Figure 3 - Spring, 1896, Gilman Congregational Church Y P S C E
Top Row - Will Wylie, Linda Dunkle Wylie, Gertrude Ingersoll Evans, Clara Lavender Buck, Grant Ramsey, Mariam Ingersoll Howe, Abi Ramsey Frankforth, Lillian Ingersoll Ramsey.
2nd Row - Robert Lavender Parker, Roy Wylie, Archie Pence, Frank Williams, Mamie Paul Madill, Elba Neely.
3rd Row – Jesse Ramsey, Rev. R. F. Lavender, Arthur Funk, John Frankforth, Edith Parker Lewis.
Bottom Row – Jennie Lavender Fanton, Ida Hulin Carmer, Eva Williams, Ida Lavender Hayes.
Grandfather helped Bess enroll at Iowa College and helped her with college costs. Her mother, Martha Emma Browne Carney, was one of the first women in Iowa to graduate from college.
They were married on the last day of December, 1901 and took a honeymoon trip to Chicago.
The Family of Bess Carney
Bess’s father, John M. Carney, was a realtor, a Justice of the Peace, and the first mayor of the town of Gilman; a very interesting fellow. He was one of the first rural school teachers in Poweshiek County. He was a member of the matriculating class of 1860 of Iowa College (now Grinnell College,) and joined all but three of that class who joined the Union Army before completing their freshman year. A member of the 4th Iowa Cavalry Volunteers, he served as Regimental Commissary Sargent until the war ended in August, 1865.
Starting On and Down the Wires
Shortly after his graduation, Rob visited a family friend southeast of Grinnell who had recently installed one of the first telephones in the area. He was fascinated, and decided to make the telephone his future. By that time, about 1901, there were companies in many Iowa towns setting up telephone services.
Rob took his bicycle and went west, looking for a telephone job. We have two letters that Rob wrote to his sweetheart Bess before they were married.
The Traer Years
The Robert L. Parker family moved from Gladbrook, Iowa to Traer in Oct. of 1905. Thru the winter of 1905-06 they were living in rooms back of the telephone office which was located in the central portion of the second story of the building, with living rooms to the north.
The Henderson Brothers owned, and operated, a grocery business on the first floor of this building – located on the north-east corner of the main intersection of the town. The B. Frank Thomas law office occupied the front room of the 2nd story.
Mrs. Parker, and her sister, were operating the telephone switch board when the first news came over the wires concerning the great San Francisco earth quake of 1906.
In the spring of 1906 the Parkers moved into rooms owned by Mrs. Kordena, located on the ground where Dr. Farnham later built his hospital. After living in these rooms for 6 months the Parkers moved – in Sept. of 1906, to the McComas house on Woodlawn Avenue. Mrs. Grace Armstrong, a friend of the Parker family, lived with them in this home for some time. The Parkers lived in this home thru 1907 and 1908 but in the spring of 1909 Mr. Parker took a job for the Central Iowa Telephone Co. and moved the family to Prairie City, Iowa.
This job lasted only one year and in 1910 Mr. Parker was hired by the Farmers Mutual Telephone Co., of Traer, so back the Parkers came to the town of Traer, Ia.
At this time (Sept. 1910) the Parker family moved into the house at 302 So. Main St., which was owned by Mrs. Eleanor Carrick, and was located across the alley to the north from the Methodist Church. This was the first of two spells of living in this home for the Parker family.
In the year 1913 the Parkers moved into the residence owned by Miss Grace Wood, located just west of the Frank Thomas corner.
In the fall of 1915 the Parkers moved to a house located 2 blocks east of the park, owned by the Metcalf family. After two years in this home the Parkers moved across the street south into a house owned by B. Frank Thomas, remaining here for only a few months.
On Oct. 23rd, 1917, Parkers left this section of town, east of the park, moving for the second time into the house on So. Main St. owned by Mrs. Carrick. After about 3 years the Parker family moved, on April 1st, 1920, from this house on So. Main St, into a house which Mr. Parker had purchased for a family home from Mr. Wm. Kuhl. It is located to the west of the high school and across the street north from the school athletic field.
