Parrish, Braxton

Born: 1795-10-24 North Carolina

Died: 1875-08-16 Franklin County, Illinois

Flourished: Franklin County, Illinois

Parrish moved from North Carolina to Tennessee, where he met and married his wife, Margaret Knox. In 1821, they moved to Franklin County, Illinois, where Parrish established a farm. After the death of Illinois Senator Conrad Will in 1835, Parrish was chosen to take his place for the remainder of the term, to 1836. Parrish was then elected into the Illinois Senate for an additional four more terms, serving from 1836 to 1844. While serving as receiver at the U.S. General Land Office in Shawneetown from 1845 to 1849, Parrish lived in Shawneetown, returning to his Franklin County farm immediately afterward. He also served in the Illinois House of Representatives for one term, from 1844 to 1846. Parrish, a Methodist minister, founded one of the first Methodist Episcopal churches in the county, and later helped organize the Methodist Church in Benton in 1852.

Gravestone, Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Benton, IL; George Washington Smith, A History of Southern Illinois (Chicago: Lewis, 1912), 1:466; History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed, 1887), 1112, 392, 424-25; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 203, 205-6, 208, 210, 213; H. M. Aiken, Franklin County History (Benton, IL: Franklin County Centennial Committee, 1918), 88; Niles' National Register (Philadelphia, PA), 6 June 1849, 1:1.