Joel Webster Parker Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1392-1393 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	A photo of Joel Webster Parker faces page 1392.


	JOEL W. PARKER.—Most consistently may we enter memoir in this work 
to one who stood as one of the honored citizens and pioneer business men 
of Sioux Falls, and who through the long years of an active and useful 
life ever retained the high regard of his fellow men, by reason of his 
sterling attributes of character. Joel Webster Parker was born on a farm 
in Oneida county, New York, on the 28th of March, 1817, being a son of 
Joel and Mary (Benham) Parker, the former of whom was born in Berkshire 
county, Massachusetts, and the latter in Hartford, Connecticut, while 
both families, of English extraction, were early established in America, 
having been founded in Neu England in the colonial epoch of our national 
history. The paternal grandmother of the subject was a cousin of the 
renowned lexicographer, Noah Webster. Mr. Parker was educated in the 
common schools of the old Empire state, where he was reared to maturity 
on the homestead farm and where he continued to maintain his residence 
until about 1836, when he removed to Ohio, where he remained until 1841, 
when he numbered himself among the pioneers of Illinois, where he was 
engaged in the merchandise business, selling goods from a wagon, as was 
the general custom of the locality and period, the major portion of the 
mercantile business of the section being accomplished by this method. In 
1852 he opened a general store in Warren, Jo Daviess county, that state, 
where he built up a prosperous enterprise, there continuing operations 
until 1868, when he removed to Hillsboro, Vernon county, Wisconsin, 
where he was engaged in the same line of enterprise until 1875. He then 
removed to Millston, Jackson county, that state, where he established 
himself in the mercantile and lumber business, continuing operations 
there until 1879, when his health became so impaired as to prompt his 
removal to what is now the state of South Dakota, in the hope of 
recuperating his energies under the invigorating climatic conditions. He 
accordingly disposed of his business in Wisconsin and took up his abode 
in Sioux Falls, which was then a small and straggling frontier town. 
Here he engaged in the retail lumber business in company with his son, 
James W., concerning whom specific mention is made on another page of 
this compilation. The enterprise was originally conducted under the firm 
name of J. W. Parker & Son, and upon the admission of James W. Leverett 
to the firm the title was changed to the Sioux Falls Lumber Company, 
under which name the business has since been continued, his son being 
now at the head of the concern.  

	In 1886 Mr. Parker disposed of his interest in this enterprise and 
thereafter devoted his attention to the management of his various 
capitalistic and property interests. He was always found in the 
forefront as a progressive citizen. Lending his influence and tangible 
aid in the promotion of all measures tending to conserve the material 
upbuilding and the civic advancement and prosperity of his home city and 
state, while his circle of friends was ever coincident with that of his 
acquaintances. One who has all of reason to appreciate him and his 
sterling character has spoken of him as follows: "He was a most kindly, 
lovable, Christian gentleman, and all of his friends and acquaintances 
are the better for having known him." 

	Mr. Parker did much for the material advancement of Sioux Falls, 
having erected a number of good buildings and having been a generous 
subscriber to public enterprises. In politics he gave his allegiance and 
staunch support to the Prohibition party. and thus showed in a 
significant way, as did he in all the relations of life, that he had the 
courage to stand boldly forward as an advocate of and worker for those 
principles which he believed to be right. He was humanity's friend, and 
as such did all in his power to uplift his fellow men and enrich their 
lives, this spirit not less than definite principle, accounting for the 
exalted attitude which he maintained in political matters. He was an 
uncompromising foe to the liquor traffic, as was he to all else that 
tends to lower the standard of human ideals, and his labors in the moral 
field in which he taught not less by personal example than by precept 
and kindly admonition, were such as to justify the revering of his 
memory for all time to come. While Mr. Parker thus took an active 
concern in public affairs, he never sought or desired the honors or 
emoluments of office. and withheld himself from the contentions and 
turbulence of active political affairs. He was one of the zealous and 
influential members of the Freewill Baptist church of Sioux Falls, and 
was a deacon in the same at the time of his death, having rested from 
his labors and passed forward to the life eternal on the 14th of April, 
1893, at the venerable age of seventy-six years. He was a distinct man, 
one of forceful individuality and one whose life counted for good in an 
ever-widening angle of beneficent influence. 

	On the 26th of February, 1845, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Parker to Miss Mary W. Colburn, who died on December 6th of the 
following year, without issue. On the 23d of July, 1848, he was united 
in marriage to Miss Rebecca Brown Colburn, who survives him. She was 
born in Sacket Harbor, New York, being a daughter of Charles and Rebecca 
Colburn and a lineal descendant of Rev. Samuel Whiting, of Lynn, 
Massachusetts, who came from England to America in 1636. Mrs. Parker 
still resides in Sioux Falls, surrounded by a wide circle of devoted 
friends and sustained and comforted by the gracious and hallowed 
memories of the past and the hope of the future reunion with the loved 
and devoted husband by whose side she walked down the pathway of life 
for so many years. She became a member of the Presbyterian church prior 
to her marriage, but afterward attended the Freewill Baptist church, of 
which her husband was a member, formally identifying herself with the 
same and becoming an active factor in the church work. Mr. and Mrs. 
Parker became the parents of seven children, namely: George and Mary E., 
who are deceased; Carrie A.; James W., who is individually mentioned 
elsewhere in this work; Jessie R., wife of Rev. J. C. Mitchell, pastor 
of the Unitarian church of Lebanon, New Hampshire; Fannie C., and Sarah, 
who is deceased.