Edward Evans Parrish, born November 20, 1791, in Monongalia County, West Virginia, to Edward and Rachel (Evans) Parrish. He first married Elizabeth Bussey in West Virginia, in 1814. They had six children. He remarried, in 1827, Rebecca Mapel, in Pennsylvania. They went on to have six children of their own: Elizabeth Ellen, Thomas Mapel Andrew Jackson, Mary Ann Springer, Rebecca Shinn, Edward Evans, Jr., and Rachel Marinda. They crossed the plains, starting in 1843 in Ohio, and arrived in Oregon City in 1844. They settled on a donation land claim in Marion County, before Salem was a town. He died October 24, 1874, in Linn County, Oregon, and is buried at Knox's Butte Cemetery.