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Parrish Family

The Wesley Abner Parrish came to Burke from Tennessee via Mississippi between 1906 and 1920. They were the only branch of the family to leave Tennessee at the time, and the Tennessee relatives lost track of them until the last member of the family in Texas had passed on.

Wesley Abner Parrish was born in 1864/9 in Perry County, Tennessee, the son of Wesley Allen and Sarah E. WIlson Parrish. Allen was also born in 1835 in the same area, the son of John and Matilda Parrish, and Sarah was born in 1852. Their children were:

• Matilda, b. 1862 in Tennessee
• Wesley Abner, b. 1864 in Tennessee
• Jack C., b. 1867 in Tennessee
• George Wiley, b. 1870 in Tennessee
• Amos, b. 1872 in Tennessee
• Guston, b. 1874 in Tennessee

Wesley Abner Parrish moved west to Dyer County, Tennessee where he first married Mary Frances Dixon. They had one child:

• Wesley Otto, . 1887 in Tennessee, who lived in Burke and later moved to Corrigan where he lived the rest of his life.
• Dollie M., b. 1894 in Tennessee

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Wesley then married Susan Emma Davis before 1900. They had the following children all born in Tennessee:

• Rosa Lee, b. 1902
• Flossie A., b. 1904, who married John Edward Kirtley, and who was a school teacher.
• Elizabeth M. (Lizzie), b. 1906

Lizzie and Rosa never married, and they lived in Burke for the rest of their lives. Lizzie served as Postmistress at the Burke Sustation until it was consolidated with the Diboll post office.

Because of her service to the community, Mayor Zusle Rush, Jr., signed a proclamantion designating August 25, 1975 as Miss Lizzie Parrish Day.

Because of her service to the community, Mayor Zusle Rush, Jr., signed a proclamantion designating August 25, 1975 as Miss Lizzie Parrish Day.

Upon her death Lizzie willed her home to the Burke Methodist Church.

© 2006-24 Burke History Project
M. Lee Murrah, Editor
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