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Permanent LinkRepresentative John M. Parker View All Years
JOHN M. PARKER was born at Circleville, Ohio, April 22, 1838, and died at Marshalltown, Iowa, June 5, 1919. In 1845 he was brought by his parents in their removal to Fulton County, Illinois. He attended common school and Hedding College, Abingdon, Illinois. Two months before he was to be graduated he left college and enlisted in Company F, Sixty-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served through the war. He carried a copy of Blackstone with him and, when discharged in 1865, taught school awhile and then came to Marshalltown and read law under L. W. Griswold and was admitted to the bar in 1866. He soon became active in helping to promote the building of railroads to Marshalltown. He served as mayor of Marshalltown from 1868 to 1871 and as city solicitor from 1876 to 1878. In 1877 he was elected representative and was re-elected two years later, serving in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth general assemblies. On the death of Judge Obed Caswell in 1906 he was appointed by Governor Cummins as one of the judges of the Seventeenth Judicial District. He was later elected and served until 1911.