William B. Parks

WILLIAM B. PARKS, a prosperous business man of Greensburg, was born September 13, 1838, in the vicinity of Courtney Station, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, a son of James and Mary (Woods) Parks. James Parks (father) was born in Tyrone, Ireland, where he was reared and educated, attending the common schools adjacent to his home. When twenty-five years of age he determined to seek a new home for himself amid new surroundings and accordingly emigrated to the United States, settling in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, where he spent the remainder of his days. At the early age of fifteen years he married, and the death of his wife occurred nine months later. He married a second time, this wife dying one year later, survived by on child, and at the age of twenty-five years he married his third wife, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Woods, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, and they had eight children : Alexander, deceased ; Martha, Nancy, Alice, deceased ; Ann Jane, William B., mentioned hereafter ; Thomas, and James, deceased. 

William B. Parks received the educational advantages afforded by the common schools of that day, attending those in the First ward in Allegheny City until he was thirteen years of age. He then engaged in the trade of brick making with his father, becoming an expert mechanic, and at the age of twenty-two years began an apprenticeship at the trade of machinist, which he followed for twelve years. He then returned to his former trade, brick making, at which he labored for twenty consecutive years, and at the expiration of this period of time located in Greensburg, Westmoreland county, established a general merchandise business, and has conducted the same with a large degree of success up to the present time (1905). Mr. Parks married, July 25, 1862, Amanda Baker, daughter of Joseph Baker, who bore him three children, all now deceased. Her death occurred December 23, 1865. Mr. Parks married for his second wife Eliza Brugh, a daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Pool) Brugh, the ceremony being performed March 28, 1868. Their children were : William B., married Tilly Askil ; Catherine, married Frank Peebling ; Oma Stone ; Thomas, married Ida Augustine ; James deceased, married Lizzie Orr ; and Pearl, deceased. 

Source Pages 32 & 33 History of Westmoreland County, Volume II, Pennsylvania by John N. Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906 
Transcribed June 4, 1999 by Marilynn Wienke for the Westmoreland County History Project 
Contributed for use by the Westmoreland County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/westmoreland/)

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