his desire and ambition to see this institution one of the foremost institutions of the kind in the United States. His unbounded faith in it has been the strongest stimulus to its great success. He was also President of the Beatrice Sewer Pipe Company. For a period of nine years he served with distinction on the Beatrice School Board, and was ever one of the most ardent friends of the public school system of the City and State. He has also served with credit and distinction as a member of the City Council for a number of years and also as a member of the Gage County Board of Supervisors. In both of these capacities he was ever regarded as a most influential and valuable member. As a member of the building committee of the Board of Supervisors, his mature business judgment was evident in the construction of the magnificent court house of Gage County. He was also engaged in the lumber business in this City for a number of years, his yards being on the ground now occupied by the Paddock Hotel. He was one of the principal movers and stockholders in the erection of the Masonic Temple of Beatrice and was permantly identified with every enterprise that could in the remotest degree redound to the glory and honor of Beatrice. Judge Parker was a member of the Masonic and I. O. O. F. fraternities, and was at one time Grand Master of the I. O. O. F. of the State. Those who knew Judge Parker best, esteemed him most. He was a man of generous impulses and was the incarnation of integrity and sturdy honesty. He despised deceit, treachery and misrepresentation. He was ever aggressive, and a man of stern manly opinions. He took up his residence seven miles north of Beatrice, and there resided until the spring of 1865. Thence he removed to the southern part of Seward county, and purchasing land, laid out the town of Camden, established a saw mill and made general preparations to establish himself in business. Two years later he had a flouring mill in operation. This proved a nucleus around which a goodly number of emigrants gathered, and built up their homes. The building of the Burlington & Missouri railroad some six miles north resulted in robbing the city of its pretentions, but its agricultural and water privileges, among the best in the State, received ample recognition, and had the effect of keeping there a class of intelligent and progressive people. Mr. Parker, upon coming to Nebraska, was at once recognized as a valued addition to its farming and business interests, and as a man eminently qualified to hold responsible positions. In the fall of 1860 he was elected to represent the counties of Gage, Johnson and Clay, in the territorial legislature, and later was elected county judge under the old territorial law. He also served as county clerk and postmaster, besides acting as commissioner of Seward county for a term of three years. In 1871 he was a candidate for the office of secretary of state, but after the first ballot withdrew his name. That same year he was elected as a delegate to the constitutional convention and was also appointed register of the United States land office at Beatrice, which position he held for a period of thirteen years, under the administrations of Grant, Garfield and Arthur. In 1852, while a resident of Ohio, Mr. Parker was united in marriage with Miss Almira T. Dole, of Portsmouth, Ohio. They passed the first six years of their married life in Ohio. Four children were born to them: Frank H., Louis C., Charles D., and Eddie H. DAVID BUTLER (1829-1891), first governor of the State and member of the State Historical Society from 1880, was a native of Monroe County, Indiana, where he was born December 15, 1829.1 He remained on the homestead until he was twenty years of age. There were few schools in the neighborhood in those days, and from these 1 Omaha Bee, May 26, 1891. |