A photograph of Marcus Junius Parrott, who came to Kansas Territory in 1855 and settled in Leavenworth. He became active in the Free-State Party and was elected as a delegate from Leavenworth to the Topeka Constitutional Convention. At the convention in July, 1857, he was nominated for the position of delegate to Congress. He was subsequently elected and served Kansas in that capacity for nearly four years. Parrott was in Washington, D.C., when the Kansas bill finally passed in January 1861. He ran a very close third to James H. Lane and Samuel C. Pomeroy in the balloting for U.S. Senate, and unsuccessfully sought election to Congress in 1862 and 1874.
Parrott then left political life altogether and turned his attention to agriculture pursuits on his farm near Leavenworth. Later, after experiencing health problems, Parrott moved back to Dayton, Ohio, to be close to his brother, and he died there on October 4, 1879.