Benjamin M. and Sarah C. Robertson Parnell

My great-grandparents Benjamin M. and Sarah C. Robertson Parnell were the original Parnell homesteaders in Bradley County in the area of Parnell Springs in northern today's Bradley County. They boarded a boat in Mobile, Alabama, steamed through the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi River to Gaines Landing in Chicot County, Arkansas where they landed. Ben left his family with people who took them in at Gaines Landing and went ahead to find homestead land. The whole family eventually arrived via overland journey, in the area of what would become Parnell Springs in Bradley County in April of 1854. They had departed from their former home in Dallas County, Alabama on January 1 of that year.

I can still hear my grandfather James Willis Bryant (born during the Civil War in 1863, and lived in very good health to 101) telling with a chuckle how his mother-in-law, Sarah Robertson Parnell, was nervous about making the boat trip and how, as they boarded the boat in Mobile, she kept admonishing her husband "Ben, count the children!" Ha. They had a large family. She didn't want to leave anyone behind.

The date of this photo is not certain. Another thing to note, Ben has a magazine in his lap, that must be of some significance because folks did not normally have their portraits made with magazines, papers, etc. in their laps in those very early days of photography (or now!). Wish I knew the story of that. ~~Jim Bryant

Photo appears courtesy of Jim Bryant.

Benjamin M. and Sarah C. Robertson Parnell (Click picture for larger image 278K)

"Here's another photo of Benjamin and Sarah Parnell. It came to me from a descendant of Iona Williams Crowell. Iona married Ernest Crowell in Warren in 1917. A few years later Iona and Ernest relocated to Tucson, AZ, where they lived the rest of their lives. Iona and Ernest are my aunt and uncle. Iona is the daughter of Wm. Alvin Williams and Florence Ardella (Della) Parnell. Benjamin and Sarah are Della's grandparents and my great great grandparents. Regards, Ray Bland"