T. M. Davis, and Joseph C. Pancake. Parsons represented Hampshire County, which was a multi-member electoral district,

Jacob Green affair

In August 1855, Jacob Green, a slave owned by Parsons, escaped from Wappocomo farm with four other slaves from neighboring plantations. In October of that year, Green returned to Parsons' plantation in Romney, and persuaded four or five slaves from neighboring farms owned by Parsons family relatives to escape with him to Pennsylvania. With information obtained from the two recaptured slaves, Parsons went to Johnstown, James Parsons III to Hollidaysburg, and Stump to Altoona, where they hoped to intercept Green as he headed west on the Allegheny Portage Railroad and Main Line Canal toward Pittsburgh. Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise appointed John Randolph Tucker to attend Parsons' trial as a "special commissioner" of Virginia. The dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania escalated, and on January 31, 1856, an article published in the New York Herald read "Threatened Civil War between Virginia and Pennsylvania". In a series of articles published in the May 14 and 21, 1857, issues of the Virginia Argus, Parsons chronicled the 1855 arrest of his nephew for attempting to capture his fugitive slave and the resulting dispute between the Parsons family and Faulkner over legal fees in 1857. Parsons served on the "committee for safety" alongside James Dillon Armstrong, John M. Pancake, David Gibson, Dr. S. R. Lupton, John C. Heiskell, J. W. Marshall, W. A. Vance, R. K. Sheetz, Angus William McDonald, James Sheetz, John T. Pierce, James W. Albin, Charles Blue, Robert Hook, R. B. Sherrard, G. W. Gore, George William Washington, and John Johnson. Parsons and a dozen of his men led the wagon train conveying these volunteers to Green Spring on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad mainline, where Parsons and the volunteers departed by train to Harpers Ferry. Parsons set about enrolling volunteers, and within a short period of time, he enlisted approximately 30 men. The following personnel were elected to serve in leadership positions within the company: Parsons as its captain in command; John Blue, first lieutenant; and his son Isaac Parsons, Jr., second lieutenant.

Parsons again traveled to Richmond with a supply of cattle, and returned to his company's camp on the North River in Hampshire County around November 15, 1861. Blue warned his nephew about the Union Army soldiers possibly stationed on the home's front porch, and he subsequently fetched Parsons' daughter Kate, who provided Lt. Blue with a parcel for her father. Parsons carried with him a small hatchet, and he began splitting pine in the darkness to fashion a torch. The following morning, the three men mounted their horses and traveled to Rev. Harris' home, where Parsons and Lt. Blue parted with Parrish. Throughout 1861, Parsons "gratuitously" provided Confederate soldiers with food at his table and horses from his stables at his Wappocomo plantation. Romney physician Dr. Lupton and his wife were also residing with Parsons' family at Shull's Gap. Parsons instructed Lt. Blue to proceed on to Romney where he delivered the news to his wife Susan. Lt. Blue traveled to his family's residence north of Romney, and Parsons to his residence at Wappocomo plantation. Parsons carried a double-barreled shotgun, and proceeded to fire his weapon at the Union forces at close range. Union Army forces assumed Parsons had died in the skirmish along Grassy Lick Run, and claimed the right to examine his body to search for wounds which would serve as sufficient cause to destroy his property. On April 26, 1862, acting Quartermaster Lt. F. H. Morse completed the death certificate for Parsons although the circumstances of Parsons' death were not recorded. Captain William Firey of Company B, 1st Maryland Cavalry and Captain C. W. Shearer of Company B, 3rd Maryland Infantry, Potomac Home Brigade were present for the examination of Parsons' body and attested there was "no evidence of gun-shot wounds or any other violence on him". His wife Susan Blue Parsons died on October 2, 1889 and was interred alongside Parsons at Indian Mound Cemetery. Parsons and his wife Susan had nine children consisting of four sons and five daughters.