Frank Parkins, Minister of Orbiston Church - Aletter from Earl Parkins to Cheryl Blosser |
| Hi Miss Blosser, In September 1952 at a Murray City PTA meeting, all new teachers in the school system were introduced. During the social hour that followed the meeting a "grandmotherly" aged lady approached me and asked, "Did I understand that your name is PARKINS"? I said that she had heard correctly. She proceeded to share with me a story of her youth when she attended Sunday school and church at the Orbiston Methodist Church. The minister was a Rev. Parkins and explained how much she enjoyed his services. Following his sermon he would leave the pulpit area and sit down at the organ, play and sing the old hymns. Continuing to draw on the memory of her youth I thought this dear lady would never ask the logical question, when she "finally" asked, "I don't suppose you would be related to that Rev. Parkins"? I answered her question with a question, "Was his name Frank"? I have regretted many times my negligence in not learning the name of this charming lady. Rev. J. H. Franklin "Frank" Parkins was my great-uncle and he served the Buchtel Methodist charge in about 1900 which included the church at Orbiston. Uncle Frank and Aunt Anise were the parents of several children, one son named Earl Franklin Parkins for who I am named, hence my name - Earl Parkins. When cousin Earl learned that I was teaching in the Murray City Schools, he shared with me his memory of his family living in the village of Buchtel when he was a small boy. (Earl Franklins Parkins was born in 1896.) Rev. Frank Parkins served numerous churches in Southeastern Ohio after leaving the Buchtel-Orbiston community. He retired in Columbus, Ohio, in 1825, but continued to serve as a supply pastor and utilized his musical talent with the organ and his beautiful tenor voice. Rev Frank Parkins died in 1845 with interment at the Union Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. He was born in 1857. Jack Maurer and Rodney Galentin are acquaintances of mine. I also met Ann Cramer some years back when she was working on an Underground Railroad project in Gallia County, my home county. I retired as Superintendent of the Tri County Career Center at Nelsonville in 1984 and was the first Nelsonville-York High School Principal following the consolidation of the Buchtel-York and Nelsonville City Schools in 1967. Should you wish to share this little anecdote with Elizabeth Goussetis and/or others, feel free to do so. Warm regards, Earl Parkins 20911 Tangor Road Land O'Lakes, FL 34637-7425 (813) 929-0351 |