Biography of Riley Parker - Conway Co, AR

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Submitted by: Cathy Barnes <bbarnes@cswnet.com>
        Date: 21 Jun 1998
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas.
Goodspeed Publishers, 1891.

page 97

Riley Parker, whose name is familiar to the people of Howard Township
as one of the leading and reliable merchants of Plummerville, owes his
birthplace to Decatur County, Georgia, born 1849. His parents were
Robert and Mary Ann (Blansett) Parker, the former born in
Milledgeville, Ga., in 1808, and the latter in Decatur County of that
State, about 1830. They were married in Decatur County, where they
still continue to reside. Mr. Parker is a farmer by occupation, and
for about eight years was Justice of the Peace; he is of Irish
ancestry, and for a short time he served in the Confederate army, in a
Georgia regiment of infantry; he was also in the Seminole war. Mrs.
Parker is a Primitive Baptist, and a daughter of James Blansett, who
was one of the early settlers of Decatur County, Georgia, where he
died about 1880. Wiley Parker is the second in a family of five sons
and six daughters. He was reared to manhood on a farm, and attended
the country schools about three months each year. At the age of 22 he
began for himself as a sewing machine salesman, and in 1873 came to
Howard Township and worked as a farm hand for a time, after which he
embarked in the mercantile business at Portland, under the firm name
of Howard & Parker, which firm continued about three years when it was
dissolved, and Mr. Parker was then engaged as a clerk at Plummerville
for about ten years, or till 1888, when he again entered the
mercantile business for himself, this time alone, carrying a stock of
general merchandise with on average value of about $2000, and an
annual business of about $8000. He also buys cotton and is engaged in
farming, being the owner of an 80-acre farm near town, and good
property in town. Mr. Parker came to Arkansas with but a few dollars
in his pocket, but by continued industry and good management has added
to his original small capital until he now pays taxes on about $5000
worth of property. In 1874 he married Sallie Rambo, a native of South
Carolina, and a daughter of W. E. and Catherine Rambo, who removed
from South Carolina to Georgia, and in 1869 came to Conway County,
where Mrs. Rambo died about 1883. Mr. Rambo is still living. Mr. and
Mrs. Parker are the parents of seven children, of whom two sons and
three daughters survive. Mrs. Parker is a Missionary Baptist.
Politically, Mr. P. is a Democrat, and is Secretary of Howard Lodge,
No. 253, A. F. and A. M. He was once Mayor of Plummerville.