Anson, son of Asaph (2) Parmelee. was born September 14, 1810, in Bristol, Vermont. He studied for the ministry and was graduated from Burr Seminary, Middlebury College and Andover Theological Seminary. In 1843 he went as superintendent of the American Bible Society to Charleston, South Carolina, and spent four years in mission work in the south. He was then called as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Addison, New York. After a successful pastorate of fourteen years at Addison, he accepted a call to the Presbyterian church of Livonia, New York, where he preached for sixteen years. In 1868 he removed to Geneva, New York, where he resided for two years and was occupied in supplying the pulpit at Seneca Castle. At the end of two years he took up his residence in a new parsonage that had been built for him at Seneca Castle and continued to preach in that town until 1874, when he retired from the ministry. During the last twenty years of his life he lived on his farm and in the home of his son, George H.. in the village of Phelps. He died in 1894 at the advanced age of eighty-four years.
He married (first) Mary E. Whiting; (second) Lycintha Martin, of Rochester, New York. Children by first wife: Harriet Lamar, Mary Jane, James Adger, George Herbert, mentioned elsewhere. Child by second wife: Lotus Chapin.