Hi Mark, This may be a little off the subject but there was a Dr. Parsons in St. Louis, Missouri and I see in one of the Parsons OR books that William H. Parsons is from Lake Forest, Illinois.---I don't know if there is any relationship---.If all that camping out on "Jordans Plantation" is the right one I'm thinking of (30 miles from the mouth of the Arkansas river----my GGrandfather B. F.Jordan's farm), I have a lot more information on the family and the Civil war. His wife's parents (John Asa Stone from Holly Springs, Miss.-large. plantations and slave holders) died at the beginning of the Civil War and Eliza Jordan (Stone), little more than a girl herself was left with her younger sisters and brothers, a new baby, the plantation and slaves to take care of when B. F. joined the Ordinance department, working under Price, Steele, Banks and others. His work was to secure and distribute supplies to different places as instructed. At the time when the Federal troops were coming in between Father and his family, he rode all night, reached home at daybreak Sunday morning, bought a yoke of oxen and a cart for $1000 and hired one wagon; on to these he loaded two bales of cotton, household goods, provisions and his family , traveled all day and night, located his family and reported ready for duty early Monday morning. During these hectic months he made some money by hiring his mules to the Confederate government, but this left him without transportation when he needed to move his family, as he did often, to keep them adjacent to his work, and to prevent the northern troops from coming between him and his family. The negros were freed the year the family was in Texas, part of the negroes wanted to stay with the family and return to Arkansas. They then had/have eight children. whew!!! Kay