This photograph from the Springs Historical Society’s collection shows Julius Dayton Parsons (1841-1924) posed for a formal portrait. While the photo is undated, a date range of the 1860s to 1870s can be estimated from the background and props used and Julius’s life span. That date range is further supported by the trend of using background balustrades and columns for portraits during those years. Julius’s face is clearly youthful, there are no wrinkles, and he has a full head of dark hair.
His parents were Maria Dayton Parsons (1798-1852) and Col. William D. Parsons (1793-1875). Maria’s father, Jonathan Dayton (1764-1842), owned the 1770 House and operated a store. Julius was the youngest of their children; during his childhood the Parsons family’s home at Fire Place in Springs was a bustling farm that Jeannette Edwards Rattray claimed “rivaled Gardiner’s Island across the bay, in activity.” As a child, Julius attended Clinton Academy and probably boarded in East Hampton during the school week.
The Civil War draft registers from 1863 identify Julius as working as a fisherman. In 1864, he and his father bought the Springs General Store from David Dimon Parsons (1811-1882). While helping his father with running it and the Parsons family’s Fire Place farm, Julius found time to repeatedly cross the frozen-over Gardiner’s Bay in February 1866, which Mrs. Rattray also recounted. The following year, he married Mary Elizabeth Schellinger (1841-1924) of Amagansett, and they later raised two children who lived to adulthood.
Julius continued to run the store until around November 1879, when his appointment as postmaster transferred to David Dimon Parsons’s son John M. Parsons. Most likely, that date of transfer coincided with David Dimon Parsons buying the Springs General Store back from Julius, to give it to John M. Parsons.
In 1880, Julius Dayton Parsons built the house and barn recently acquired by East Hampton Town as the Dodge family property and transitioned to a career in farming.
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Andrea Meyer is a librarian, archivist, and the head of the Long Island Collection.
