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HARRISON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: PARRISH, Roy Earl
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 19, 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. 251-252
Harrison County
ROY EARL PARRISH. Of the Gold Stars set in West Vir-
ginia's honor roll of soldier dead in the great war, one
represents Roy Earl Parrish, a son of Thomas Jefferson
Parrish, the Clarksburg business man and banker. He
left a secure place in his profession and the honors of
politics and public office to become a soldier, and in that
new and strange role, until his death, he expressed, as
the tributes of his superiors and comrades testified, some
of the most noteworthy characteristics of the American
soldier.
A son of Thomas J. and Mary (Morgan) Parrish, he was
bora at Wallace, Harrison County, November 27, 1888.
He was educated in the public schools, graduated from
West Virginia Wesleyan College, studied law in West Vir-
ginia University, was admitted to the bar at Clarksburg
in 1910, and was engaged in practice until he went into
the army. In 1912 he was elected to the House of Dele-
gates, serving through the session of 1913, and in 1914
was elected to the State Senate by a large majority from
the Twelfth Senatorial District. He was vice-chairman of
the Republican State Committee for the first Congressional
District, and was chairman of the Republican County Ex-
ecutive Committee of Harrison County. He was a member
of the Sigma Chi fraternity and the Clarksburg University
Club.
So much for the dire statistics of his life. For the
significance of his character and the service he rendered
as a civilian and as a soldier a deft record is found in the
proceedings of the State Senate for January 21, 1919, a
day set apart by formal motion for memorial services in
honor of Lieutenant Parrish. From the proceedings of
that day it is possible here to quote a portion of only
one address, that delivered by his successor in the Senate
from the Twelfth District, Harvey W. Harmer, a life-long
friend of Lieutenant Parrish. Senator Harmer, after re-
viewing his boyhood, his continued interest in his church,
the First Methodist Episcopal of Clarksburg, his gradua-
tion in 1908 from the Wesleyan College at Buckhannon,
the graduation from the University Law School in 1910,
his active practice as a member of the Clarksburg bar and
the unusual influence he exercised as one of the youngest
members of the House of Delegates and the State Senate,
took up his patriotic record, and what he said on that
point may properly stand as the permanent tribute to this
brave young West Virginia officer. The concluding para-
graphs of Senator Harmer's address are as follows:
"Largely because of the conditions growing out of our
entering into the great World war, the Governor of our
State called the members of the legislature to assemble
here in a second extraordinary session on the fourteenth
of May, 1917. Instead of heeding this call of the Gov-
ernor, instead of seeking the pleasure of your association
in legislative work, ROY PARRISH chose to volunteer as
a soldier in the American Army, and on the day you as-
sembled here, he entered Fort Benjamin Harrison, at In-
dianapolis, Indiana, in the training school for officers. In
that school he remained until August 15th, when he was
commissioned Second Lieutenant of Field Artillery.
"After a few days at home he reported to Camp Sher-
man, Chillicothe, Ohio, on September first, and eight days
later he was transferred to Camp Sheridan, Montgomery,
Alabama. Shortly after his arrival at Camp Sheridan, his
ability as a soldier and lawyer was recognized and he was
made Assistant Judge Advocate, a position he filled until
November 15. On November 20, 1917, he was detailed as
Judge Advocate and served in that capacity until ordered
to prepare for duty overseas. He left Camp Sheridan
December 15th, with orders to report in New York City
on January 2d, 1918. In the few intervening days he
visited his friends and family at home, leaving for the last
time on January 1st, 1918, for New York. On the 14th
of ^January, he sailed for overseas, and after three weeks,
which must have been stormy, he arrived at Liverpool,
England, February 5th, and in a few days sailed for
Prance. After arriving in France, he entered an artillery
school established by Napoleon Bonaparte for special
training, and after three months he was ordered to the
front with the Sixth Field Artillery, First Division.
"He was in the big drive at Chateau-Thierry, that
spelled success for the Allies and defeat and disaster for
the German army.
