4^2 PARKER. PARKMAN. Derby. Their three children are : Hamil- ton Derby, James Cutler, and Philip Stan- ley Parker. Mr. Parker's present residence is in Brookline. He has refrained from identifying him- self with political, literary, military or re- ligious organizations of any kind, giving his entire time to the profession in which he is a well-known, ardent and successful devotee. PARKER, JAMES O., son of Asa and Relief (Brown) Parker, was born on the 22d of November, 1827, in Pembroke, Merrimack county, N.H., and was educated at the common schools and at the Concord Academy. In 1845 he was clerk in the Concord post-office, which position he held for two years, and then became mail agent between Boston and Burlington, Vt. In 1853 he took the position of railroad station agent, which he held till 1872. In 1873 he was elected a representative to the state Legis- lature, and sat in the Senate of 1883 and '84, representing the 6th Essex senatorial district, having then, as now, his residence in the town of Methuen. On the 1 2th of November, 1849, at Lebanon, N. H., Mr. Parker was married to Frances C, daughter of William and Lucinda (Eldridge) Billings. Their only child is Helen F. Spooner Parker. PARKHURST, WELLINGTON E., son of Charles F. W. and Mary (Goodale) Parkhurst, was born in Framingham, Mid- dlesex county, January 19, 1835. The public schools and Framingham Academy gave him his early educational training. He began his business career in 1856 as paymaster in the Lancaster Quilt Com- pany, Clinton, where he remained three years. Subsequently he was engaged in teach- ing, and was two years in the Clinton Sav- ings Bank. He was also on the editorial staff of the "Worcester Spy." He is now editor of the " Clinton Courant," which position he has held since 1865. Mr. Parkhurst was married September 13, 1866, to Hattie F., daughter of Arte- mas Fairbank, of West Boylston, who died December 13, 18S5. His second marriage occurred August 9, 1887, with Georgiana B., daughter of George and Pamela (Eames) Warren, of Framingham. Mr. Parkhurst has been honored by vari- ous positions of trust ; he has been town clerk, assessor, treasurer, director of the library and member of the Clinton school board. PARKMAN, FRANCIS, the son of Fran- cis Parkman, D. D., and Caroline Hall Parkman, was born in Boston, September 16, 1823. His early boyhood was passed with his maternal grandfather on the border of the Middlesex Fells, a wild wooded region near Boston, which still retains much of its native character. There he became familiar with those phases of uncultivated nature that were either consonant to his inherited tastes, or furnished the mould to his formative stage, that shaped the genius of the future historian of the Northern settlements and of the French and Indian wars. His studies at this time were somewhat desultory, his historian averring that " he learned a little Latin and Greek, but was more proficient in catching squirrels and woodchueks." He was afterwards trained for college in Boston, and was graduated from Harvard with the class of 1844. His vacations were spent chiefly in the vast forest between Maine and Canada, or in those of Canada itself, or else examining the scenes of battles, raids, and skirmishes in the French and Indian wars. He afterwards made many journeys over various parts of the continent, the most remarkable being that into the Indian country west of the Mississippi, of which he has written a graphic account in "The Oregon Trail." This experience was in- valuable. Such knowledge of the true inwardness of Indian life no other historian and no prominent writer of English ever obtained. He also made repeated visits to Europe in search of material for his histor- ical works. His most noted works are : " The Oregon Trail," "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," " Pioneers of France in the New World," "The Jesuits in North America," "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West," "The Old Regime in Canada," "Count Frontenac and New France under the Reign of Louis XIV.," and " Montcalm and Wolfe." He is vice-president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and was for thirteen years one of the seven trustees of Harvard University, of which he has also served twice as overseer. He was three years president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, six years president of the St. BotolphClub, and is a member of numerous learned soci- eties in Europe and America. In May, 1S50, Mr. Parkman was married in Boston to Catherine S., daughter of the
