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Revolutionary War Pension Declaration
State of Virginia, Lewis County
On the first day of October, 1833, personally appeared in open Court before us, James M. Camp, David W. Sleeth, William McKinly and Samuel Z. Jones, the Court of Lewis County now siting (sic), Joseph Parsons aged seventy eight years, a resident of Jackson County in the State of Virginia, who first being duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefits of the act of Congress passed June the 7th, 1832. . .
Stated he was born in 1755 in Queen Ann Co, Maryland, moved to Virginia when he was seven or eight years old, either in Rockingham or Augusta County, and to Buckhannon, in 1776. After the war, he resided in Wood Co, VA and later in Jackson County.
Inscribed on the Roll of Virginia at the rate of 80 dollars per annum.
Certificate of Pension issued the 31 day of December 1833 and sent Hon. J.J. Allen-H.R.
John House:
The name of Joe's Run was derived from Joe Parsons, a wild and picturesque character who came to Mill Creek from the settlements on the Buckhannon, about the same time the other Parsons did. Just what relation he was to them does not fairly appear, some call him a cousin to Captain Billy, others just first cousin once removed, and others make the kinship still more distant.
He was a hunter only, and did not try to permanently locate on a farm or earn a living, other than by hunting and trapping. His wife is said to have been a wild untamed creature named Mat, who, though scalped and left for dead by the Indians at the destruction of the Buckhannon fort, was not half so easily killed as that, but recovering, came to Mill Creek and lived for many years more. There is much confusion as to Joseph Parsons and his son, who is universally known as "Devil Bill", for both led wild roving lives without a fixed habitation, simply building a pole cabin and "squatting" at a place as long as suited their convenience.
The cabin of Joe Parsons is said to have stood on the left of the creek, near the old ford below the Center View Church, but whether it was there or across the point on the run itself, it could have given a name to the stream, for the other Parsonses at Sycamore, if hunting among the hills at its head, would naturally have distinguished it from the other streams by the appellation Joe's Run.
This cabin was built about 1812, or not long thereafter, and was standing in 1828.
Joe Parsons afterward squatted at the mouth of Little creek, farther up stream.
About 1820, he was living on what is now the Knopp farm, at that place, and there we lose sight of him.
The only one of his children of whom there is now any knowledge is the aforementioned Devil Bill. He lived the same wandering, vagrant life his father had before him. When game became scarce he substituted fishing and digging "sang" for the old means of livelihood. He wore garments of skins and furs, when obtainable, or coarse linen or woolens, and lived in rude pole huts, sometimes without floor or door, and with rudest and scantest of furniture and utensils, even utilizing, as one informant says, large chips for plates. He appears to have been thoroughly imbued wit the "camping out" spirit. Every few years, he would make a pilgrimage to the West Fork, Cherry or Birch Rivers, to hunt fish and "sang", the family walking and carrying their household goods on their backs.
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West Virginia Pioneers
1755 - Yes, date unknown
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