Biography

Excerpt from Online Archive of California: "Samuel Paul ["Pablo"] Parkman, the founder of the Mexican branch of the family, was born in February, 1804, in Aurora, New York, and died at Guanajuato May 2, 1875. When he was yet an infant, his parents moved to Parkman Township, Geauga County, Ohio, where he was reared. In 1827 he made his way to Missouri, and in 1828 was named postmaster at Petitsaw Bluffs, Lafayette County, Missouri. In 1829 he went to the Rocky Mountains with William L. Sublette, returning the following year. He then became the clerk of Jedediah S. Smith, and in the spring of 1831 accompanied Smith in the journey on the Santa Fe Trail on which Smith was killed. Briefly he took charge of Smith's affairs, and afterward was associated with Jedediah Smith's younger brother, Peter, in the firm Parkman & Smith. In the fall of 1832 he went down into Mexico and through a series of vicissitudes settled at Guanajuato, connected with various mining enterprises. In 1835 he married Antonia de Vega, and to them 12 children were born."