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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County
Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890

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The Biography of Llewellyn PARRY 

Pages 837-838, transcribed in full by Karen CRANE Goggin 

[Surnames: CRAWFORD, EAGLE, PARRY] 

    
LLEWELLYN PARRY, an honored pioneer of this county and a retired farmer living in Astoria, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, April 15, 1813. Caleb Parry, his father, was a native of Virginia, while his father was of Welsh birth. He came to this country with two brothers in Colonial times and settled in Virginia, where he followed farming and spent the remainder of his life. He was a member of the Society of Friends. 
    
The father of our subject was one of seven children. He remained under the parental roof until he was eighteen years old, and then went on foot to Harrison County, Ohio, of which he became one of the first settlers. He worked about by the day and month until 1815, when he bought a tract of timber land in Dorman Township, and built a log cabin in the wilderness where deer, bears, panthers and wild turkeys were plentiful. There were no railways or canals for many years, and Wheeling, forty miles distant, was the nearest market for his wheat, for which he received forty cents a bushel, and for his pork, for which he was paid $1.50 a hundred pounds. In 1835 Mr. Parry left this pioneer home in Ohio to build up another in Illinois. He staid for a while in Menard County, and then coming to Fulton County entered a tract of Government land in Astoria Township, on which he settled in 1836. He built a log house to shelter his family, and cleared quite a tract of his land, on which he resided until his death at the age of eighty-four years. Rebecca Eagle was the maiden name of his wife. She was born in Virginia, and died there on the home farm at the venerable age of ninety-three years. Of the ten children seven are now living. 
    
When our subject was two years old his parents removed from his birthplace to Tuscarawas County, in the same State, and there he grew to manhood. As soon as large enough he commenced to assist his father on the farm, and at the age of nineteen began to learn the trade of a carpenter, which he followed in Ohio until 1835, when he accompanied his parents to this State. There were thirty-two in the party, and the removal was made overland, the people cooking and camping by the wayside at night. At that time Fulton County was a wilderness and there were but few permanent settlers within its borders, there being more squatters holding claims which they were glad to sell. They were generally living in rude log cabins without any floor, chimney or windows. The men were mostly dressed in deerskin clothing and wore coonskin caps. Wild game was very plentiful, and could be killed from the door of the cabin. 
    
Mr. Parry was married October 18, 1838, to Maria Crawford, who was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a daughter of Alexander Crawford. The young couple began their wedded life on a tract of timber land on section 1, Astoria Township, where our subject built a good hewed log house, with rived shingles for the roof, a puncheon floor, and a chimney of mud and sticks built on the outside of the house. All the cooking was done before the fire in the fireplace, and Mrs. Parry used to spin and weave and make all the cloth for the family. By dint of hard labor our subject cleared away the heavy timber from one hundred and sixty acres of land, on which he resided until 1882. He then rented his well-improved farm, and came to Astoria, where he has since lived in honorable retirement, enjoying the fruits of a well-spent life. 
    
The good wife of our subject was spared to him more than fifty years, but their pleasant wedded life was at length brought to a close by her death, March 27, 1889. The following five children blessed their union -- Mary J., Rebecca, Sarah, Ellen and Violet. 
    
Mr. Parry has for many years been a conscientious and upright Christian, as he was converted at the age of fifteen years, and has since been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for a period of more than half a century. He has served his church faithfully as Class-Leader twenty-two years, and has worked in the Sunday-school and in the protracted meetings.