Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Parsons, Samuel Holden 1737-

Military officer; born in Lyme, Conn., May 14, 1737; graduated at Harvard College in 1756; admitted to the bar in 1759; was a representative in the Connecticut Assembly for eighteen sessions. He was an active patriot at the beginning of the Revolution. He was made colonel of a Connecticut regiment in 1775, and engaged in the siege of Boston. In August, 1776, he was made a brigadier-general, and as such engaged in the battle on Long Island. In 1779 Parsons succeeded General Putnam in command of the Connecticut line, and in 1780 was commissioned a majorgeneral. At the close of the war he resumed the practice of law, and was appointed by Washington first judge of the Northwestern Territory. He was also employed to treat with the Indians for the extinguishment of their titles to the Connecticut Western Reserve, in northern Ohio. He went to the new territory in 1787; settled there; and was drowned in the Big Beaver River, Ohio, Nov. 17, 1789.