Parker, George W.

PARKER, BARTHOLOMEW, MCKEE, MARKLE

Posted By: Volunteer Transcribers
Date: 1/28/2003 at 19:16:23

GEORGE W. PARKER

As a manufacturer of cornice and metal work, at the corner of Third and Washington streets, George W. Parker has been prominently identified with the industrial interests of Lyons for over forty years, and is accounted one of the business men of the city. He was born on the 25th of August, 1830, in Madison county, New York, and the following year was taken to Chautauqua county, that state, by his parents, William H. and Eliza (Bartholomew) Parker. There the father was engaged in farming, but in later years he removed to the city of Dunkirk, where he spent the remainder of his life.

George W. Parker was reared in Fredonia, New York, and there learned his trade as a cornice and metal worker. Subsequently he was employed as a journeyman in Syracuse, New York, and Chicago, Illinois, and at the later place was engaged in business on his own account for two years. In 1856 he came to Lyons, Iowa, and for a time was clerk on the steamer Flora, of Dubuque, running between St. Louis and St. Paul. Later he was on the Fulton City packet line until 1870, when he embarked in the manufacture of galvanized iron cornice. At this time his was the only plant of the kind in the county, which was the first established west of Chicago. Then all work was done by hand, but Mr. Parker has since equipped his place with the latest improved machinery for bending and molding all kinds of iron and tin roofing, cornice, etc. He has built up an excellent business and received some very large contracts, doing all the work in his line on the court-house at Clinton, the Masonic Temple, the Weston block and other large buildings. He receives orders from an extended territory, and employs from twelve to fourteen men.

In 1853 Mr. Parker was united in marriage with Miss Mary McKee, of Chicago, who died in 1893, leaving four children: Mary, at home; William, a draftsman, with his father; Charles, who also assists his father in business; and Nellie, wife of Charles Markle. Fraternally Mr. Parker is a prominent Mason, the thirty-third degree having been conferred upon him at St. Louis by Sir Albert Pike in 1884. There is only one other man in this county who has attained that degree. Our subject is a member of the Blue Lodge, No. 93, the Holy Cross Commandery, No. 10, and DeMolay Consistory, No. 1. A man of keen perception, of unbounded enterprise, his success in life is due entirely to his own efforts, and he is deserving of prominent mention among the leading and representative business men of the county.
Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.