My Genealogy Hound

Frank Parke, a resident of Fort Smith, Ark., was born in County Leitrim, Ireland, July 11, 1829, and is the son of Thomas Parke, and grandson of John Parke, who was born in England, and who owned property in that country. Later he immigrated to Ireland, where he died. Thomas Parke, was born in Ireland, and here passed his entire life. He was the owner of considerable property, and married Miss Mary McGarry, who was born in Ireland, and who became the mother of twelve children, of whom Frank Parke is the youngest. The family came to America in 1849, settling in the State of Ohio, and here the other died in 1875 at the age of ninety-four. The father died when Frank Parke was a young man. Previous to coming to America the latter followed merchandising, which he continued until the time of his leaving his native country. He located in Ohio, remained there three years, and then came to Fort Smith, where he followed merchandising until the outbreak of the Civil War. He then enlisted in the Confederate army as a private, and resigned at the close of the war as a major of the quartermaster’s department. After the war he followed mercantile pursuits in the Choctaw Nation for several years. Returning to Fort Smith in 1873, he engaged in merchandising under the firm name of Parke & Sparks. The firm was very prosperous, and was dissolved on account of the ill health of Mr. Parke, who for many years suffered greatly from inflammatory rheumatism, but has been entirely cured by the use of the waters of Biswell Springs, he having erected a cottage there in the summer of 1887, where with his family he has a beautiful summer resort. Mr. Parke is one of the largest real estate owners in the city, and owns valuable suburban property, and over 2,000 acres of the best coal lands in the county of Sebastian. He was married to Miss Sarah J. Ish, a native of Washington County, Ark., and a granddaughter of one of the early pioneers of Tennessee, who was killed by the Cherokee Indians. Her father was one of the early settlers of Washington County, Ark. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Parke, six of whom are now living: Myrtle, wife of Martin T. Dyke; Frank, Mary, Lady, Phoebe and A. H. Winfield Parke. Myrtle graduated at the Arkansas Female College, Little Rock, Ark., Frank graduated in law in 1888 at the Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tenn., and Mary was a graduate of Nashville College for Young Ladies in 1887, and took a post graduate course in 1888. Lady is now attending Nashville College for Young Ladies, and the two youngest children are attending the public schools of this city. The children deceased were named Lillie May, Lalla Rookh and Jane. When Mr. Parke discontinued merchandising he turned his attention to the real estate business. He is a Democrat and a Prohibitionist; is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His father, grandfather, and his ancestors as far back as the days of the Wesleys, were Methodists.