Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/692

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
652
PARKER
PARKER

N. J. Princeton gave him the degree of D. D. in 1839. Dr. Parker was a frequent contributor to the religious press, at one time was associate editor of the “Presbyterian Quarterly Review,” and published “Lectures on Unitarianism” (New York, 1829); “Morals for a Young Student” (1832); “Invitations to True Happiness” (1843); “Reasonings of a Pastor” (1849); “Notes on Twelve Psalms” (1849); “Sermons” (1852); and “Pastor's Initiatory Catechism” (1855). He also edited the “Sermons of Rev. John W. Adams,” with a memoir (1851).


PARKER, Joel, governor of New Jersey, b. near Freehold, N. J., 24 Nov., 1816; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 2 Jan., 1888. His father, Charles, was a member of the New Jersey legislature for several years, and served one term as state treasurer. Joel removed with his father to Trenton in 1821, was graduated at Princeton in 1839, studied law under Chief-Justice Henry W. Green, and settled in Freehold, N. J. He began his political career in 1844 as a Democratic speaker, and was in the assembly in 1847-'50, prosecuting attorney in 1852-'7, and a presidential elector in 1860, casting his vote for Stephen A. Douglas. He had been commissioned brigadier-general of militia in 1857, and in 1861 became major-general. He had ardently opposed the civil war, but when it began he actively supported the National government. He was elected governor of New Jersey in 1862, as a Democrat, served till 1866, and during his occupation of that office conducted the affairs of state with prudence and ability. During Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863 he supplied several organized regiments of New Jersey volunteers that were sent to the protection of that state, but when a levy of 12,000 men was made on New Jersey in 1864, to make good a supposed deficiency in her former quotas, he obtained from President Lincoln the withdrawal of the order. Gov. Parker also established a method of settlement of the war debt, so that not a bond of the state of New Jersey was sold below par, and at the close of the war in 1865 there was a surplus of $200,000 in the state treasury. He took strong grounds in favor of an amnesty toward those that had taken part in the war against the National government. In 1868 the New Jersey delegation to the National Democratic convention, in New York city, cast their full vote for him in every ballot for the presidential nomination. He was again elected governor in 1870, and at the conclusion of his term became attorney-general of the state. He was chosen a judge of the supreme court of New Jersey in 1880, and was re-elected in 1887, presiding over the central circuit of the state. In 1883 he declined the nomination for governor. Rutgers gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1872.


PARKER, John, member of the Continental congress, b. in Charleston, S. C., 24 Jan., 1749; d. on his plantation near there, 20 April, 1822. He was educated abroad, and graduated at the Middle Temple, London, in 1775. He returned to South Carolina the next year, settled on his rice-planta- tion, and engaged in planting. In 1786-'8 he served in the Continental congress. Mr. Parker was the brother-in-law of Arthur Middleton.


PARKER, John Adams, artist, b. in New York city, 29 Nov., 1829. He received his education at New York university, and was a merchant from 1850 till 1857. He then studied art, exhibiting first at the Academy of design in 1858, since which time he has been a regular contributor. He was made an associate of the academy in 1869, and is a member of the Brooklyn art association and one of the founders of the Brooklyn art club. Since 1856 he has resided in that city. Mountain scenery has especially claimed his attention, and the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and the White mountains have furnished him with most of the subjects for his paintings. They include “Twilight in the Adirondacks” (1876); “Winter” (1879); “Winter Twilight” (1880); “Landscape in the Adirondacks — Twilight” (1882); “Winter Evening” (1884); “The Gothics — Adirondacks ” (1885); and “Close of a November Day, Ausable Pond, Adirondacks” (1886).


PARKER, Linus, M. E. bishop, b. in Rome, N. Y., in 1829; d. in New Orleans, La., 5 March, 1885. He went to the south in his youth, and became a clerk in New Orleans, where he studied Latin and Greek before daylight in the morning and after his return from business in the evening. He soon became a Christian, had great gifts as an exhorter, and before he was twenty-one years of age entered the Louisiana conference. He was kept four years on circuits, during which he was ordained deacon and then elder. His abilities were immediately recognized, and he was transferred to New Orleans, continuing there as pastor of the various chief stations of his church until he was appointed presiding elder of the district that includes that city. He was also editor of the New Orleans “Christian Advocate” for some time. Early in his ministry he was elected a delegate to the general conference, and sat in its quadrennial sessions from 1870 till 1882, inclusive. In the latter year he was elected a bishop. He excelled both as a writer and a speaker.


PARKER, Nahum, senator, b. in Cheshire county, N. H., 4 March, 1760; d. in Fitzwilliam, N. H., 12 Nov., 1839. He was state councillor in 1805-'7, was elected to the U. S. senate in 1806, and served from 1807 till 1810, when he resigned. He was justice of the court of common pleas in 1813-'16, judge of the court of sessions of Cheshire county in 1821, and president of the New Hampshire senate in 1828,


PARKER, Permelia Jane Marsh, author, b. in Milan, Dutchess co., N. Y., 16 June, 1836. Her father was Joseph Marsh, a Campbellite minister, who adopted the views of William Miller and was a leader in the “Second Advent movement” in 1843-'50. She was educated in Rochester, N. Y., and in 1856 married George T. Parker, a lawyer of that city. Mrs. Parker is a frequent contributor to “The Churchman” and other publications of the Protestant Episcopal church, and is the author of “Toiling and Hoping,” a novel (New York, 1856); “The Boy Missionary” (1859); “Losing the Way” (1860); “Under His Banner” (1862); “The Morgan Boys” (1859); “Rochester, a Story Historical” (Rochester, 1884); “The Midnight Cry,” a novel founded on the Millerite movement (New York, 1886); “Life of S. F. B. Morse” (1887); and “Papers Relating to the Genesee Country” (1888).


PARKER, Sir Peter, bart., British naval officer, b. in Ireland in 1721; d. in London. 21 Dec., 1811. He became a post-captain in 1747, and in 1775 in the “Bristol,” of fifty guns, left England with a