Abraham Parsons (?-1900) features in Williams College memory and historiography as more a story than a man. During his lifetime and after his death, Parsons was embellished in town folklore; a frequent fixation was the strength of Parsons’ ostensibly thick skull. The stories had material effects as students would pay Parsons to demonstrate his skull’s strength by using it to smash various objects. There even exist stories (of uncertain credibility) that after Parsons’ death, doctors and collectors of curiosities fought over the possession of his skull. One story claims it wound up on the mantle of the alumni club in New York City; another says it was found in a professor’s attic.

Outside of Williams folklore, we can discern that Parsons lived in Williamstown for about half a century with his family in the White Oaks neighborhood before being removed to the town poorhouse by Five Corners late in life. He worked for the college on-and-off as a janitor, landscaper, and repairman. Notably, Parsons was among the laborers who helped renovate the campus cemetery in 1883. These documents are arranged in reverse-chronological order to gesture at an attempt to unravel Parsons’ mythology in search of the kernel — Parsons himself.

-Asher Gladstone