This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Parks, Mason, Hill, Rutledge, Davis, Overlin/Overland
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/zh.2ADE/3041
Message Board Post:
The Washington Democrat March 12, 1912
Dr. James F. Parks was born in Orange county, Indiana, Feb 5th,1838. In Sept. 1857 he was
married to Miss Nancy A. Mason. To this union six children were born, one son and five
daughters. He is survived by his wife and three daughters, as follows: Mrs. Mollie Hill,
of Washington, Mrs. Lillian Rutledge and Mrs Magenta A. Davis, of Cumback, Ind. eighteen
grand-children and two great grand-children. Dr. Parks army service was of short duration,
but while at the front he was in the hottest of the fight. He enlisted at Louisville,Ky
May 1, 1863 and was assigned duty on the transport fleet at the siege of Vicksburg. He was
at the landing on the Yazoo River in the rear of Vicksburg on the 22nd of May, and during
the charge on the rebel works he helped many of the wounded to the hospitals in Memphis.
His health failed him and on July 4th 1863, he was discharged. On arriving home, July 9th
he found Gen. John Morgan but thirteen miles from Corydon, on his well-known raid north of
the !
Ohio River. After recovering his health he served as a member of the State Guards in the
Leavenworth battery under Capt. Nathan Morgan. After the close of the war he taught school
for two years in the public schools of Crawford County. He then read medicine and in 1867
he located in Daviess County, where he resided, with the exception of two years, until his
death. Five years later, in 1872, he graduated with honors from the Indiana Medical
College. In 1886 he was elected Coroner and held the office for nearly four years,
discharging his duties with credit. Dr. Parks had quite a career as a reform editor. In
1879-80 he published the National Ventilator, and was the first editor of the Labor
Herald.He had been a member of the People's party for several years; was second in the
race for the congressional nomination in 1892. In 1895 he took a practitioner's course
in Miama College in Cincinnati. In 1901-02 he represented his district in the State
legislature. In 1906 he moved !
to West Point, Miss. where he bought a large tract of unimproved land.
He improved this land and in two years sold the land at a profit of about 125 percent,
over the cost of the land and improvements, and returned to Daviess county to his old home
and friends where he had practiced medicine since 1867. In 1909 his health began to fail
and in 1910 he received a slight paralytic stroke from which he never fully recovered. In
February he was attacked with pneumonia and on recovering realizing his condition and
never having made a confession, he called Rev. Weeks and Rev. Williams, of the Missionary
Baptist Church, to his home and on making a confession, he was taken into the church Feb
16. About the first of March he was attacked by progressive paralysis his left side being
pralyaed, and in spite of all that medical skill and loving hands could do, on Sunday,
March 10, at 5 o'clock in the morning, he fell quietly and peacefully to sleep, aged
74 years, 1 month and 5 days. Funeral services were conducted at Aikman's Creek church
by Rev. Weeks 10 !
o'clock Tuesday morning, where a large concourse of relatives and friends gathered to
pay the last tribute of respect to the deceased. The pall-bearers were six practicing
physicians of Washington, who belonged to a medical society of which Dr. Parks was
president. Dr. Parks will be sadly missed. He was a kind husband and loving father, and
was loved and respected by all who knew him. He was the last of his family and was a
brother of the late T. H. Parks of Huntingburg.
James Parks was the son of Samuel Parks and Mary Overlin/Overland. The other children of
James Parks and Nancy Ann Mason Parks where Wm Richmond Parks b Jan 19, 1859 Bethel, Ind.
Crawford Co. Ind d Jan 19, 1863 Crawford Co. Ind., Bettie L Parks b March 9, 1873 d Oct
29, 1886 Veale Twp, Daviess Co Ind burial in Aikman Creek Cem., Saluda Jane Parks b Feb
15, 1868 Veale Twp Daviess Co Ind, d July 11, 1869 Veale Twp, Daviess Co Ind. burial in
Aikman Creek Cem.