Harlan L. Parker

PARKER, STEVENSON, DEMAREST

Posted By: Mary Ellen Lanigan (email)
Date: 11/18/2017 at 16:25:24

Harlan L. Parker

HARLAN L. PARKER, present county engineer and surveyor of Osborne, is a man of versatile talents and experiences, and for over thirty years has been a factor in affairs and a medium of important service to the people of Osborne County.

He was born at Ottumwa, Iowa, April 12, 1868. His father, J. B. Parker, born in Pennsylvania in 1826, grew up and married in his native state and learned the trade of carpenter. In 1850 he moved to Illinois, thence to Iowa, and in March, 1878, came to Kansas and homesteaded a quarter section in Valley Township of Osborne County. Some years later he sold his farm and in 1885 moved to Osborne, where he used his skill as a carpenter and builder, and a number of houses and other structures constructed in the early days of the town are still standing as evidence of his workmanship. He died at Osborne in November, 1902. He was a steadfast republican in politics, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a Mason. J. B. Parker married Mary J. Stevenson. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1832 and is now living at Luray, Kansas. Ida, the oldest of her children, is the wife of Harry Gray, a retired farmer and former state senator living at Luray. Emma V., who died at Vincent, Kansas, in 1898, married Frank H. Gray, a school teacher now living in Oklahoma. Warren, the third child, died at the age of six years. The fourth is Harlan L. Parker.

The latter was ten years old when brought to Kansas and he finished his early education in the rural schools of Osborne County and was a member of the first class to graduate from the Osborne High School in 1886. Then followed an experience of ten years, during which he taught in various districts of Osborne County and at the same time learned and followed the trade of carpenter. He also took up the study and practice of civil engineering, and has been county surveyor for the past sixteen years and four years ago was also appointed county engineer. Nearly all the public work of importance in recent years has been planned and carried out under his supervision. Mr. Parker was also a farmer until 1914, in which year he sold his farm. He is a republican and a member of the official board of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1887, at Osborne, he married Miss Jennie Demarest, daughter of John H. and Mary E. (Ross) Demarest, the latter now living at Brighton, Colorado. Her father was a farmer and is now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Parker have a family of six children: Victor R. is a graduate of the Hahnemann Medical College of Kansas City, Missouri, and is practicing medicine and surgery at Covert, Kansas; Mabel is a graduate of the Kansas Wesleyan College at Salina and is principal of the Alton School in Osborne; Lewie runs a garage at Logan, Kansas; Edris is a graduate of the Osborne High School; and Grace and Dale are still in school at Osborne.

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