In the fall of 1928 Mr. Parker changed jobs again, this time to Bloomington, Illinois, where he managed telephone companies.
Moving and Building To Illinois, Bloomington and Geneseo In Geneseo
His Family Back to Gilman
Robert Donald Parker, Telephone Man
My Dad was born in Traer, Iowa on the 8th of September, 1914. His oldest sister, Winifred (Winnie) was eleven and Muriel was six. The Parker family lived in a house at 302 So. Main St., which was located across the alley to the north from the Methodist Church, just two blocks from Traer’s main business street. The church and the street (2nd Street) are still there.
In the year 1913 the Parkers moved into a residence owned by Miss Grace Wood, located just west of the Frank Thomas corner.
His Youth With Esther Pauline Swanson Independent Telephony
Mention Telephony Magazine, Jan. 7, 1939 for Dad’s article and other ads.
Remembering Dad My Side Robert Marion Parker Family With Mom and Dad
My story started on June 5th, 1935, when I was born in the Hammond Henry Hospital in Geneseo, Illinois. Geneseo, in Henry County, had less than 3,000 people then. It was mostly a farming town, but it had its own telephone company. My grandfather was its manager. Dad worked for him as Line Chief, which meant that he was in charge of building and keeping up the company’s lines and poles throughout the town and for about 15 miles around. It was outdoor work, mostly, and he worked long hours. When storms tore through, dad and his men went out to splice and put them back up. I still have a pair of pole climbers with sharp hooks which he strapped to his shins for mounting poles. Mom worked as a switchboard operator for a while.
Grandfather was a leader in the community. Both he and Dad were presidents of the Kiwanis Club. We had a lot of family around us; Dad’s mother, Bess Carney Parker, Mom’s father and mother, Swan and Olga Swanson, who farmed a few miles to the east of town, Mom’s sister Lillian and her husband Tom, and one of Dad’s sisters, Winifred Beachler and her husband. Aunt Lil’s husband ran the maintenance shop for a large coal strip mine. Aunt Winnie’s husband Russ was personnel manger for the great John Deere Harvester Works at Moline. Winnie also owned the Beachler Shop, the best women’s wear shop in Geneseo.
I can’t imagine my parents’ feelings when I was born with a cleft palate and a hairlip. I do know that they borrowed a substantial amount of money so I could have corrective surgery in Chicago when only a few months old. It took them several years to pay that money back.14 I’ve always felt a great debt to Mom and Dad, not only for their love but for their extraordinary investments in me.
Sister Diane Margaret was born just thirteen months after me, and was a perfect baby. We were playmates and friends for all of our lives together. Geneseo had to elementary schools, then, the South Side and the North Side. I went to the South School for kindergarten and first grade.
My Best Decision, Loretta After Bradley My Children, My Pride The Places We Lived Back to Story City Diane Margaret Parker Little Family Diane, My Sister Roger H. Little Their Children Etc.
The Family in 2012 Our Parkers: Histories of the 16 Who Came Introductions
This section is an introduction to the members of the family that came from Ireland and started our history in Iowa. Many of their stories will be covered in the chronological (more or less) sections above.
The notes below came from the wonderful little notebook made by my Grandmother Bess in the 1940’s: Here is a picture of the precious little hand-made memoir which my Grandmother Bess Carney Parker left me. Her husband, my grandfather, was Robert Lavender Parker, son of William E. Parker, who was the son of Robert Parker who came from County Down in 1860. This little notebook has 21 leaves, some written on both sides, and is 4 ½ inches wide by 5 ¾ inches tall. There are many mentions of our common ancestors. Some of the pages contain handwriting not of Grandmother Bess. Perhaps you can guess the authors from the sense of the notes. If you think seeing the hand would help, I can send you pictures of the pages like the one above.
The memoir is not dated, although I see on p. 7 a note, obviously added, that one of our people died in Sept., 1950. I suspect that most of it was written in the 1940s, after my grandfather died.
