My ancestor John Parker, born probably around 1770-1780 in Massachusetts, had one son, Asa Longley Parker, in Massachusetts in 1800. John then went to Oneida County, NY, where he had two additional children, Leonard, b. 1802, and Edith Ede, born 1809. He may have had two older sons, Thomas and David. The family moved to Ashland (later Richland) County, Ohio around 1820 or perhaps earlier. Edith Ede was a teacher in Lake as a young girl and Leonard was a preacher in several counties in Ohio before moving to Iowa. I have quite a bit of information on the three children: Asa, Leonard, and Edith Ede, but little about their father, John. I do not know who John married or his parents or where/when he was born.
I recently had a tip from a biographical sketch by Silas Parker, b. 1831, of Richland County, OH, who stated that Edith Ede was his aunt. Silas stated his father was Cephas Parker, born 1808 in Sangerfield, NY; his grandfather was William Parker (who was a hops farmer in Sangerfield); and that his great-grandfather was Captain John Parker from Lexington, MA, who led the battle at Lexington. Silas also said that his father Cephas was a first cousin of Theodore Parker, a famous theologian from Massachusetts and grandson of Captain John Parker. I have searched wherever I could to find a relationship between Silas' family and John's family and a relationship of any of them to Captain John Parker and Theodore but have had no luck to date, so some of the biographical data from Silas may not be accurate.
However, if Silas said Edith Ede was his aunt, which seems would be true, that would mean that either Cephas and my John Parker were brothers, or, more likely, Edith Ede was Silas' great aunt and William and John were brothers. So, if anyone has any information on either John Parker or his brother (?) William's family (Cephas and Silas), please let me know. This family has een one of my most frustrating brickwalls!
Thanks for any help.
Marilee Cunningham
Replies
How much faith can I put into this connection to Abel Parker and Phebe Longley? Does the DNA make a firm connection?
Silas was still living in 1880 when the bio said his grandfather was William Parker, so I think this is correct, unless there is documentation elsewhere that his grandfather was John Parker. He lived in the same area and should have known the name of his grandfather.
"History of Ashland County, Ohio" by Hill 1880, page 283, Green Township bios of Cephas Parker and his son Silas C Parker
As it turns out, since I wrote the original request, I have learned a lot. First, that our gr gr gr grandfather’s name was actually Asa Parker, son of Abel Parker, whose wife was Phebe Longley. Asa’s kids were Asa Longley, Leonard (my gr gr grandfather), Edith, Cephus, and a bunch of girls , (who are in the paper) and a couple of boys I’m not sure about (Tom and David) Yay! This confirms so much for me. I love the part about Asa Longley and Leonard and their bartering!
So, is your direct line from Asa Longley to Asa Charles to whom? Who actually wrote the memoir - was it Jane Annis, daughter of Asa Charles?
Would you be able to send me a basic family history from there down to you? I would love it and I will send you one of my family from Leonard on down. Also, once I found Asa’s family (Abel,etc., I have tons of info on the family in MA in the 1600s and over to England. They were quite an interesting group, I must say.
Kathy, where do you live? I am in Harpers Ferry, WV; my email is modonnell05@Comcast.net; my phones are 304-876-7052 (home) and 703-623-4902.
I also have been doing a lot of DNA and have found a few cousins who we connect with back to the very early days.
Grandfather (Asa Longley) Parker had a handsome arrogant old face supported by a stiff spine. With no ability to change his mind, he had strong convictions and the character to support them. Almost always on the unpopular side, he was still a highly respected citizen where ever he lived. Moving from Maine to Ohio, to Cedar County, Iowa, he owned a stone-quarry and farms there. He and Grandmother Jane Shearer “beget” eight sons and three daughters: Elizabeth, strong of mind and body, widowed early, managed her six children with Grandfather’s help and wisdom and thrift. Sara Ann was an arresting little beauty with black eyes and bay hair. She married Jake Halferty and died soon after. Similda married Chris Statler, a thrifty German. Their children were holding tightly to the sizable properties their parents left them near Mechicsville, Iowa.
