Governor Parsons

Andrew Parsons was born in Hoosick, New York, in 1817. In 1836 he settled in Shiawassee County and at the age of nineteen was elected the first county clerk. After holding a number of county and state offices, Parsons in 1852 became a regent of the University of Michigan. The same year he was elected lieutenant governor, and he became acting governor in March 1853 upon the resignation of Governor Robert McClelland. The formation of the Republican Party in 1854 badly split the Democratic forces and perhaps accounted for Parsons’s failure to receive the gubernatorial nomination. Instead, Parsons was elected to the state legislature from Shiawassee County. He fell ill during the legislative session of 1855 and returned to Corunna where he died on June 6, 1855.