Born in Oswego Co., N.Y., July 20, 1829. He was carefully reared on his father's farm and received a substantial education. In June, 1855, he turned his face westward, and settled upon Cerro Gordo county as a field likely to afford scope to his energies and abilities. This section was then the Utopia of the pioneer; the broad stretch of prairie seemed a special boon to the early settler, who came here with little beside hope and manly strength as the basis of a successful future. In the fall of 1855 Mr. Parker located at Clear Lake. His connection with the politics of the county commenced with his advent, he being elected one of the first justices of Clear Lake township. During his residence at Clear Lake, he opened and cultivated a farm on the north shore of the lake. In 1859 he was elected county treasurer and recorder, and removed to Mason City to enter upon the duties of his office, Jan. 1, 1860. He served two years, and, Jan. 1, 1862, associated with C. W. Tobin, a compositor in the office, purchased the Cerro Gordo Republican, a paper established in 1861. In the autumn ensuing, Mr. Tobin enlisted in the Union Army, and Mr. Parker was left to the mechanical as well as editorial management of the Republican. In 1862 Mr. Parker was appointed deputy clerk of the district courts and clerk of the board of supervisors. In 1863, after the death of H. B. Gray, clerk of the court, he was elected to fill the vacancy, and held the post until January, 1865, declining reelection on account of his editorial obligations. In the fall of 1870 he was elected one of three supervisors, who were to constitute the board instead of one official from each civil township. Mr. Parker drew the short term and acted one year. At the same time he was councilman of Mason City, and a member of the school board of the independent school district. He reappeared in public life in 1881, when he was elected to fill a vacancy in the State Senate, where his official record is one of honor to his manhood and credit to his constituency. He was married in 1861 to Mary A., daughter of Luke Coon of Wisconsin.