Alzina Parsons-Stevens, labor and industrial worker and child welfare worker was born in Parsonfield, Maine in 1849, a town named after her paternal grandfather, Colonel Thomas Parsons, who received the land for his service in the American Revolution. Enoch Parsons, who served in the War of 1812, was a relatively prosperous farmer and small manufacturer. He and his wife, Louise (Page) Parsons, had seven children, of whom Alzina Parsons was the fourth daughter and the youngest child. Enoch Parsons died in 1862, leaving the family in difficult financial straits. With two sons fighting in the Civil War, Louise Parsons was forced to send her youngest daughter to work in a local textile mill. There she lost her right index finger in an industrial accident; the missing finger served as a perpetual stimulus and a reminder in her later struggles against child labor. An unfortunate early marriage soon ended in divorce, and...