Levi Parsons papers

Creator: Parsons, Levi, 1822-1887

Date: [ca. 1785]-1946 (bulk 1860-1889)

Level of Description: Coll./Record Group

Material Type: Manuscripts

Call Number: UID 47134

Unit ID: 47134

Restrictions: None

Biographical sketch: Lawyer, judge, railroad president; of New York, San Francisco.

Abstract: The Levi Parsons papers include both personal/family papers and professional records particularly related to the various railroads with which he was involved. These documents include incoming and outgoing correspondence; stock information and some other banking & financial papers; agreements, indentures, and other legal documents; documents concerning Levi Parsons' death and estate, as well as his divorce; photographs; and related materials. The collection also includes some old family papers, mostly related to land exchange; the majority of the collection dates from the 1860s through the 1880s.

Space Required/Quantity: 1.00 cubic feet

Title (Main title): Levi Parsons papers

Titles (Other):

Papers
Levi Parsons railroad archives

Biography

Biog. Sketch (Full): Levi Parsons, born and brought up in New York, attended the Kingsboro Academy in his youth and intended to enter Union College, but for some reason he abandoned the plan and in 1844 began to study law in the office of Judge George Yost in Johnstown. Levi was admitted to the bar in 1847 and practiced his profession for a short time in Little Falls. After the discovery of gold in California, he moved there in 1849. His career as a miner was brief. Returning to the city, he joined a group of men who founded the Whig Party. He practiced law and in 1850 was appointed the first judge of the Supreme Court in San Francisco. Through various business ventures he accumulated a large fortune and invested the money in railroad projects. Parsons was the principal promoter and first president of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, the first railroad in Texas. The railroad center of Parsons, Kansas, was named for him when it was founded in 1871.

Colonel Robert Smith Stevens and Judge Levi Parsons, New York promoters of the road that later became the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas, called it the "Katy." Levi Parsons had visions of a great empire for the Katy, especially if he could get generous land grants by beating James F. Joy, promoter of the Border Tier Road ("Joy Road") to the Indian Territory.

Originally chartered as the Union Pacific Railway - Southern Branch (Katy), his road started construction (diagonally from northwest to southeast) from Junction City to Chetopa, Kansas, in 1868.

Parsons returned to New York, in Gloversville specifically, and opened the library there. He died in 1887.

[Gloversville Public Library. "Levi Parsons Library." http://www.gloversvillelibrary.org/leviparsonsreference.html (accessed 15 October 2009).]

[Kansas Heritage Group. "The Katy Railroad: Railroads in Kansas." http://www.kansasheritage.org/research/rr/katy.html (accessed 15 October 2009).]

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Levi Parsons papers

Biography

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