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CABELL COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: PARSONS, J.K. (published 1923)
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Submitted by
Valerie Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 15, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 199
J. K. PARSONS. Born and reared in old Virginia, where
he was a farmer and merchant for several years, J. K. Par-
sons since moving to West Virgina has found increasing
scope for his abilities in the great coal measures in the
southern part of the state. He has developed the Logan-
Elkhorn Corporation, owning, operating and selling the
product of some of the best bituminous mines in that part of
the state. His home is in Huntington, where he also eon-
ducts a successful insurance business.
Jefferson K. Parsons was born in Lee County, Virginia,
December 19, 1882. His father, Henry Z. Parsons, was born
in the same county in 1851, spent his entire life there as a
fanner, and died in 1913. He was a democrat in politics,
and a very devoted member of the Missionary Baptist
Church. His wife was Elizabeth Parsons, though they were
not related. She was born in Lee County in 1846. These
parents had five children: Albert F., a coal operator living
at Huntington; Margaret, wife of John M. Kirk, operator of
a coal mine in Lee County; Jefferson K.; Amanda L., whose
husband, W. S. Peters, lives in Logan County, and is super-
intendent of the J. K. Parsons Coal Mine; and George Z.,
a merchant in Lee County.
J. K. Parsons spent the first seventeen years of his life
on his father's farm, acquired a common school education,
and thereafter farmed on his own responsibility in Lee
County until he was twenty-five. Then for several years he
was a merchant in the same county, and in 1912 he took
up the business of coal operation in the West Virginia hills,
and for the past decade his activities and energies have
been absorbed in this industry. His mines are in Logan
County, this state, and Perry County, Kentucky. The mines
owned by him have a capacity of 25,000 tons per month,
and they comprise the Logan-Elkhorn Coal Corporation. A
sales organization for handling the output of these mines
is known as the Logan-Elkhorn Fuel Company, which is
also owned and operated by Mr. Parsons. His interest in
the insurance field is the Co-Operative Insurance Company
of Huntington, of which he is the founder and manager.
The offices of the Insurance Company and his own personal
offices are in the American Bank Building.
Mr. Parsons, who is a democrat in politics, married in
Lee County, Virginia, in 1899, Miss Alva Garrett, daughter
of George W. and Anna (Newman) Garrett, her mother
now living in Logan County. Her father was a farmer and
is now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Parsons have the following
children: Ruby married Harry Pennington, an employe of
the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company at Huntington;
Jack assists in his father's mines in Logan County; Edith,
Powell and Blanche are students in the Huntington school;
and Marjorie and Jefferson K., Jr., are the youngest of
the family.
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