So you won’t have to read Grandma’s sometimes difficult writing, I’ll summarize them for you hereafter, shown thus:
Father Robert
Robert Parker, 1st, as I call him, was born in 1800 or 1805 or 1806 in Newry, County Down, Ireland. He was the patriarch of our Parker line. Husband of Susanna, father of 16. Died on Feb 23, 1868 at home in Cleona Township, Scott County, Iowa. Buried at Durant Cemetery, Durant, Iowa.
“Robert Parker, born in Ireland in 1800, he came to America, bringing his family with him, in 1861, from Newry, County Down, arriving in January, 1862. They were of Presbyterian faith in northern Ireland, not being catholic as was the southern part.
In 1827 he married Susanna Lowery, also of County Down. Her home was in a town called Newry, near Loch Brickland.”
Mother Susanna
Matriarch of the family. Born Susanna Lowery, in Ireland in 1807, married Robert in 1827, came to Scott County, Iowa in 1861, lived on the farm in Cleona Township for 17 years, moved to Jasper County in 1879, where she lived with son James. She had 16 children. When she died in 1893 she was buried at Durant beside Robert 1st and her son, Samuel, and her daughter, Susanna.
In 1827 he married Susanna Lowery, also of County Down. Her home was in a town called Newry, near Loch Brickland. Her father’s name was James Lowery and her mother’s maiden name was Magaffin. After the death of her father, James Lowery, Susanna’s mother (Magaffin) married a 2nd time; James Wilson. Their descendants are Alex and Kimberly Wilson, of West Liberty, Iowa.
They were 6 weeks on a sailing boat crossing the Atlantic. They settled on a farm in Scott Col, Iowa, northeast of Durant. In this country they became Congregationalists, bringing their church letters from the church in Ireland.
He died 2/23/1868 at his home in Scott County, at the age of 67, and is buried in the cemetery at Durant, Iowa.
“My husband Robert L. Parker and young son Robert Donald (my father /RmP) visited this cemetery in 1930. This verse is engraved on the tombstone;
‘Go home, dear children, and cease from tears,
We must be here till Christ appears,
Repent in time, while time you have,
There is no repentance in the grave.’
Son James
James, the oldest son of Robert and Susanna, was born in County Down, Ireland on May 13, 1829. James never married. After his father’s death, when the farm in Scott County was sold, he moved to Hickory Grove Township, Jasper County, just southwest of Gilman, Iowa. His mother, Susanna, lived with James for many years, as did . He died on June 10, 1899 and is buried at Prairie View Cemetery at Gilman. 
Isaac
Isaac was born in County Down in 1831. He came to America in June, 1848 and settled in New York City. He married Etta Conacher, daughter of John (a merchant) and Eliza Conacher, with whom he had one child, named Euphemia. Isaac died on January 7, 1879 and was buried in New York City.
Mary Ann
Mary Ann was the oldest daughter of Robert and Susanna, born in County down on Christmas Day, 1833. She was 28 years old when the Parkers arrived in Scott County. In 1867 she married Francis Andrew Ross, a neighbor of the Parkers who had served in the Civil War. In 1875 they moved to a farm that Francis bought in Washington County, near Franklin. They had six children. She always was proud of her family. Matilda, her unmarried sister, lived with her for some time, and she was visited by her sister Esther. Mary Ann died on October 1, 1900, and is buried in Elm Grove Cemetery, Washington County, Iowa. Richard F. Ross, of Ames, Iowa, is the great grandson of Mary Ann.
Robert
Robert, third son of Robert and Susanna, was born in County Down in about 1831. He left Ireland at Belfast and came to America in 1852. He stayed at New York City, where he married Sarah Jane Blackwood. Robert died on Nov. 5, 1866. He founded and owned a substantial business called Parker Varnish Works, in Brooklyn. They had two children, Jennie and Robert Alexander Parker. Jennie, who married Charles A. Resch, had two children, Robert Parker Resch and Charles Arthur Resch. Robert Alexander Parker had no children.
