Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/216

 PARKER

PARKER

report of the speech which made the President seem to oppose all education by the state except in common schools.

PARKER, Linus, M. E. bishop, was born near Vienna, Oneida county, X.Y., April 23, 1829; son of John and Alvira (Wadham) Parker, both of Connecticut, and grandson of Eri and Joana (Stoddard) Parker. His first ancestor in Amer- ica, William Parker, emigrated from Bristol, England, and located in Saybrook, Conn., in its early settlement. Linus Parker removed to New Orleans, La., in early youth, engaged as a clerk, and also attended college at Lewisburg, La., be- coming proficient in Latin and Greek. He served in the Mexican war in Captain Girault's company from Louisiana; entered the Louisiana confer- ence of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, Dec. 26, 1849, and was stationed at Lake Provi- dence in 1850; at Shreveport in 1851-52, was ordained deacon, December, 1852, and elder December, 1853. and was stationed in New Or- leans, Jan. 5, 1853. He served as pastor in principal stations until 1870. when he was elected editor of The Christian Advocate, holding this position until May, 1882, also acting as presiding elder at various times. He was a delegate to the General conference of the Methodist Episco- pal church. South, in 1866, and sat in its quad- rennial sessions, 1866-82. He was elected bishop of the M. E. church. South, May, 1882, and filled this office until his death. He was married June 7. 1853, to Sallie Fitzgerald, daughter of the Rev.

Alexander and (Burruss) Sale. She

died Sept. 13, 1853, and he was married secondly, Jan. 20, 185S, to Ellen K., daughter of the Rev. John Crenshaw and Emily L. (Nutting) Burruss. She died Sept. 3, 1900. Bishop Parker died in New Orleans. La., March 5, 1885,

PARKER, Nahum, senator, was born in Shrews- bury, Mass,, March 14, 1760; sou of Amos and Anna (Stone) Parker; grandson of Andrew and Sarah (Whitney) Parker; great-grandson of John Parker and a descendant of Thomas Parker, who emigrated from England in the Susan and Ellen in 1635 and settled first in Lynn, and then in Reading. Massachusetts Bay colony. Nahum Parker was a soldier in the Continental army under General Gates and took part in the battles that resulted in the capture of Burgoyne's forces at Saratoga in 1777. He settled in Fitzwilliam, N.H., in 1786. was a member of the board of selectmen, 1790-94, and clerk and treasurer of the town, 1792-1815. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1794-1804 and 1806-07; a member of the governor's council, 1804-05. and was U.S. senator from New Hampshire, 1807-10, resigning in 1810 when he was succeeded by Charles Cutts (q.v.). He was justice of the court of common pleas for Cheshire county, which

included Sullivan county, 1807-13; an associate justice of the Western circuit, 1813-16; judge of tiie court of sessions of Clieshire county in 1821 andof the court of common pleas for Hillsborough county in 1822. He was also a member of the New Hampshire senate and its president in 1828. He was married, Aug. 11, 1783, to Mary Deeth of Gerry, Mass., and their son, Amos Andrew Parker (born Oct. 8, 1791, University of Ver- mont, 1813, lawyer, editor of New Hampshire Statesman, author of Recollections of Lafayette (1879)) celebrated the hundredth anniversary of his birth, and died in Fitzwilliam, N.H., Ma^*^ 12, 1893. Nahum Parker died in Fitzwilliam, N.H., Nov. 12, 1839.

PARKER, Peter, missionary and diplomat, was born in Framingham, Mass., June 18, 1804; son of Nathan and Catliarine (Murdock) Parker, grandson of Peter and Ruth (Eaton) Parker, great-grandson of John and Experience (Cloyes) Parker, and a descendant of Hananiah Parker of Reading, Mass. He was a student at Amherst college, 1827-30, was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1831, M.D., 1834; and attended Yale Divinity school, 1832-34. He was appointed by the A.B. C. F. M., a missionary to China; was ordained May 16, 1834, and embarked for Canton in June, 1834. In October, 1835, he opened an ophthalmic hospital in Canton, which soon became a general hospital, and not only attended over 2.000 sick, but preached to his patients in their own language and trained several in medicine and surgery. He came back to the United States at the out- break of the opium war between China and Eng- land in 1840, and was married, March 29, 1841, to Harriet Colby, daughter of John Ordway Webster, of Augusta, Maine. He returned to China in 1842, accompanied by his wife, who was the first foreign woman to reside in Canton. Dr. Parker continued the hospital 1842-55. He was appointed secretary and interpreter to the U.S. legation to China in 1844; and in 1845 resigned his connection with the American board to serve as charge d'affaires in the absence of the U.S. minister. In 1853 he made a brief visit to the United States, where he was appointed U.S. commissioner to China with plenipotentiary powers for the revision of the treaty of 1844, and served as such, 1855-57. In this capacity he was again in China, 1855-57, and then settled in AVashington, D.C. He was founder and for several years president of the ^ledical Missionary Society of China, became a regent of the Smith- sonian Institution in 1868, a corporate member of the A. B.C. of F.M. in 1871, and in that year a delegate of the Evangelical Alliance to petition the Emperor of Russia to permit freedom of worship in the Baltic provinces. He was president of the Washington branch of the