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Reginald Hascall Parsons
(1873 - 1955)
Hanford, Cornelius H. Seattle and Environs 1852-1924, Chicago & Seattle: Pioneer Historical Publishing Co., 1924. Vol. II, p. 81-84.
Reginald H. Parsons, president of the Parsons Investment Company, is one of the substantial business men of Seattle and during the period of his residence in the Pacific Northwest his progressive spirit and constructive efforts have constituted potent forces in the development and utilization of the splendid resources of this section of the country. A native of the east, he was born at Flushing, Long Island, New York, on the 3rd of October, 1873, and comes of distinguished ancestry, being a descendant of John Bradford, the first governor of Massachusetts; Governor Winthrop of Connecticut; General Absolom Peters, of the War of 1812; John Bowne, a Quaker, whose home at Flushing, Long Island, was erected in 1661 and sheltered George Fox. It is still in a fine state of preservation and has always remained in the family. Mr. Parsons is the grandson of Samuel Parsons, a horticulturist of international reputation during the '50s, '60s and '70s of the last century. George Howland Parsons, now deceased, father of the subject of this sketch, was president of the Colorado Forestry Association and one of the first men in the country to promote intelligent conservation of the valuable timber resources of the United States through regulation and government control. His wife was the daughter of a well known jurist of New York, Judge William Sterne Hascall. In the acquirement of an education Reginald H. Parsons attended a private school at Providence, Rhode Island, and Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and for two years he was a student of the University of California at Berkeley, as a member of the class of 1898, and he belonged to its Glee club. He also took a prominent part in athletic sports during his earlier student days. His first work was in connection with railroading and during 1891-2 he was one of a party to run the reconnaissance for the Rio Grande Western Railway across the Great American Desert in Utah and Nevada. while later he acted as station agent for a small railroad in southern New Mexico. Subsequently he returned to college and after completing his education he became identified with real estate operations in connection with the original townsite company which started Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he resided for twenty years. He was also a mining stock broker and for nine years was connected with the Bemis Brother Bag Company. During the last five years of that period he was manager of its Seattle branch, establishing its business here in 1904. Mr. Parsons also became president and manager of the Hillcrest Orchard Company, owning two hundred acres of pear and apple trees in the Rogue River valley of southern Oregon. This is considered one of the finest pear orchards in the world and in 1908-10 established the world's record for prices received for deciduous fruit in carload lots sold in London, England. Mr. Parsons aided in organizing the Rogue River Fruit & Produce Association and was made president of the Northwestern Fruit Exchange in 1910, at the time of its organization, this being a quasi public-service corporation. He was one of the original stockholders in the Vindicator Consolidated Gold Mining Company of Cripple Creek, Colorado. He is president of the Methow Valley Livestock Company, operating the Chewuch ranch at Winthrop, Washington, and the Pleasant Hill dairy farm at Tolt, this state, on which they have pure bred Holstein cattle. They are Hereford breeders, having range and herd sires from the best of American and foreign stock, headed by Commander 790603, winner of the first prize in the junior yearling class and a half-brother to the former international grand champion Hereford bull at the Chicago International Live Stock Exposition of 1917. Mr. Parsons is essentially a member of the class of doers, gifted with initiative and keen powers of perception, and his marked executive ability enables him to capably direct the extensive interests under his charge.
At Colorado Springs, Colorado, on the 30th of January, 1901, Mr. Parsons was united in marriage to Miss Maude Bemis, a daughter of Judson M. Bemis of Boston, Massachusetts, the founder and head of the Bemis Brother Bag Company, which was organized at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1858 and now enjoys the distinction of being the largest importer of burlap and manufacturer of cotton and burlap bags in America. He built the town of Bemis, Tennessee, and there established cotton gins and mills, giving employment to three thousand operatives. To Mr. and Mrs. Parsons have been born five children, four of whom survive: Anne, Reginald Bemis, George Howland and Mary Bowne. The family attend St. Paul's Episcopal church.
Mr. Parsons is a republican of the progressive type and has participated actively in political affairs, but has never run for public office. He has always faithfully discharged the duties of citizenship and is ever ready to give his support to measures for the promotion of the public welfare. In 1919 he served as president of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. He was chairman of the first "City Beautiful" movement and was one of the citizens committee appointed from various bodies to break the deadlock in negotiations: incident to the incoming of the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound and Union Pacific Railroads. For four years he acted as president of the local council of the Boy Scouts of America and at present is a member of the regional executive committee of the organization. Through a period of four years he likewise occupied the presidency of the Social Welfare League of Seattle and later was made honorary president. Mr. Parsons is president of Lakeside School, Incorporated, an institution where boys of various ages may prepare for college. He belongs to the Rainier, University and Arctic clubs of Seattle; the Arlington dub of Portland; the University club of San Francisco; the University and Country dubs of Medford, Oregon; the Rocky Mountain dub of New York city, and is also a member of Beta Theta Pi, a college fraternity. In July, 1923, he was appointed on the American Olympic committee and in August, 1923, he was appointed one of the American committee of the International Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the board of overseers of Whitman College, and his labors have ever been of a constructive character, directed into those channels through which flows the greatest and most permanent good to the greatest number. The elements were happily blended in the rounding out of his nature, for he unites the refinements of life with the sterner qualities of manhood, and his efforts are resultant factors in everything that he undertakes. His life has been an intensely active and useful one and his record is as an open book which all may read. Mr. Parsons' residence is at No. 618 West Highland drive.