And now the eight Parker Boys:
My father I have written about, Albert died in his teens of an injury received in the stone quarry. When I became aware of the others, they were solid citizens, reasonably industrious, reasonably prosperous, knowing which end of life to take hold of. In the days of their youth, they raised in the aggregate, considerable cain because there were so many of them. They hung so closely together that it would have been safer to jump a Sioux Indian reservation than to tangle with the Parkers. Four of them, Ceph, Will, John, and Jim were Civil War soldiers. Tom and Dave were too young to enlist. Uncle John was a color-bearer, because he said, he got out of camp chores. Carrying the flag in thickest fighting was a bit dangerous. All escaped hurt, though with Sherman on his march, they were pained to their thrifty depths to have to destroy and plunder homesteads. I know nothing of their lives in the interval before they came to Carroll County except that they, with Grandfather (Asa Longley), halted a mob of men bent on lynching a horse thief. The thief had come to Grandfather for protection. He believed rightly in justice by law and was never one to yield to pressure anyway.
He at once mobilized his family. “Granny” [Jane] put the thief in her closet, so he wouldn’t pop out at an awkward moment. Grandfather ordered his sons to shoot if the mob tried to climb the high fence surrounding his stone house, then met the mob outside his fence, and lectured them. He must have been as good as Mark Anthony of Rome for the mob left without hurting any body. I never learned what Grandfather then did with his thief, but the man afterwards died by violence. Someone shot him, who thought they had a good reason for doing so.
When the Parkers married, they settled down around Coon Rapids, now dedicated to hybrid corn. Grandfather sold his property at Lowden, to follow the family, and bought the Nicholas Harris farm north of town. Ceph, Will, and John Parker owned the flour mill. I remember them as three ghostly figures, powdered white from hat to Congress gaiters. When they made a poor batch of flour they kept it in the family and sold the better grade to the public. That is what Mother and Aunt Lizzie thought. They may have been biased.
Uncle Will had married Maria DeNoe. The DeNoes claimed descent from French aristocracy. There were for years, two or more of the elegant Franco-Americans hanging out at Will Parkers and sponging on him. Beautiful Aunt Maria treated us plebian Parkers with gentle condescension – Nobleue Oblique. After she died, Uncle and their daughter, May, descended to our social levels.
The other Parkers including my Father got their wives from the proletariat, women with intelligence in their upper stories and common sense on the ground floors. Uncle Tom had lived in Ringgold County, but perhaps he did not prosper there. When he joined the family circle at Coon Rapids, Grandfather gave him a small farm there. He had three rather pretty daughters and two sons; Elmer and Dick, who had considerable cussedness for capita. Elmer growing up left bullying and some of his tricks behind. Settled on their subsistence homestead, they must have thought their function was to stick pins in their more prosperous relatives. I can’t possibly think why we meekly took their deflating jabs. There must have been some resentment, for while Maud Parker was often at our home, I don’t remember but one visit I was permitted to make her. And then it was the wrong time to go. Uncle had been on a spree and Aunt Rose was shut in her bedroom with a sick headache. Had I been at all bright at twelve years old, I would have gone home. But having been told, I could stay for supper, I did. The girls assembled a credible meal. They had asked me if I liked lettuce and I did. They cooked it in a mixture of vinegar and grease. It looked and tasted like a dirty sock. But I ate it anyway. Uncle Tom renounced sprees in his old age. A pity, for he was delightful when a little drunk. With an easy charm he was the handsomest of our uncles. I know nothing of our cousins, except Forster Parker and I got that from papers. He had the pet hospital in Des Moines, a ritzy institution with Negro attendants in white uniforms. I have a copy of the Time Magazine with excepts from his speech at Omaha on cats. And he has talked on animal surgery before the Mayos at Rochester. I think his son manages the hospital now. He was an amiable boy, and he and Jessie together with Uncle John’s Ellen, Uncle Tom’s Maud, were the cousins I liked best. You can have all the others.
No one can pick his parents or the place he is to be born, but if I could have chosen, I certainly should have picked my same Mother and the family into which I was born. And I would want to grow up on prairies like those surrounding Coon Rapids in the late [eighteen] seventies."
As a side note on Asa Longley Parker born 5 Nov 1800 Cummington, Hampshire County, MA/died & buried 27 Jan 1883 (aged 82) Coon Rapids, Carroll County, Iowa, USA. He was my Great great great grandfather. Hope you find this helpful as well as interesting.
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