Samuel Bowne Parsons Sr. (1819-1906) was the son of famed Quaker abolitionists Samuel Parsons and Mary Bowne Parsons. Along with his brothers Robert and William, he established the Parsons Nursery in Flushing in 1838-1840. Parsons traveled around the world to locate rare plants, including
pink-flowering dogwood, Japanese maple, rhododendrons, azaleas, fruit trees and roses. In 1847, he imported a European Weeping Beech, which became the legendary weeping beech tree that survived on 37th Avenue until 1998; a cross-section of that tree was replanted and now grows in the same spot in Weeping Beech Park.

According to research done by the Bowne House, the three Parsons brothers were actively involved in the New York Underground Railroad in the 1840s, providing assistance to fugitive slaves by raising funds and acting as conductors to help harbor them in their Flushing neighborhood.