John Parker resides on section 22, Union Township. His farm comprises 127 acres of land, which he purchased in 1875, and settled upon it the following year. No improvements had been made, but it is now in a good state of cultivation. He erected his buildings at a cost of about $800. Mr. Parker has been a resident of Carroll County since 1874, and of Iowa since 1852. He was born in Holmes County, Ohio, in 1836, son of Asa L. Parker. His parents had thirteen children, of whom he was the sixth child. Most of his life has been spent in farming. In June, 1862, he enlisted in the Twenty-sixth Iowa Infantry, and served until the close of the war. His regiment served in the First Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps. He was engaged in the siege of Vicksburg and Arkansas Post. When General Grant entered on the Vicksburg campaign, and decided to attack the enemy from below, Mr. Parker was one of the many who volunteered to run the blockade. He went aboard one of the gunboats, and did not accompany his regiment around by land. He rejoined it in time to take part in the last charge on the enemy’s works, then, with his regiment, he accompanied General Grant to Chattanooga. He took part, under General Hooker, in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. He took part in the Atlanta campaign and Sherman’s march to the sea, and participated in the grand review at Washington. He was married in Cedar County, Iowa, September 19, 1867, to Mary Ann Barlean, daughter of William and Mary Ann Barlean. She was born in Ohio in 1842, and in 1854 came with her parents to Iowa, who settled in Cedar County, where the father still lives. The mother is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Parker have three children — Lillian, Coral Ellen and Arthur. Politically Mr. Parker is a Republican, having cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, in 1864. He is a member of Perry Wright Post, G.A.R., at Coon Rapids.

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