His grandfather, John Parmelee, was one of the first settlers in Guilford, coming there in the company of Rev. Henry Whitfield, who build the Old Stone House.

John Parmelee's home lot in Guilford in 1636 was the land on which the First Congregational Church and the adjacent buildings now stand.

"John Permeley", who came from England with Whitfield was one of the twenty-five who signed the Covenant on board the ship, June 1, 1639, when they had been on the ocean about ten days.

His father, Maurice Parmele, fled to Holland from the persecution in England about 1567.

His great-grandson, our great-great-grandfather, Joel Parmelee, was a private in the War of the Revolution in 1776, in Captain Hand's Co. Colonel Talcott's Regiment. Later in the same year he was Corporal in Captain Steven's Co. with John Parmelee, probably his son, serving as drummer.