Ester
Grandmother Bess’s notes say that Ester (or Esther) was born on Dec. 21, 1833 in County Down. However, several census records made during her life in Chicago all point to 1843 as the probable year of her birth. On June 11, 1866, she married William B. MacCauley (or McCauley, or MacAuley?,) in Scott County. He took her to Chicago, where he became a policeman. They had six children. Esther (or Ester) lived until 1934. She remained in contact with her family in Iowa.
Susanna
Susanna Parker was about 27 years old when the Parkers arrived in Iowa. Grandmother Bess’s notes state that “Susanna was very good at needlepoint sewing.”
Susanna married Eralza Allen Bennett on June 17, 1865. Eralza’s family were neighbors of the Parkers in Cleona Township. After Susanna died on May 13, 1869, Mr. Bennett married Hannah Smiley on 4 July, 1870. Eralza and Hannah cared for Evelyn, handicapped daughter of Eralza and Susanna, until she died on Nov. 30, 1905 at the Glenwood Institution in Mills, Iowa. Evelyn is buried with her father in Ida Grove.
Susanna lies with her mother and father and her brother Samuel in the Durant Cemetery.
David
We think that David Samuel Parker was born on Dec. 11, 1836 in County Down, and came to America in 1854 on the ship Alleron. We know that he came out to Iowa, either with or after Our Parkers arrived there, where he married Georgia Margaret Sherfey at Muscatine on his birthday in 1866. David and Georgia witnessed the marriage of his sister Mary Ann to Francis Andrew Ross in 1867. He and Georgia had three children named David Burton, Estelle Gay, and George Hull Parker. It seems possible that David may have influenced Robert and Susanna to settle in Iowa. He and Georgia moved to Chicago, where David was a salesman. He died on Dec. 26, 1889, and is buried in Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery.
I’d like to know more about David.
Jeane (Eliza)
Matilda Agnes, 1st Ellen Isabelle William
William, born on September 10, 1849, was my great-grandfather.
Richard
The following piece on the history and family of Richard comes from the hand of John David Parker, one of the Parker Team:
Richard Parker, one of 14 children of Robert and Susanna Lowery Parker, immigrated with his family from County Down Ireland to Scott County, Iowa in the early 1860’s. Loughbrickland Church was the site of young Richard’s baptism into the Presbyterian faith in Ireland.
Richard’s father died a few short years after their arrival in Iowa. He (and eventually his wife Susanna along with a son Sam) is buried in the Durant, Iowa cemetery. Robert acquired 240 acres in Cleona township Scott county prior to his death. Oldest son James along with the younger boys and their sisters kept the family together during those tumultuous years including the panic of 1873 by tending to the farm together. Teamwork learned as a family and by working with other Cleona township residents late of the Old Sod such as the Pauls, Ross’, and more served as a template for the Parker’s for generations.
Eventually, Richard and his brother William, exercising their inherit Scotch-Irish independence set forth to make their own way in the world. They arrived in central Iowa and soon (1875) bought a farm in Hickory Grove township, Jasper County, Iowa. They purchased 100 acres apiece plus sister Mary Ann’s brother-in-law S.H. Ross invested in 40 acres to make a 240 acre farm for the brothers to operate. Other family members and Cleona township neighbors came to join the brothers in the ensuing years.
The brothers prospered. The young brother’s soon found themselves on the path to marriage alter. William married Hannah Lavender and shortly thereafter Richard married Matilda Paul. William and Hannah’s family history is recorded by Robert Parker, their great grandson. Richard and Matilda were my (John D. Parker) great grandparents. I will focus primarily on Richard and Matilda’s branch.
Matilda Paul Parker’s father was William John Paul. Her mother was Martha Buick Paul. They hailed from County Antrim. William John Paul’s brothers were amongst the very earliest settlers of Scott County, Iowa. The Paul family, along with the Ross’, Buick’s, Lowry’s, McIlrath’s, Lavender’s, etc. are forever interwoven with the Parker’s through marriage, land, church, spirit, money, and common heritage. Their names are forever etched in the history and records of the Gilman (Marshall county) and Newburg (Jasper county) areas of Iowa.
