Norman Parker

PARKER, SAFFORD, DOUGHTY, OSBORN, FOLSOM, GLENDENNING, DERFLINGER, MITTLESTADT, LAMBERT, TUTTLE

Posted By: Dorothy Gosse (email)
Date: 2/18/2004 at 11:50:11

NORMAN S. PARKER, a leading citizen and enterprising farmer who owns one of the best and most highly cultivated quarter-sections of land in Smithfield Township, was born in Enosburg, Franklin County, Vermont, October 18, 1823. The family was founded in America by JAMES PARKER, grandfather of our subject who spent his life in the Green Mountain State, dying about 1823. He was a minister in the Congregational Church and led an active and useful life. THERON PARKER, the father, was born in Cornwall, Vermont, acquired a common school education and at the age of twenty-one years began life for himself on a farm of his own. He was married to HARRIET SAFFORD, a native of Bennington, Vermont, and eleven years later, accompanied by his family, he emigrated to Erie County, New York, residing a part of the time in Buffalo, where he engaged in business as a contractor and the remainder of the time on his farm fifteen miles south of the city. On again changing his place of residence in 1838, he located in Ogle County, Illinois, then a wild unsettled region. The land was not yet in the market but Mr. Parker located a claim and erected a log cabin only eight miles from the scene of Stillman's defeat. That farm continued to be his home for forty-five years, when, on the 20th of November, 1883, his wife died and he came to this county, spending his last days at the home of his daughter, MRS. DOUGHTY, of Smithfield Township. Both he and his wife were lifelong members of the Congregational Church, active and zealous in good works. The children of Mr. and Mrs. PARKER are NORMAN S. PARKER of this sketch, MARTIN W. PARKER of Michigan; JAMES PARKER, deceased; MRS. CYNTHIA OSBORN, of Berlin, Illinois; MRS. HARRIET DOUGHTY, of Smithfield Township; and MRS. MARY FOLSOM, of Scott Township.

Our subject was ten years of age when his parents removed to New York and a lad of fifteen when his eyes first gazed abroad over the wild praires of the West. The family traveled by team from Chicago to their new home and as darkness came upon them before they reached their destination they were forced to encamp "amid the billowy sea of grass" all night. Mr. Parker received his primary education in the public schools of Buffalo and Illinois, completing his literary training in the schools of Galena. He remained on his father's farm until eighteen years of age. The year 1844 was spent by him among the Indians of the far Northwest at a mission station beyond St. Paul, a little south of where Duluth now stand, going there in the employ of the American Board of Missions. In 1845, he established himself in LaFayette County, Wisconsin, which but a short time previous had been open to settlement, while the land did not come into market till two years later. This place continued to be his home until the spring of 1872, when he removed to his present home in Fayette County. During this period of twenty-seven years which he spent in Wisconsin, he carried on the business of a gardener and nurseryman and the fine grove of evergreens and other trees that now adorn his Iowa farm he brought from there. On coming to Fayette County, MR. PARKER purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, only ten acres of which had been broken, while the place was entirely destitute of improvements, excepting a small cabin that has long since been replaced by a commodious and substantial residence. This is surrounded by good barns and outbuildings which in turn are enclosed by rich and fertile fields. The grove before mentioned is a thing of beauty and attracts the attention of every passer-by.

On the 27th of December, 1847, in Galena, Illinois, MR. PARKER was united in marriage with MISS R. JANE FOLSOM, a native of Parkersburg, Virginia, born September 13, 1821. Unto them have been born eight children --- MRS. HARRIET E. GLENDENNING, of South Dakota; CHARLES T. PARKER, who wedded MARY E. DERFLINGER and now resides on a farm in Scott Township; EDWARD PARKER, living in Kansas; EVA, who died in South Dakota; MRS. MARY MITTLESTADT, at home; MRS. ELLA LAMBERT, residing in Maywood, a suburb of Chicago; GOERGE PARKER, whose home is in Janesville, Wisconsin, where he is engaged in teaching telegraphy in the Valentine School; MRS. ALICE TUTTLE of Duluth, Wisconsin, completes the family. MRS. PARKER departed this life January 27, 1891.

From "1891 Portrait and Biographical Album of Fayette County, Iowa", pages 295-297
Note - this is not the full text of the biography