Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/402

 878 HISTORY OF of those wlio Lave, by their own energies, achieved success in this world; appealing as they do, to the hopes and aspirations of the human heart, and teaching the way and manner through which that success has been secured. How many struggling along an adverse path, have been aroused and cheered to renewed efforts by the examples set before them in such lives, and who have themselves in the end attained eminence in learuiog from the healthy influence which such examples inspire ! The incidents may be few or crowded, vivid or otherwise ; still, if they record the triumph of talent and virtue, they are of great value, and should be sought after and studied. Few memoirs will, we apprehend, afford more interest and instruction, than that of the eminent jurist whose name heads this article. Although as citizens of Delaware county, we claim him with pride as our fellow citizen, yet he was born in Connecticut, at Sharon, in the parish of Ellsworth, and county of Litchfield. The region of his birth-place is secluded from the busy world,- — a spot of sterile hillsides and stony valleys, but nourishing a race of men, trained in habits of industry, and full of the energy and perseverance which never fail to make way through the difficulties of life. Many are the distinguished men which Litchfield county has produced, men who have trod the path of eminence with a firm step and courageous heart. The ancestors of Judge Parker were of the old Puritan blood of New England, and residents of the western part of Connecticut for successive generations. Amasa Parker, and Thomas Fenn, his paternal and maternal grandfathers, were soldiers of the Revolution, and widely respected for the sterling virtues of their character; the latter filling various offices of public trust. He was for thirty-eight successive sessions a member of the State legislature. Both were resi- dents throughout their lives of the county of Litchfield, of the above State.