"On the 6th day of July, DeLano Andrews, Second
Lieutenant, Field Artillery, Acting Adjutant, United
States Army, wrote his commanding officer: 'The Brigade
Commander directs me to communicate to you his com-
mendations of the services of Lieutenant ROY E. PAR-
RISH, 6th F. A. as Liaison Officer with the Infantry. His
reports have been clear, intelligent and full of valuable
information. They are models of Liaison work and re-
flect great credit upon Lieutenant Parrish's energy, power
of observation and devotion to duty.'
"Later, G. McDowell, First Lieutenant, Field Artillery,
United States Army, Acting Adjutant, wrote: 'Lieutenant
PARRISH was sent forward on July 18th on Liaison work
with the Infantry in the attack on that date. Nothing
more was heard of him, and after the attack, when the
regiment reassembled, he was missing. About two weeks
later a report was secured by me from the captain of the
Infantry who had talked with him for a few moments as
they were going forward, and a second later this officer
saw Lieutenant PARRISH killed by a shell.'
" ' We have buried our dead on a thousand hills
And thousands unburied lie,
In battered village and shattered wood,
Agape at the drenching sky,
Where they poured their blood in the trampled mud
As a witness to God on high—
As the last full price of sacrifice
For that which shall never die.'
"Our own Major John Bond, who has just returned
from overseas, met Lieutenant PARRISH shortly before
he was killed in action, and where the German shells were
falling all around. Major Bond says: 'ROY PARRISH
was one of the most fearless men I ever knew. He was a
second Roosevelt—never satisfied unless he was in the
thickest of the fight.'
"The father of ROY PARRISH sits here at my left.
Of his five sons, four followed the flag in this awful war
—two crossed the seas and two were on the seas. One
that crossed never returned. The other that crossed sits
here today.
" 'And some shall come home through a sea of flags
When the cannon their thunder cease;
And some shall lie alone with the sky
In the Valley of Long Release;
And what shall it matter—if freedom stand
On the Rock of Eternal Peace.'
"The heart of this father and these brothers and a
sister are sad. Your words today, I am sure, are a com-
fort and a consolation to them. Brother Senators, know-
ing this father and these brothers and sister as I do, I
know that the greatest comfort and consolation and the
greatest hope that fills their hearts today is the fact that
ROY has been faithful not only to his country and his
flag—for he had never wavered there—but that he had
also been faithful to his God, and his soul has a resting
place we all hope shall be ours."
Since the return of the troops from France Mr. Par-
rish has been tireless in his efforts to establish the identity
of his son. And we quote herewith from correspondence
which Mr. Parrish received from the War Department.
(A) Proximity of the place of death of Lieutenant
Parrish and place of original burial of the body, which
has been identified as being that of the deceased. Lieut.
J. Hamilton, 6th Field Artillery, reports: Lieut. Boy E.
Parrish, 6th F. A. was killed July, 1918, and buried in a
large shell hole marked with a wooden cross, and tag was
attached for identification. This shell hole was in a big
open field north of Missy-en-Bois, between there and the
railroad from Soissons to Chateau-Thierry, near the town
of Brezy-le-Sec.
(B) The only means of identification found was a can-
teen cup with the name "Lieut. Faris" inscribed thereon,
and in view of the similarity of names, and the fact that
the name on the canteen cup may have been corroded to
such an extent that in all probability it had been "Par-
rish," this office arrived at the conclusion that the body
contained in grave 178, Section E, Plot 4, American Ceme-
tery, Ploisy, Aisne, is that of Lieutenant Parrish.
The remains of Lieutenant Parrish will be interred with
full military honors in an American National Cemetery in
France.
"Best Ye in peace, ye Flanders dead,
The fight ye so bravely led
We've taken up, and we will keep
True faith with you who lie asleep
With each a cross to mark his bed.
And poppies blooming overhead,
Where once his own life blood ran red,
So let your rest be sweet and deep
In Flanders' field.
Fear not that ye had died for naught,
The torch ye threw to us we caught,
Ten million hands will hold it high,
And freedom's light shall never die!
We've learned the lesson that ye taught,
In Flanders field."
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