Shortly after their marriage and the birth of their firstborn William John Parker, Richard and Matilda bought a 160 acre farm in section 12 Hickory Grove Township Jasper county Iowa. (Brother William bought 160 acres just down the road a mile in Poweshiek County, Chester township.) Soon brother James and Mother Susanna arrived in Jasper county along with, at various intervals, sisters Aggie and Matilda. Sister Isabelle married David Paul and lived nearby. Sister Ellen married James L. Paul and also farmed in close proximity.
A close relationship was maintained with the Ross’ of West Chester—sisters Aggie and Mary Ann married Sam H. and Francis Ross, respectfully.
Richard and Matilda were devoted to the land all of their lives. Two more sons were born to this union, Samuel and James. Note that Richard named his boys after his brothers---Matilda named her boys after her Dad and brother. As the boys grew to manhood Granddad W.J. Paul, Uncle James Parker, Uncle Will Parker, Aunt Ellen (Parker) Paul, Uncle’s James and John Paul all farmed in the vicinity. More Irish relatives and friends were nearby together making a formidable enclave. Soon German’s and Norwegians joined the group. Individualism reigned but no one was a success without his neighbor prospering with him through utilization of joint thriftiness and hard work. A neighbor’s problem was your problem.
Richard’s dream was a farm for each son. Before he died he had achieved this goal but the land was mortgaged. His sons, William John, Sam, and James paid the notes and bought more farms eventually owning farms in Jasper, Marshall, Poweshiek, and Grundy counties.
Sam and his wife, Grace McIlrath Parker, had no children. James and his wife Ester Wallace Parker had a son Paul and daughter Frances. Paul’s son Jim lives in the area while his sisters are residents of other states. Frances and her husband Bob Ross ran a highly successful resort near Spirit Lake, Iowa. Their children Carl, Larry, Kathy, Mary, and Jane are spread throughout the county but maintain close communication via modern technology. William John Parker and his wife Etta Shayer had a daughter Marie and a son Richard. Marie’s daughter (her son Charles is deceased) maintains ownership of a family farm north of Newburg. Richard’s daughter Mary is deceased—her family keeps her property in Marshall county. Richard’s son John (the writer of this missive) continues to farm (with wife Susan) in the Gilman Newburg area just like Dad, and Granddad, Great Granddad, and Great Great Granddad in earlier times.
The entire Parker clan should be forever grateful to Robert and Susanna for instilling all the intangibles such as independent spirit, self reliance, perseverance, courage to try, common sense, respect for fellow man, perhaps some wit (and wisdom?), and old fashioned work ethics throughout the family. We feature farmers, inventors, scholars, warriors, pilots, business men and much more amongst our numerous careers. But family ties (perhaps this is Susanna’s gift) built upon devotion, caring, and more continue to shine through time and over oceans and miles to this day. Thank you, Robert and Susanna.
Samuel
Samuel was born in 1856 in County Down. He died at age 19, on March 10, 1875. He’s buried in the Durant Cemetery, in the plot with his father, mother, and sister Susanna.
Agnes, 2nd
Agnes was born on June 20, 1857, in County Down. She moved with her family to Cleona Township, where she met and married Samuel Hildreth Ross. She died on Feb. 22, 1945 and is buried in Elm Grove Cemetery, Washington County, Iowa.
Unanswered Questions
Why did not our family pass down stories about their life in the homeland?
Why did they come to America?
How did they get the money to do it?
Why to Cleona Township?
When arrive at Cleona?
Why to Jasper/Marshall/Poweshiek County?
Did William and his father, Robert; journey to America early in 1861? Did William stay?
Sources and Resources Grandmother Bess's Notes, a Family Treasure Questions Remain
Our research has turned up several mysteries. Sometimes the notes of Grandmother Bess (GB) do not agree with other records. We also have found several conflicts between records. For instance, Grandmother Bess’s notes consistently state that Robert Parker was born in 1800, whereas other records claim his birth in 1805 or 1806. Since there are no official birth records from Ireland, the truth is hard to determine.
