My Genealogy Hound

H. Parks, Jr., attorney at law of Dyersburg, Tenn., is a son of Rev. Hamilton and Rebecca (Stewart) Parks, and was born in Dyer County December 30, 1845. When a youth his health was quite delicate, but being very fond of books and eager for learning he was kept at school as much as his physical condition would allow. He was an apt pupil and possessed a brilliant intellect. In 1866 he graduated at Bethel College McLemoresville, Tenn., taking the degree of Ph. B., and in 1868 graduated from Cumberland University of Lebanon, Tenn., completing the full literary course, and received the degree of A. B. The same year he became principal of the Union Seminary at Newbern and at the expiration of two years was compelled to give up the school, owing to ill health. He began trading and speculating, and in 1875 went to Texas as a delegate to the general assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but remained only a short time. The same year he went to Europe and traveled through Switzerland, France England Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and Germany, being absent one summer and fall. In 1876 he again entered Cumberland University as a law student, and having pursued the post graduate course, graduated the same year as an A. M., and in January, 1877, he graduated from the law department of the same institution. He immediately located in Dyersburg, and has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. As a lawyer he has been eminently successful, and for the past ten years has been one of the leading attorneys of the Dyer County bar. In 1880 he and Hon. W. S. Draper formed a partnership, and until the present the firm has been known as Parks & Draper. Mr. Parks is a Democrat, and his first presidential vote was cast for Horace Greeley in 1872. He manifests a deep interest in all movements for the public good, and is a Mason and a member of Hess Lodge, No. 93. He is also a member of the K. of H. In 1864 he enlisted in the Twentieth Tennessee Cavalry under Forrest and received a very serious wound in the right leg at Harrisburg, Miss., July 14, 1864, and recovered in about two years. In November, 1869, he married Faustina B. Hardin, of Dickson County, Tenn. She died February 1, 1875, and October 7, 1878, Mr. Parks married Mary Glenn Webb, daughter of Capt. John L. and Mary Webb, of Dyersburg. Mrs. Parks was born in Dyersburg in 1861, and is the mother of four children: Glenn, Mary (deceased), Anna and Nell. In 1873 Mr. Parks was elected county superintendent of schools of Dyer County, and organized the successful and prosperous school system now in use in Dyer County. He is a strong temperance man, and a member and an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In the fall of 1886 he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Floater from the counties of Dyer, Obion and Lake, and was elected over an independent Democrat and a Republican opponent.