Lewis Eliphalet Parsons, governor of Alabama, was born in Broome county, N.Y., April 28, 1817. He was a great-grandson of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). He studied law under Frederick Tallmadge of New York, and G.W. Woodward of Pennsylvania, settled in practice in Talladega, Ala., in 1840, and in 1841 associated himself with Alexander White. He was a presidential elector on the Fillmore and Donelson ticket in 1856, and representative in the Alabama legislature in 1859. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Charleston, S.C., and Baltimore, Md., in 1860, and a representative in the state legislature in 1863, where he opposed the militia system of the state, as the Confederate government had full power of conscription. He was appointed provisional governor of Alabama by President Johnson, June 21, 1865, and devoted himself to the work of reconstruction until Dec. 20, 1865, when he was elected to the U.S. senate; but not being allowed to take his seat, he resumed the practice of law, He served several terms as a representative in the state legislature, and was speaker of the house in 1872. He died in Talladega, Ala., June 8, 1895.

The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans 1904

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