Marcus Morton Parmenter

"On 12 Nov 1849, Marcus was age ten, of Holden, Massachusetts, and was entered into an indenture contract by his father to one Thomas H. Parker, a prominent citizen of Shirley. The agreement specified that in return for board, adequate clothing and eight weeks of yearly schooling, Marcus was indentured as a farm laborer to the Parker family until twenty-one years of age. The 1855 census for Shirley lists Marcus as one of nine residents of the Parker "Valley Farm."

"On 2 May 1860, Marcus was released from his indenture contract and by terms of the agreement received $75 and three suits of clothing." At the US Census of June 1860 he was a 21 year old farm laborer living with Dr James Otis Parker in Shirley, MA.

He was still a farmer living in Shirley when he enlisted as a Private on 10 March 1862 in Lowell. He was assigned to Captain John Saunders' (First) Company, Massachusetts Sharpshooters from the Recruit Depot on 28 March.

His Company was attached to the 15th Massachusetts Infantry on the Maryland Campaign, and he was killed in action on 17 September 1862 "from head and stomach wounds, likely from a friendly fire incident."

His body was not identified on the field after the battle and he may have been buried as an unknown at the Antietam National Cemetery.

His service from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts1 and his Compiled Service Records. 2 Further details from Harnwell3, source of the quotes above, and from family genealogists; his birth place also seen as Princeton, Sudbury, and Shirley in various sources. His memorial is on Findagrave. His photograph kindly provided by Ralph Parmenter Bennett from an original in the Shirley Massachusetts Historical Society.

05/02/1839; Holden, MA

09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD