Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I, Part 65

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 858

USA > New Hampshire > Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I > Part 65

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He was married, October 11, 1854. to Helen G. Moore, who was born in Lempster, June 16, 1836, a daughter of Charles and Anna ( Beckwith) Moore. Charles Moore was a native of Bolton, Massachu- setts, and was one of the early settlers in Lempster. He died in 1870, and his wife twelve years later, in 1882. She was a native of Unity, New Hamp- shire, and they were the parents of four children : Harriet, the eldest, became the wife of Dr. J. N. Butler of Lempster; George, resided in Unity for some years and is now a resident of Weathersfield. Vermont ; Helen G. is the wife of Hiram Parker as above noted; Charles Austin is a commercial traveler, residing in Rutland, Vermont. Hiram

Parker and his wife had four children: Fred C., Frank B., Jennie L. and Carl Austin. The second died when three years old. Fred C., the eldest was born June 27, 1858, and now resides in Concord .. He is a traveling salesman employed by Dunham Bros .. of Brattleboro, Vermont. Jennie L., the daughter was born November 10. 1864, and graduated from the Claremont High School. She is now the wife of Herbert F. Olmstead, formerly of Lempster, now an undertaker and dealer in musical instruments at Newport. Carl Austin, youngest son, was born April 28, 1879. in Lempster. He graduated from Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, and subsequently learned the carpenter's trade. Besides working at this occupation he assists his father in the store part of the time. He was married, October 17, 1903, to Mattie Morgan, of Lempster, and has a daughter, Helen Louise, born November 26, 1904.

(VIII) Hosea Washington Parker, third and youngest child of Benjamin and Olive (Nichols) Parker was born May 30, 1833, in Lempster, and was but twelve years old when his father died. He was early accustomed to labor in his own behalf, and the habits thus formed have contributed much to his suc- cess in his chosen field of endeavor. The common school supplied his first instruction and awakened an appetite for learning. He was so fortunate as to enjoy a few terms of instruction in Washington Academy, under the noted teacher, Professor Dyer H. Sanborn, meantime aiding his brother in tilling the home farm. He entered Green Mountain Liberal Institute at South Woodstock, Vermont, and Tufts College in 1855. During this time he had engaged in teaching as a means of carrying forward his col- lege training, and left during the second year at Tufts, to take up the study of law, under Edmund Burke of Newport. He completed his preparation and was admitted to the bar of Sullivan county in 1859. He has been admitted before all the courts of

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the United States, having been introduced before the national supreme court by Montgomery Blair, attorney general of the United States, while the court was presided over by an eminent native of New Hampshire, Salmon P. Chase. (See Chase). It is safe to say that he has tried as inany causes before juries in the last forty years as any attorney in the county. Mr. Parker began his practice in his native town, but soon moved to Claremont, and has occupied the same suite of offices for the last forty-seven years. He has been twenty-two years a trustee of Tufts College, and is now president of the board. This institution conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts in 1883. For the last forty-six years he has been superintendent of the Universalist Sunday school at Claremont, and he has been a trustee of the Free Public Library of the town over twenty years. He was a member of the high school board fifteen years, and served as chair- man of the town water board. These facts indicate his interest in all that pertains to the best life of a community, and the esteem, confidence and respect in which he is held by his fellow citizens. He is much interested in Masonic work, and was eminent commander of Sullivan Commandery. Knights Templar, twenty years. He is always active in the general conventions of the Universalists, and was three times president of its national general con- ventions, at Lynn and Boston, Massachusetts, and at Chicago.

Like his father, Mr. Parker has always acted with the Democratic party, and this has somewhat curtailed his opportunities for public service, though he has frequently been chosen as moderator of town meetings. He is devoted to his principles and party. and has been active in its. counsels throughout his adult life. His first political speeches were made in opposition to the so-called Know-Nothing orga- nization, which was at one time in the ascendency in this state. He has served almost constantly as a member of the state central committee, is nearly always a delegate in State conventions, over two of which he has presided. and has been a delegate in two National conventions. In 1868. he was a mem- ber of the New Hampshire delegation at the na- tional Democratic convention in New York, and sup- ported General Winfield S. Hancock as candidate for the presidential nomination. and had the satisfaction of helping to place him on the ticket at the con- vention of 1880, in Cincinnati. Mr. Parker was chosen a legislative representative of his native town in 1859, and was re-elected the following year. He was on the committees on education and railroads, and was active in the work of legislation, both in committee room and upon the floor of the house, attacting to himself the favorable notice of his con- temporaries and his constituency, as well as the public at large. He was the nominee of his party for state senator in the old tenth district, but was defeated through the overwhelming strength of the opposing party. He was the opponent of Hon. Jacob Benton in the contest for election of congressmen in 1869, and was defeated by a narrow margin. Two years later he was again nominated in the third district, and defeated his opponent, through the dis- trict was normally Republican by a large majority. In both these contests he carried his home town. normally Republican, by large majorities. He served in the Forty-second Congress, and was re-elected by increased majority in 1873. He was a faithful representative of the people, and was active in opposition to every plunder scheme, while advo- cating revenue reform and the application of the proceeds of public land sales to popular education.

He was a member of the committees on education and labor. During his second term he rendered the public signal service in opposing the renewal of sewing machine patents, which would continue a monopoly that was ready with almost unlimited funds to purchase special privileges. It was through the persistent opposition of Mr. Parker that the com- mittee finally voted by one majority not to report in favor of extending the patents, and in a few months machines were being offered at two-thirds of former prices. Mr. Parker was appointed one of the co- masters by the judge of the superior court for Mer- rimack county to hear evidence and pass upon the competency of Mary Baker Eddy, in the celebrated Eddy suit.

Mr. Parker was married, May 30, 1861, to Miss Lovisa Southgate of Bridgewater, Vermont, daugh- ter of Mark and Lovisa (Curtis) Southgate of that town. She was born there November 18, 1831, and died September 14, 1904, in Claremont. She was a graduate of Green Mountain Liberal Institute, and taught school some years in North Carolina, before her marriage. Their only child, Lizzie S .. is the wife of Rev. Lee S. McCollester, D. D., pastor of a Universalist Church at Detroit, Michigan. She is a graduate of Smith College (1888). Dr. McCol- lester is a learned man, graduate of Tufts College, and has studied much abroad, having visited Europe five times. His children are Parker, born September 5. 1890; and Catherine McCollister, born July 4, 1893. The elder is a graduate of the Detroit High School, and is a talented musician and performer on the 'cello.

(Fourth Family.)

(I) William Parker, a tanner, came PARKER over from England in the latter part of the seventeenth century. He took up his abode in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, buy- ing out Matthew Nelson's tannery on March 10, 1699. and then and there establishing himself in the tanning business, in which he continued during the remainder of his life. Some four years later, on February 26, 1703, he married Zervialı Stanley, daughter of Matthew Stanley, of Topsfield, Massa- chusetts. Four children were born of this marriage : William, Katherine, John, and a daughter whose name is unknown. Zerviah, the wife of William Parker, died August 18, 1718, aged fifty-three years, and on September 15, 1719, he married Lydia Hart, who survived him, and to whom he bequeathed fifty pounds in money. William Parker was a man of energy and ability, and the numerous transactions in land in which he was interested indicate a pros- perous condition of his affairs during his life in Portsmouth, where he continued a resident until his death in 1737. At his decease the management of his business fell to his son John Parker, the eldest son, William having then adopted the profession of the law. From John Parker were descended Rev. Noah Parker, the first Universalist minister settled in Portsmouth: William B. Parker, judge of the municipal court of that town; Lieutenant John Parker and Commander William A. Parker, of the United States navy. Of the cldest son, William Parker, we quote from the sketch written of him by his son-in-law, Nathaniel Adams, author of the "Annals of Portsmouth :"

(II) "The Honourable William Parker departed this life April 29, 1781, aged seventy-seven. He was born in this town in the year 1703, (December 9). received the rudiments of his education in one of the public schools, and at the age of fifteen became apprenticed to his father, who was a tanner. He made himself thoroughly acquainted with that busi-

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ness, but relinquished it soon after he came of age, and was employed for several years as master of one of the public schools. In his leisure hours he pur- sued the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in the year 1732. When the commissioners met at Hampton (1737) to settle the line between this province and Massachusetts, they appointed him their clerk. He afterwards received a commission from Governor Belcher to be register of probate, and his knowledge of the law enabled him to discharge the duties of that office with great ability. He was also appointed surrogate judge of admiralty, and was for many years the only notary public in the province. In 1765 he was elected one of the repre- sentatives to the general assembly, and was re- elected every year afterwards until 1774. In Au- gust, 1771, he received a commission appointing him one of the justices of the superior court of judicature for the province, which office he held until the commencement of the Revo- lution, when the royal authority ceased here, and all who held offices under the King were obliged to relinquish them. Judge Parker was es- teemed a well-read and accurate lawyer; he had diligently studied the law, not only as a profession but as a science. While at the bar he was coll- sulted and his advice relied upon in the most im- portant cases which came before the courts. But his studies were not confined entirely to the law. He gave much attention to the belles-lettres, in which he made great proficiency. In 1763 the corporation of Harvard College conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts, and in their vote they directed it to be expressly mentioned in his diploma, pro meritis suis, although he never had a public education."

Bell, in the "Bench and Bar of New Hampshire," thus refers to Judge Parker: "The descendants of Judge Parker have no occasion to go beyond him- self in pursuit of ancestral honors and true family worth. Judge Parker was not only a selfmade nian, but cherished a high ideal. In his profession he was not content with superficial or mere practical knowledge, but he made himself master of the law as a science. In his practice his thoroughness was the cause of his employment by clients of discern- ment in all their important concerns. He was re- tained and his opinions chiefly relied upon in the principal cases in the courts, and by common consent he was allowed to be at the head of his profession in New Hampshire."

In 1728 Judge Parker married Elizabeth Grafton, who became the mother of his large family of eleven children, the first of whom was Zerviah Stanley Parker, who married William Earl Treadwell, an officer in Colonel Moore's regiment in the Louisburg expedition of 1745. Her death occurred in 1750. The eldest son of Judge Parker was named William Parker. He studied law with his father, graduated at Harvard, and began practice in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1755. In 1775 he was delegated to the second provincial congress in Exeter, and in 1777 was elected a member of the general assembly. He succeeded his father in 1776 as register of probate for Rockingham county, and held this office for thirty-seven years. He was also judge of the court of common pleas at Exeter from 1790 to 1807. He reared and educated a family of seven children, one of whom, Dr. William Parker, was a surgeon in the Second New Hampshire Regiment, war of the Revolution; another son was Nathaniel Parker, law- yer and secretary of state of New Hampshire in 1809. The second son of Judge William Parker was John Parker, of Portsmouth, first United States marshal of this state, and one of the presidential

electors for the state in 1787. Elizabeth Parker, the second daughter of Judge Parker, married Captain Nathaniel Adams, of Portsmouth. Their son, Na- thaniel Adams, was clerk of the supreme court, and author of the "Annals of Portsmouth." Another daughter of Judge Parker, Mary Parker, married Hon. David Sewall, of York, Maine, judge of the supreme court of Maine, and for thirty years of the United States district court; while his fourth daughter, Lydia, married Samuel Hale, of Ports- mouth, New Hampshire, and their son, John Parker Hale, became the father of Hon. John P. Hale, United States Senator, Free Soil candidate for the presidency in 1852, and minister to Spain. Judge Parker's daughter Katherine died unmarried in 1817, and his youngest daughter, Sarah, married Hon. Christopher Toppan, of Hampton, New Hampshire, a member of the governor's council in 1786. The third son of Judge Parker was Rt. Rev. Samuel Parker, graduate of Harvard, elected rector of Trinity Church, Boston, in 1779, and bishop of the Eastern Diocese in 1804. Hon. Samuel S. Parker is a direct descendant from the fourth son of Judge Parker, Matthew Stanley Parker.

(III) Matthew Stanley Parker was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, September 28, 1749. He received a good education, and at the age of twenty-four years, on April 12, 1773, married Ann, daughter of Captain Henry Rust of Portsmouth. Soon after marriage he removed to Wolfboro, New Hampshire, where he had previously purchased two hundred acres of land upon Wolfboro Neck, and upon which he erected a log house and began the life of a pioneer. Later he resided at what is now known as Wolfboro Falls, having charge of lumber mills there and also of the Governor Wentworth farm at Smith's Pond, now Lake Wentworth. Mat- thew S. Parker was one of the foremost citizens of Wolfboro in colonial days, holding from one to three town offices every year but one of his residences there. He was elected a member of the general as- sembly from that town in 1779. During the struggle for independence he was an active patriot, serving upon a committee in Wolfboro for the raising of nien for the American army, although his father had for the most of his life held office under the crown. The "History of Carroll County" states that "he was far better qualified for the transaction of legal business than any other person then living in Wolfboro." That he enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his fellow-townsmen is well known. His usefulness and bright prospects were cut short by death on September 7, 1788, his wife having died two years previous. Matthew S. Parker was the father of seven sons and a daughter. The eldest, John Toppan Parker, born February 16, 1774, died in ISOS. The second son, Henry Rust, born June 16, 1775, died October 12, 1777. William Sewall Parker, third son, was born November 22, 1776. He became a bookseller in Troy, New York, and died there in 1836. He was the father of fifteen children. The fourth son of Matthew Stanley Parker was Henry Rust Parker, great-grandfather of the Hon. Samuel S. Parker. Matthew Stanley Parker, of Boston, born July 30, 1779, and for thirty years cashier of the Suffolk Bank, Boston, was the fifth son, while the sixth was Samuel Hale Parker, born in 1781, and for many years a book and music publisher. Nathaniel Adams Parker, seventh son, was born April 20, 1783, and died in December, 1801, while the daughter, Nancy Rust Parker, born in 1784, married Rev. J. Crosby, of Charlestown, New Hampshire, and died December 9, 1813.

(IV) Henry Rust Parker, fourth son of Mfat-

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thew Stanley Parker, was born in Wolfboro, New Hampshire, February 6, 1778. He received a com- mon school education, and when ten years of age, both of his parents being dead, he went to live with Colonel Henry Rust, of Wolfboro, his grandfather. With Colonel Rust he grew to manhood, follow- ing the vocation of a farmer, and finally marrying Hannah Rust, granddaughter of the Colonel. Later in life he was for some years a retail merchant in Wolfboro, and for a time proprietor of a hotel in South Wolfboro. Henry Rust Parker was one of the founders of the Wolfboro Academy, and was known in his day as a man of sterling integrity and character. He died September 18, 1848, aged seventy years, and his wife on June 6, 1870, aged eighty-five years. Their children were: John Top- pan Parker, the father of Dr. Henry Rust Parker, ex-Mayor and a resident of Dover, New Hampshire; Samuel Sewall Parker, grandfather of Hon. Samuel S. Parker; Eliza Parker, who died at the age of seventeen years; and Matthew Stanley Parker, of Wolfboro, father of Sewall Hale Parker, of Farm- ington, New Hampshire, and of Andrew E. Parker, a former merchant of Dover,

(V) Samuel Sewall Parker, second son of Henry Rust Parker, was born in Wolfboro, New Hampshire, November 9, 1807. He was educated in the common schools and at the Wolfboro Academy. Although reared as a farmer, yet his education and ability were such that he was employed more or less to teach in the schools of his town, particularly where former teachers were found unable or in- competent to cope with the muscular youth who in those days attended the country schools. For a number of years he was associated with his father in mercantile pursuits, and also held the offices of town clerk, selectman and road commissioner for his town. On November 16, 1827, he married Jane T. Cate, daughter of Joshua N. Cate, of Brook- field, New Hampshire, a soldier of the Revolution. Six children were born of this marriage, four of whom survive, viz .: Charles F. Parker, of Wolfe- boro, for many years treasurer of the Wolfeboro Savings Bank; Harry Stanley Parker, of Farming- ton, father of the subject of this sketch; John W. Parker, of Wolfboro; and Samuel W. Parker, of Boston, formerly of the firm of Drake & Parker, of the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago. Two daugh- ters, Elizabeth J. and Hannah J., born respectively in 1835 and 1838, died in infancy. Samuel Sewall Parker died on November 21, 1848, and his wife one June 9, 1887.

(VI) Harry Stanley Parker, of Farmington, New Hampshire, one of the surviving sons of Samuel Sewall Parker, was born in Wolfboro, February 18, 1832. He received a common school education, and in early life learned the trade of a shoemaker .. On March 30, 1854, he married Hester A. Steveris, daughter of Captain Manly Stevens, of Lisbon, New Hampshire, and soon after purchased a farm in Wolfboro and settled there. Later he moved to Farmington, New Hampshire, where for the greater part of his active life he has been en- gaged in some branch of the shoe industry. For many years he was an active and interested par- ticipant in the political affairs of his town, and was honored by his fellow townsmcn by a seat in the New Hampshire legislature in 1869, and again in 1877-78. 1-Ie also served the town for many years as moderator, and was a member of the board of education for three years. In 1885 he was ap- pointed postmaster of Farmington by President Cleveland, which office he conducted for four years. His honesty and ability, genial manners and ready

wit have for many years rendered him a popular man in his own town, and few citizens of Farming- ton enjoy the friendship of a larger number of people than does he. He is still an active and ener- getic man of seventy-six years, the oldest charter member of Harmony Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and a Mason of fifty-two years' standing. The children of Harry S. and Hester A. Parker numbered ten, only four of whom are now living. The eldest son, Samuel Sewall Parker, of Farmington, is men- tioned further on. Mrs. Nellie S. P. Nute, of Farmington, born June 26, 1857, and wife of Eugene P. Nute, United States .marshal of New Hampshire, is the second in order of birth; Harry W. Parker, born March 4, 1859, and who died August 1, 1884, was the third; and Percy F. Parker, a merchant of Spokane, Washington, born December 8, 1860, the fourth. The fifth child was Manly S. Parker, born August 10, 1861, and who died December 28, 1864. Effie N. Parker, born June 16, 1865, died November 9, 1869, and twins, born May 3, 1868, lived but one month. Ned L. Parker, born December 17, 1869, is a merchant and resident of Farmington, while Willis R. Parker, born December 7, 1872, died on August 1, 1881. The mother of this family, a very sympathetic and devoted woman, died on April 15, 1892, aged sixty-four years.

(VII) Hon. Samuel Sewall Parker, lawyer and ex-member of the New Hampshire senate (1904-05), eldest child of Harry Stanley and Hester A. (Stev- ens) Parker, was born in Wolfboro, New Hamp- shire, May 9, 1855, and received his early education in the common schools, whence he passed. to the Wolfboro Academy and the New Hampshire Insti- tute. Early in life he learned the trade of a shoe- cutter. In 1887 he began the study of law with George N. Eastman, of Farmington, and continued it with Joshua G. Hall, of Dover, finishing his studies with Judge Robert J. Pike. He was admitted to the bar in 1890, and in August of the same year began prac- tice in Farmington, where he has ever since re- mained, building up among his neighbors and fellow townsmen an unusually large and lucrative con- nection. He is a Republican in politics, and in 1904 represented District No. 5 in the New Hamp- shire senate, serving two years, during which time he was chairman of the committee on incorporation, and a member of the judiciary committee and the committees on revision of laws, banks and forestry. He was one of the founders of the Farmington Public Library Association, of which he is and has been for ten years president. He is a member of Woodbine Lodge, No. 41, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Henry Wilson Grange, of which he is treasurer. He is also president of the Con- gregational Society of Farmington. Mr. Parker is an active, public-spirited citizen, energetic and liberal in support of whatever pertains to the welfare of his own town, as well as that of the state and nation. Studious, a great reader, somewhat of a traveler in his own country, and a life-long student of geology, lie occasionally delivers interesting talks to local organizations upon this and kindred sub- jects. Imbued with the progressive spirit of the age, he is an earnest advocate of modern methods in schools, libraries, churches and other institutions. Kind and obliging, cheerful and optimistic, yet of quiet and unassuming manners, he is widely known as an honorable and upright man of fixed principles and sterling character.

On May 10, 1879, Mr. Parker married Mary E. Horne, born August 26, 1855, in Farmington, daugh- ter of Jacob P. and Amanda (Colbath) llorne, of Farmington, the latter a second cousin of the late

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Hon. Henry Wilson, vice-president of the United States. Mrs. Parker graduated at the Farmington high school, attended the New Hampton Institute, and for a number of years previous to her mar- riage taught in the Farmington public schools. She is a member of the Congregational Church. Mr. and Mrs. Parker have no children.

(Fifth Family.)

PARKER Immigrants by the name of Parker who came to America in the first century of the history of New Eng- land were numerous; most of them were active, industrious and progressive citizens, and a goodly number of them were men of local prominence. Various men of this name are mentioned in the early records of Maine. Basil was in York in 1649, was recorder of the province, and was made one of the council. He died before October 18, 1651. John Parker, of Saco, 1636, purchased, 1650, Parker's Island, now Georgetown, on the east side of the Kennebec river, near the mouth. Tradition says he was from Biddeford, county of Devon, Eng- land, and died before June, 1661. By his wife Mary he had Thomas, John and Mary, but all may have been born in England, though tradition makes Jolin born at Saco in 1634. John Parker, of Kennebec, son of John, of Saco, bought of the Indians in 1659, a large tract of land on the west side of the Ken- nebec, opposite his father's island, now Phipps- burg. He may be the one who swore fidelity at Pemaquid in 1674. August 20, 1660, he went to Boston to marry Mary, daugliter of Daniel Farr- field. By her he had besides four daughters two sons, Daniel and James. John and his son James were driven by the Indians from their places, and took refuge at Falmouth, where both were killed at the second destruction of that town, May, 1690. It is not iniprobable that from' this ancestor, John, the following Parker line is descended :

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Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I, Part 65

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 858

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 858