L. G. PARKER

PARKER, BARNEY

Posted By: Mona Sarratt Knight (email)
Date: 7/19/2009 at 12:10:44

Source: The History of Appanoose County, Iowa, Containing A History of the County, its Cities, Towns, etc., A Biographical Directory of Citizens, War Records of its Volunteers in the late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics, Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, History of the Northwest, History of Iowa, Map of Appanoose County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, etc.; illustrated; Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1878.

L. G. PARKER, farmer and stock grower; proprietor of Livingston Coak Works; Sec. 3; P.O. Livingston; born in Jefferson Co., N.Y. in 1816; at the age of 17, entered Union Academy at Belleville, that county, and at the age of 21, entered Union College at Schenectady; graduated in full course class of 1838; and the same fall came to Ohio and engaged in civil engineering on the Miami Canal, at that time a new country full of ague. June 1841, he married Miss Nancy J. Barney, daughter of Benjamin Barney, a soldier of the War of 1812. A part of the land now owned and occupied by Mr. Parker was obtained through his services in that war, and which is prized by Mr. P. more highly on that account. A brother of his, E.G. Barney, is now in South America as civil engineer. It was with him, Mr. Parker was engaged on the canal in Ohio. The elder brother of Mrs. Parker, E.E. Barney, is a car builder at Dayton, Ohio; he was a graduate at Union College and for many years President of the female academy at Dayton, Ohio; successful teacher, and successful at any of his undertakings. Another brother, B.H.B., an Elder of the Baptist Church. Her sister, Mrs. J.E. Stephens, a graduate of Union College, formerly a teacher, now has an interest in the car owrks at Dayton, Ohio; she was educated at Union Academy, and was a successful techer for many years at Painesville, Ohio, and also at Dayton; she is now lecturing in the interest of the Woman's Missionary Society, lecturing for missions. Her elder sister was the wife of E.O. Smith, Es., of this township, died in 1877, among the earliest pupils of Academy; the family moved to Northern Ohio, Geauga Co. in 1831; she taught school there for a term; they then came to Dayton, where she was associated with her brother, teaching in the Union Academy at Dayton for four or five years; in 1842, she was married to E. O. Smith, of Galway, N.Y.; in 1856, with her husband,came to this county and with the same tireless energy that characterized her life, took upon herself the burden of a farmer's life, and the painstaking share of molding into shape the crude elements of pioneer society. After the completion of his duties on the canal before mentioned, Mr. Parker took charge of the academy at Uerbana, Ohio and after the close of the school year for 1843, he, with his father-in-law, came to Appanoose Co., where they entered a section of land, then returned and continued his school, and the following year moved with his family to this land in this county, which he commenced to improve. During the year 1858-59, he published the Appanoose Republican, the first Republican paper published in the county, the Democracy of the county being at that time as three to one; surrounded by the slavery element, it, at that time, cost something to be a Republican. After that, returned to his farming until August 1861, when he enlisted, as private, Co. B, 6th Kansas Cavalry; participated mostly along the Kansas border at guerilla warfare, battles of Mazzard Prairie, Mine Creek, High Grove and others; promoted first to Sergeant, then to Lieutenant, then to Captain, for meritorious services rendered on the field; served four and one half years and mustered out at Fort Leavenworth, November 1865, as Captain of Co. B, 15th Kansas Cavalry. The father of Mr. Parker was a soldier of 1812, his grandfather a soldier of the Revolution. On coming to Appanoose, Mr. and Mrs. P. found a log cabin on their land, occupied by a squatter whom it cost $125 to get rid of, which they occupied four or five years; not a fence, rail or a furrow plowed, on the farm which now consists of 340 acres of well improved land, valued at $30 per acre. He with his son, B.B., owns the only coal mines in the Southwest part of the county, supplying Seymour, Genoa, St. John and the surrounding country with coal equal in quality to the best in the county; they mine 20,000 bushels per year, with business increasing every year, farmers even with plenty of timber, as fast as their wood stoves burn out buy coal stoves. They have four children living - Edwin L., born in 1842; John G., born in 1845, killed at the battle of Mazzard Prairie, Ark., July 27, 1864,; Benjamin B., born in 1849; Charles F., born in 1856; and Albert L., born in 1859. Republican; Mr. and MRs. P. are members of the Baptist Church, wherein he is an authorized minister. Has frequantly held the office of Township Trustee; was at one time candidate for State Senate; a member of the A.F.&A.M., No. 8, Harmony lodge, Pickaway, Ohio. Mr. and MRs. P. try to bear their full share of the burdens and responsibilities of the county and community in which they live. Mr. P with his two sons contributed to the army what was equal to nine years of one man's time; Mrs. Parker being with him two years of the time as Hospital Nurse to his eldest son, E.L., who was in the army, now a resident of Kansas.