Our Parker Family History Table of Contents
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- Arrival in America
- Landing at New York
- West Again
- Farming in Scott County; Making Friends
- The Farm
| Passage from Liverpool to New York cost about $8 per person, whether adults or children. Here’s a contemporary description of the departure from Liverpool:
“There were usually a large number of spectators at the dock-gates to witness the final departure of the ship. The sad scene of the departure was described in the Illustrated London News in 1850: ‘The most callous and indifferent can scarcely fail, at such a moment, to form cordial wishes for the pleasant voyage and safe arrival of the emigrants, and for their future prosperity in their new home. As the ship is towed out, hats are raised, handkerchiefs are waved, and a loud and long-continued shout of farewell is raised from the shore, and cordially responded to from the ship. It is then, if at any time, that the eyes of the emigrants begin to moisten’” [in: Préteseille 1999]. See http://www.eustice.info/irish-emigration.htm After leaving Queensland, Etna was at sea for thirteen days. Steerage passengers had to take along and cook their own food on stoves used by all. On the Etna’s passenger list as filed at New York, our Parkers were all shown as citizens of Great Britain because Ireland at that time was not an independent nation but a part of Great Britain. Arrival in AmericaOur Parkers Arrive in AmericaOn the last day of the year 1861, the steamship Etna, from Liverpool, England, docked at New York Harbor. Among the passengers entering the United States that day were Robert Parker, his wife, Susanna, and twelve of their children. They left their home in County Down, Ireland, traveling first to Liverpool, England, there boarding the Inman Line Steamship for New York. Three other sons of the family preceded them to New York. And so, the first day of the year 1862 found all of Our Parkers in America. Landing at New YorkThe Etna, like all immigration vessels of the time, was caused to anchor in quarantine (passengers could not leave the ship) near Staten Island while a team of inspectors from New York City boarded to check each person for dangerous diseases like smallpox, typhoid fever or cholera. Those passing inspection were taken on to a processing center at the very tip of Manhattan called Castle Garden. There an affidavit from the ship’s captain, including a list of all passengers, became the immigration record. The Ancestry Tree shows this list. A description of Castle Garden and its procedures can be seen at http://www.immigrantships.net/newcompass/ancestral/imm_exp/castlegarden.html At Castle Garden there were railroad ticket agents from whom tickets to Iowa may have been purchased. I suspect that one or more of the Parker sons – Isaac, Robert or David - who had already come to New York, may have met Our Parkers there. The family may have enjoyed a great reunion. The three sons had not seen their mother or siblings for several years.
They would not have brought farming implements on a train, even if they had known what to bring. Remember that they had no experience with large-scale farming in Ireland. Farming in Scott County; Making FriendsSettling in Cleona Township, Scott County, IowaWe don’t know if there was a cabin or house on the acreage. The people who previously owned, the farm, Sarah and David Young, had given it up to a trustee named Charles H. Kent, a money lender, seven months before. On March 8, 1862, at two o’clock in the afternoon, on the courthouse steps, Robert Parker purchased the North East Quarter of Section 18 in Township 79 North of Range 1 East in Scott County. He paid $1,416.21. It seems likely that the Parkers came to Scott County on advice from former neighbors in Ireland, such as the Paul brothers, James and William.7 Next to the new place, to the North, was a farm owned by W. J. Paul. Both William and James Paul – brothers - owned tracts only about five miles away, in Section 23. They came to Iowa from County Antrim, adjacent to the north of County Down. “The first settlement made in the township was in 1851. In April, 1852, Robert Johnson and James Paul, both from Ireland, 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……”James Paul broke 30 acres in the same time (1853.)….”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 his brother lived until 1858. These Pauls came from Ireland.”8 We have not clear knowledge of why Robert and Susanna chose to settle in Scott County, Iowa, or why in Section 18 of Cleona Township. We do know that three of the Parker sons, Isaac, Robert and David, preceded the fourteen that came west in 1862. We believe that Robert himself made a previous trip to America in 1861, returning to County Down. We also know that there were other Irish immigrants nearby them in Cleona Township. The families of James Paul, William Paul, and Robert Johnson are listed in the 1860 Federal Census, so we know that they were in the township before our Parkers arrived. By the time of the 1870 census for Cleona Township, Parker and Paul and Ross and Bennett families were very near neighbors, and families named Wilson and Swindel, identified as being from Ireland, also were close by. The FarmOn 2 March, 1862, Robert and Susanna purchased by Indenture (with a recorded mortgage) 160 acres (a quarter section) of ground at the North East Corner of Section 18 in Cleona Township, Scott County, Iowa. That land is only 5 miles northeast from the town of Durant, about 6 miles north of Stockton, and about 7 miles north of Walcott. They purchased it through Mr. Charles H. Kent, who was trustee for David O. and Sarah M. Young. The Youngs, it seems, had purchased the land from James Thompson for $520 in 18609. Below is a map of Cleona Township in 1868 that shows the location of the Parker farm. See Section 18 (along the left side,) NE corner. 
The plot in this map includes 240 acres. The initial purchase was for 160 acres (a quarter section) that Robert and Susanna purchased for $1416.21 on March 2, 1862. They purchased 80 adjacent acres on Oct. 26, 1866, for $1,040 payable in three annual installments, from a Samuel Slemmons who lived in Ohio,. This made up a very good sized farm for that day. Remember; no tractors then, only oxen and horses. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 2.46 Mb. Share with your friends:
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