Lissette Celestine Hotchkiss was born at the Hotchkiss Homestead located on Butternut St. in Lyons NY on February 7th, 1840. She was the daughter of Hiram G Hotchkiss and Mary Williams Ashley. Lisette’s father founded the H.G. Hotchkiss Essential Oil Company. She was wed to William Henry Parshall in 1860 and had three children. In 1885, she decided to develop some farmland on Pilgrimport Road with dozens of willow trees. Today this area where the willows were grown is called the Hotchkiss Preserve which totals 50 acres. In 1902, Lissette helped form the Political Equity Club of Lyons. This organization invited many celebrated suffragettes to speak in Lyons including Miss Anthony. In 1903 the club changed its name to the Lyons Civic Club but its roots were still in the suffrage movement. Lissette jumped into the political arena when thru a loop hole in the NYS law granting women limited suffrage in school district matters if they were a tax payer, which she was from land inherited from her father. She became a school board member and was President of the board at the time of her death in 1913.