Josiah Lamberson Parrish - Later Life

Later Life

Parrish became involved in a land dispute involving the authority of the laws from the Provisional Government with Daniel H. Lownsdale. Parrish would take the matter to court in a case that would make its way through the Oregon Supreme Court and to the United States Supreme Court in Lownsdale v. Parrish, 62 U.S. 290 (1858). In 1868, Parrish drove the first spike in Portland, Oregon, for the Oregon and California Railroad. In 1869, his wife donated land to help create the Lee Mission Cemetery in Salem, Oregon, with Josiah as one of the incorporators. Later that year his wife Elizabeth died, with Josiah remarrying in 1870 to Jane Lichtenthaler. Married in Portland, the couple would have four children before Jane died in 1887. In 1888, he would marry a final time, to Mrs. M. A. Pierce. Josiah Parrish died on May 31, 1895, at the age of 89 and is buried at the Lee Cemetery. Parrish Middle School in Salem was built on his old Donation Land Claim and is named in his honor.