Frank Naismith Parsons (1854 - 1934)
Born at Dover (NH); died at Franklin (NH).
Lawyer, jurist.
Portrait by Mary Earl Wood, 1928.
Presented to the State, date unknown.

Parsons was educated at Pinkerton Academy (Derry, NH). He graduated from Dartmouth College (Class of 1874). After graduation Parsons taught for a year at the high school in Franklin (NH), and then a year at the high school in Nashua (NH). At the conclusion of the second year (1875/6) Parsons began reading law, first with G. C. Bartlett (Derry, NH), then with Daniel Barnard and Pike & Blodgett (both Franklin, NH). He was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in March 1879.

Parsons' first law partnership was with Hon. Austin F. Pike of Franklin. Pike was an important political figure who was to become a United States Senator; he also became Parsons' father-in-law, when Parsons married Helen Pike (October 26, 1880). The law partnership of Pike & Parsons lasted until Pike's death, in 1886, after which Parsons continued as a solo legal practitioner.

In 1891 Parsons was named State Law Reporter by the New Hampshire Supreme Court (served 1891/5). Parsons was also a member of Governor John B. Smith's Executive Council (1893/4). In 1895 Parsons became the first elected Mayor of Franklin, and (May 21, 1895) he was appointed an Associate Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court (served 1895 - 1902). Parsons became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1902, and retired because of age in 1924. In remarks prepared for Parsons' retirement Hon. William Plummer said, "He held the position of Chief Justice of New Hampshire longer than it was ever held by any other man. The only time he was ever absent from his duties upon the bench was a few years ago for about two hours, when he was somewhat indisposed, and his associates insisted he should not sit upon the bench during the argument of one case. A wonderful record of long, continuous and constant service, which it would be difficult to duplicate" (Proceedings of the Bar Association of New Hampshire, 1924, p. 158). Plummer went on to remark that during Parson's tenure the many "reforms inaugurated by [former] Chief Justice [Charles] Doe [who served for nineteen years and seven months as Chief Justice] have been fully maintained and supplemented during the administration of our retiring Chief Justice" (Ibid.). The next speaker, the immediate past Governor of New Hampshire (1921/3), also handled this theme of continuity with the past. Albert O. Brown remarked that Parsons was the only living member of the judiciary who had served on the bench with Charles Doe, and Brown continued:

During the period of the ten months of their joint service, the older man did much to impart to the younger, whom he regarded as his ultimate successor, the store of wisdom which was his by nature and to which he had added much in the course of a long and varied judicial experience. It was by this means...that an enlightened and simplified system of jurisprudence was safeguarded and transmitted for future administration and future improvement. (Ibid., p. 163.)

References: George H. Moses, ed., New Hampshire Men (1893); H. H. Metcalf, ed., One Thousand New Hampshire Notables (1919); Proceedings of the Bar Association of the State of New Hampshire vol. 5 [1923 - 1926].