My Genealogy Hound

EUSTACE C. PARKER, for many years justice of the peace of McGrawville, is a son of Artemas and Sybil (Spaulding) Parker, and was born in the State of Massachusetts in the year 1835.

Artemas Parker, his father, was a native of Barre, Mass., and received his educational training in the common schools of his native village. He then carried on farming in the town of Chelmsford, Mass., in addition to which he was interested in the lime business. He was a Whig, and a man who held very decided views. He was a life-long Christian and a member of the Baptist Church, in which he held office for many years. He was united in marriage to Miss Sybil Spaulding, and reared a family of twelve children: Artemas; Sybil; Mercy Mason (Byam), deceased; Nancy (Abbott), deceased; Fanny (Wood), deceased; Harriet (Brown), deceased; Henry, deceased; Timothy Morse, deceased; Eustace C.; Rhodolpho, deceased; Mary, deceased; and Lydia E. F. (Wood), deceased. Artemas Parker died in 1864, and his wife passed away in 1867, three years later.

Eustace C. Parker spent the early years of his life at work upon his father’s farm, and then learned the trade of a mason, at which he worked for thirty-one years in the States of Illinois and New York. He located in Marathon, this county, in 1868, and lived there three years, coming thence to McGrawville, where he still resides. He served as a private through the Civil War in Co. G., 23d Reg. Ill. Vol. Inf., and is a member of Tarble Post, G. A. R. of McGrawville, no one taking more enjoyment in the camp-fires than he. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and gives liberally to the cause, no work being considered burdensome that promotes the welfare of the church. Mr. Parker supplemented a common school education with a general practical knowledge, gained in his contact with the world; he possesses a bright intellect and exhibits a keen foresight, which no doubt places him in the list of the county’s most prominent and influential men.

In 1863 Mr. Parker was united in marriage with Aryette B. Hotchkiss of Hamilton, Hancock County, Ill., by whom he had the following children: Stanton A., who is a Presbyterian minister of Omaha, Neb.; Fred A., who is now engaged as a traveling salesman for the Cortland Beef Co., making his home at Collingwood, N. Y.; Anna, the youngest child, died when twenty months old. Mrs. Parker died March 31, 1888. Mr. Parker took for his second wife Janette Ford, a native of Berkshire, Tioga County, N. Y. He is a Republican, and takes an intelligent interest in the affairs of his party. In 1885 he was chosen as justice of the peace of McGrawville, which office he has held continuously since, and has given universal satisfaction. It has been his aim to temper justice with mercy, and his ideas have proved to be right, as many an offender against the law has been led, under his kindly advice, to walk in a straighter path, while the hardened criminal is made to suffer the extreme penalty of his crimes. Mr. Parker is a gentleman of the highest traits of character, and numbers his friends by the hundreds.