Lewis B. Parsons Jr.

Lewis Baldwin Parsons Jr. (Perry, New York, April 5, 1818 - Flora, Illinois, March 16, 1907) was one of the last officers who was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers during the American Civil War. He had been in charge of rail and river transportation in the Department of Mississippi and in 1864 was placed in charge of all river and rail transport for the Union Army. Before the war, he had graduated from Harvard Law School and practiced law in Alton, Illinois. In 1854, he moved to St. Louis, where he became president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway. Parsons College was named after his father Lewis B. Parsons Sr. His grandfather, Charles Parsons, had been an officer in the American Revolutionary War. From 1875 until his death in 1907, Parsons lived in Flora, Illinois.