In another instance, the list of Parker passengers on the Steamship Etna includes the name of a Millie, born about 1858. No other record of Millie has been found. All family notes include son William as one of the 12, born in 1849, but there is no William in the Etna list nor is there any other record of his passage to America. I think that William (Willie) was the Millie on the list, even though the birth date is off by about ten years15.I’ve included a list of questions about our heritage that I think are still unanswered in a section near the end of this work. I hope that the answers are found, by someone some day.
Notes from The Team
Although Richard and John and I have met a few times, most of the information passed between us has been via email. Of course, all of our communication with Colin has been electronic. There are hundreds of messages, many of them very valuable and great contributions to our history. I hope to make all of it available to readers of this book.
You will also see messages from others who have been helpful; Ros Davies, who has a wonderful County Down Genealogy Web site at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rosdavies/SURNAMES/Afrontpage.htm .
There is an Irishman living in Loughbrickland today, David Hanna, who might be related to us (if we could only prove the relationship.) He sent me a chart showing his line of Parkers and Hannas.
Stories
I want to include many family stories in this book. I’ve not yet decided on the best way to do this. Links make that easy, so maybe I’ll publish this whole thing on a Web site. I’ll have to digitize many of the pages from Grandmother Bess – perhaps as .pdf files.
Sources.
From Prairie to Corn Belt, by Allan G. Bogue, is probably the best source on agricultural practices in Iowa of the pioneer period, but see also John Hudson, Making the Corn Belt: A Geographical History of Middle-Western Agriculture (Bloomington, IN, 1994);
David B. Danbom, Born in the Country: A History of Rural America (Baltimore, 1995);
Hall S. Barron, Mixed Harvest: The Second Great Transformation in the Rural North, 1870-1930 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1997);
Malcom J. Rohrbough, The Trans-Appalachian Frontier, 1978, and
Lewis Atherton, Main Street on the Middle Border, 1954.
Cyrenus Cole, Iowa Through the Years, 1940 and George F. Parker, Iowa Pioneer Foundations, 1940, both published by the State Historical Society of Iowa, contain many reminiscences of Iowans who experienced the 19th century.
Earle D. Ross, Iowa Agriculture: An Historical Survey (Iowa City, 1951).
Marvin Bergman, Editor, The Annals of Iowa, State Historical Society of Iowa. Dr. Bergman has helped me in both these pages and in my writings on Iowa Telephone History. He can be reached at: Marvin-Bergman@uiowa.edu | 319.335.3931 | iowahistory.org , 402 Iowa Avenue, Iowa City, IA 52240. Here are some references he sent me in April, 2015.
For the political culture of the period,
Robert Cook, Baptism of Fire: The Republican Party in Iowa, 1838–1878 (Ames, 1994)
Cook’s article, “The Political Culture of Antebellum Iowa: An Overview,” in The Annals of Iowa 52 [Summer 1993], 225–50 [and reprinted in my Iowa History Reader].
For town development, see Lewis Atherton, Main Street on the Middle Border (1954; repr., Bloomington, IN, 1984);
Timothy Mahoney, River Towns in the Great West: The Structure of Provincial Urbanization in the Midwest, 1820–1870 (New York, 1990);
and Timothy Mahoney, Provincial Lives: Middle-Class Experience in the Antebellum Middle West (New York, 1999)
(or Mahoney’s articles in the Annals of Iowa [Summer 1990 and Fall 2002])
. On women’s experiences during the period (which, of course, reflect the broader frontier experience),
see Glenda Riley, Frontierswomen: The Iowa Experience (Ames, 1981) (as well as a number of articles Riley wrote for the Annals of Iowa and other publications, one of which is reprinted in my Iowa History Reader).
For the immigrant experience, see Jon Gjerde, The Minds of the West: The Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Midwest, 1830-1917 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1997).
For Iowa’s natural history, see Cornelia Mutel, The Emerald Horizon: The History of Nature in Iowa (Iowa City, 2008). Also possibly relevant is Robert Swierenga, Pioneers and Profits: Land Speculation on the Iowa Frontier (Ames, 1968); Steven Hahn and Jonathan Prude, eds.
