Parmelee Family
The annals of this family heretofore published trace their lineage back to the year 1447, to an ancient and noble Belgian family. This noble house flourished for several centuries in a parish of the same name located three leagues south of the city of Liege when Belgium was under the dominion of Spain. They were reformers in religious matters and to escape persecution fled to Holland and afterward settled in England. In this volume space will only permit of a record dating back to one, John Parmelee, a native of Guildford, England, who with his family and twenty-four other men, presumably also with families, set sail for America in 1639. While on shipboard, a few days' sail from Boston, the company entered into the following covenant or agreement. "We, whose names are hereunder written, intending by God's gracious permission to plant ourselves in New England, and if it may be in the southern part about Quinnipisack (or New Haven) we do faithfully promise each to each for ourselves and families and those that belong to us, that we will, the Lord assisting us, set down and join ourselves together in one entire plantation, and be helpful each to the other in any common work, according to every man's ability and as need shall require, and we promise not to desert or leave each other on the plantation but with the consent of the rest of the greater part of the company who have entered into this engagement, as for our gathering together in a church way, and the choice of officers and members to be joined together in that way we do refer ourselves until such time as it please God to settle us in our plantation, in witness whereof we do subscribe our hands this 1st day of June, A. D. 1639.—Robert Rickell, John Bishop, Francis Bushnell, William Crittenden, William Leete, Thomas Joans, John Jurden, Wm. Stone, John Hoadley, John Stone, William Plam, Richd. Suttridge, John Housinger, William Dudley, John Parmelee, John Mepham, Thomas Norton, Abraham Crittenden, Francis Chatfield, William Noble, Thomas Naish, Henry Kingston, Henry Doude, Thomas Cook, Henry Whitfield." They were Presbyterians and the last-named was their Minister. This company located at Guilford, Conn. The generations of the Parmelee family may be named shortly as follows: Luther H., now a resident of Kent, Portage Co., Ohio, was the son of Elisha, the son of Theodore, the son of Abram, the son of Abraham, the son of Isaac, the son of John, Jr., the son of John Parmelee, who settled at Guilford, Conn., in 1639. John and John, Jr., were born in Guildford, England; Isaac was born at Guilford, Conn., November 21, 1665; Abraham was born at Guilford, Conn., May 18, 1692; Abram was born at Guilford, Conn., April 28, 1717, and was a warm and earnest patriot during the Revolutionary war; Theodore was born April 3, 1751, and served in the same war for about four years as Captain of a company of horse on the patriot side, and though he took part in many desperate engagements was never wounded. He was a man of extraordinary resolution and courage, and once in a hand-to-hand encounter, when completely surrounded by the enemy, and ordered to surrender, he cut his way through and escaped. This same Theodore Parmelee, in company with his brother-in-law, David Hudson, Birdseye, Norton and two others, bought the entire township of Hudson in Summit County, Ohio, in 1797 or 1798. Elisha Parmelee was born at Goshen, Conn., February 16, 1785. In 1807 he made his first trip to Ohio to look after a one-half section of land in Hudson Township, which his father had given him. He soon afterward returned to Connecticut, where he was married, November 9, 1809, to Roxa Stanley, a daughter of Deacon Jesse and Eunice (Bailey) Stanley. The following year he moved to Mt. Morris, N. Y. At this place his wife died, January 31, 1813, leaving two children: Myron N., born at Goshen, Conn., September 19, 1810 (since deceased) and Luther H., born at Mt. Morris, N. Y., August 31, 1812. He was married a second time at Mt. Morris, N. Y., October 20, 1813, to Elizabeth M. Satterlee, and to this union were born Elisha H., July 21, 1814, died in infancy (August 23, 1815); Roxa S., born May 27, 1816; Emily E., born July 26, 1819; John F., born June, 1821 ; Mary H. , born May 1, 1824. About 1817 he moved to Warsaw, N. Y., where he was a merchant, and in 1824 moved to Batavia, N. Y., and kept a hotel. In 1832 he came to Ohio and bought a farm in Hudson Township, Summit County, where he remained for twelve years, and in 1844 went to Louisville, Ky., but returned the following year to this county and located at Franklin Mills (now Kent), where he was a successful merchant for many years. He sold out in 1858 and retired from active business. He died September 4, 1865, at Kinsman, Trumbull Co., Ohio, at the home of his son-in-law, Rev. Thomas Corlett, and was buried in the Kent Cemetery. His widow died March 25, 1867, and was interred by his side. Elisha Parmelee was a man of marked ability, thoroughly enterprising, and universally respected. During the war of 1812 he served as Paymaster in the United States Army.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885