This biography was taken from the book PARKER IN AMERICA, Niagara Publishing Co., Buffalo, NY, 1911. Samuel Parker is my distant Great Uncle. His book was recently quoted for the PBS mini-series on the West in 1998. His book, (Samuel Parker, Journal of an Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains Ithaca, New York, 1838), went through many editions here and abroad, and a section of it was reprinted in The American Reader, Angle, Paul M., Rand McNally & Co. New York, and in Trails of the Pathfinders, Grinell, George Bird. New York Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. The third edition (1842) is online at:
"http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~parker2002/conb.html".
134 PARKER IN AMERICA.
SAMUEL, PIONEER MISSIONARY.
B.in Ashfield, Mass., 1779, s. of Elisha Parker, of Yarmouth, Cape Cod, one of the coast guard at the beginning of the Revolution, and afterwards, after removing to Ashfield, a soldier in the series of battles of the Revolution, from Bennington to Saratoga. His mother was Thankful Marchant, and it was said of the two families,. "the Parkers and Marchants are always praying.'' His first paternal ancestor was Robert Parker, of Barnstable, Mass. The son inherited from his mother a love of knowledge, and was prepared under private tuition for col., entered the sophomore class of Williams, and was grad, in the class of 1806. His journey from home to the col. was made on foot, and he paid, on the loan he obtained to pay his way in col., ten per cent, interest, and early discharged the debt and interest by teaching school, serving one year as principal of the academy at Brattleboro, Vt. He then studied theology with Rev. Dr. Theophilus Packard, of Shelburne, and became an itinerate preacher under the Massachusetts Society of Domestic Missions. He traveled on horseback winter and summer in the wild west of New York and Pennsylvania. He then entered the new Andover Seminary, and was graduated with the first class, and returned to Western New York to resume his mission work. From 1812 to 1826 he served the Congregational Church at Danby, Tompkins county, commencing to preach in a barn, and leaving the congregation with a large-church edifice and strong membership. While in Ashfield he m. Miss Sears, who d. a few months thereafter. After settling in Danby he was m. to Jerusha Lord, a niece of Noah Webster, and a native of Salisbury, Conn. On leaving Danby, Mr. Parker settled in Ithaca, N. Y., and while there he became an agent for the Auburn. Theological Seminary, to solicit funds in New England. His success secured a second appointment. He next settled in Apulia, N. Y., where he built a church in the midst of great opposition and danger from personal hurt from the ungodly people. After winning the people and the place to a better life, he accepted a call to Middlefield, Mass., where his w. 's health broke down, and he returned to Ithaca and opened a young woman's school. About this time (1833) a wonderful narrative, "Wise Men from the West,'' was published, stating that four Indians. from Oregon came to St. Louis to learn about the white man's God and Bible, a narrative afterwards confirmed by Schoolcraft. The reading of this work led Mr. Parker to offer himself to A. B. C. F. M. to go beyond the Rocky Mountains and establish a mission among the Indians. The plan was to them so visionary that they hesitated. He, on his return to Ithaca, in January, 1834, proposed that the church send him on a mission to Oregon, and he asked for volunteers from the young men to accompany him. After long waiting, on May 5, 1834, they started, and reached St. Louis, too late to join the American Fur Company's caravan. This put the project back one year. In March, 1835, he joined Dr. Whitman of St. Louis, and they accompanied the fur-trading caravan, and in 126 days from St. Louis they reached the fur-traders' rendezvous on Green river, now southwest Wyoming. He then went on alone, through what is now Idaho and Washington, to the Nez Perce 's country, where the Indians met the missionary, built a tabernacle of fur skins and their tent material, and 400 to 500 men heard him preach through an interpreter. He was at that time fifty-six years old, and alone with the Indians. Mr. Parker 's book of this expedition gave the first full information of the country, people, productions, animal life, and climate, with a vocabulary of several Indian languages. He was the first missionary of the American board beyond the Rocky Mountains, preaching through an interpreter and doing pioneer missionary work. He came home by sea, via the Sandwich Islands and Cape Horn in 1837. His book went through five editions, and was published in England, and with his subsequent lectures through the East, resulted in the claim and recovery for the Hudson Bay Co. of the great Northwest to the domain of the United States. In his later days Mr. Parker did much volunteer missionary work, and preached with his old vigor far past his three-score-and-tenth year. He was a plain, practical, prayerful, and earnest man, who maintained due regard for the amenities of civilized life, even when in a wilderness camp and among savage surroundings. He d. Ithaca, 1866.