The Countryside in the Age of Capitalist Transformation (Chapel Hill, NC, 1985); David W. Galenson and Clayne L. Pope, “Economic and Geographic Mobility on the Farming Frontier: Evidence from Appanoose County, Iowa, 1850–1870,
” Journal of Economic History 49 (1989), 635–55;
and Fred W. Peterson, Homes in the Heartland: Balloon Frame Farmhouses of the Upper Midwest, 1850–1920 (Lawrence, KS, 1992)
(or Peterson’s article, “Tradition and Change in Nineteenth-Century Iowa Farmhouses,” Annals of Iowa 52 [Summer 1993], 251–81).
One of the best general accounts of the frontier experience is in Malcolm J. Rohrbough, The Transappalachian Frontier: People, Societies, and Institutions, 1775–1850 (New York, 1978), especially chapter 13, “The Last Frontier of the Old Northwest: Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa.”
Notes
1 John lives at 3169 Yates Avenue, Gilman, Iowa on a farm that has been in Parker family for over one hundred years. ETC.
2 Dr. Richard F. Ross lives in Ames and in California. ETC
3 Perhaps there is a lesson for you; John and I have both lived for more than 60 years! Richard Frances Ross and I were born in 1958. We should have met long, long before. Please find and get in touch with your relatives! You’ll find it very rewarding. This book and the Robert Parker Family Tree 1 at Ancestry .com will help you identify them, but making contact is up to you.
4 Loughbrickland Presbyterian Church baptism records, Parkers, 1844 to 1883.
5 In the church record of baptisms the name of a child born in 1849 is blank. It must have been William, who was born on Sept. 10, 1849.
6 See also: “The Graves are Walking; TheGreat Famine and the Saga of the Irish People,” John Kelly, Henry Holt, 2012.
7 From The History of Cleona Township, History of Scott County, Iowa, 1882, Chicago: Interstate Publishing Co.
8Interstate Publishing Co: “The township of Cleona is an exclusively agricultural one, there being neither village nor post office within its boundaries. It comprises congressional township 79, range 1 east. It is wholly prairie, there being not more than 15 acres of timber in the entire township. Notwithstanding the late date of its settlement, in comparison with the townships lying along the river, it is now (1888) all under fence, and under a high state of cultivation. There is practically no waste land in the township.“The first entry made in the township was by Jacob Royal, Sept. 15, 1851, and comprised the southeast quarter of section 25, township 79, range 1 east. The last was by Ebenezer Cook, eb. 28, 1856, the north half of the northwest quarter of section 34. The first settlement made in the township was in 1851. In April, 1852, Robert Johnson and James Paul entered the west half of the southeast quarter of section 23, and the southeast of the northeast, and northeast of the southeast of the same section. Mr. Paul alone entered the northeast of the southwest quarter of section 23. At that time the only house in the township was John and Joseph Sinter's, on the northeast quarter of section 12. Early in the spring of 1853 Robert Johnson built a house, hiring the Sinters to help him, and boarding with them while the work was being done. Thomas Johnson, the father of Robert, went on his claim in April, 1853, and during the same year broke 20 acres of land. James Paul broke 30 acres in the same time.
In the fall of 1853 William J. Paul, a brother of James, with his family came out, and James erected a house on his claim, in which he and his brother lived until 1858. The Sinters came to this country from England. Joseph Sinter is now (1888) dead and John now lives in Hickory Grove Township. The Johnsons and Pauls came from Ireland. James is yet living in the township, and William is in Cedar County.”
Index
Here I hope to index the entire book.
9
10 “History of Cleona Township
11 See “History of Cleona Twp,” att’d.
12 See http://showcase.netins.net/web/brooktelco
13 I don’t know if that company stayed in business until the patents expired, but I’ll try to find out.
14Shulman, The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret. Just before I went to college, in 1953, they paid for another series of “cosmetic” operations in St. Louis.
Isaac came to the United States in 1848 and lived in Brooklyn, New York. He married Etta (Effie) Conacher, and died in New York in 1879. Robert came over in 1852, married Sara Jane Blackwood, and built a varnish works in Brooklyn. He died in 1866. David came to America in 1854.
Another daughter,
15
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