Born in a two room log cabin on his farm one mile west of Glenn Cemetery. His father died on May 5th, 1847, leaving his wife (Parker's mother) Agnes 32, with son Parker 14, daughters Mary A. 12, Martha, 8, and Sarah 5. Agnes then married (19 Jul 1849) Peter Kiefer who had a store on Degonia Creek. When Parker became old enough to handle the farm, and Mary Ann married to Willis Crain, Agnes with her a two younger children and all the Kiefers moved to DeSoto where Peter opend a store. Parker then married on the 5th May 1854, the first of three wives, Eliza Jane Herring,the daughter of Jonathan and Sarah Herring from near Degognia. Four children were born to them: John, Sarah, William, and Albert. A fifth unnamed child died at a birth which also resulted in the death of Eliza Jane on the 23rd of January 1863.
The death of Eliza Jane placed Parker in a serious position. No man in those days could farm and raise three small children simultaneously. In 1864 he solved the immediate problem by marrying Louisa Hiser. However he soon realized he had created another problem when more children began arriving. His family was outgrowing the 2 room log cabin. But Parker, ever resourceful, prevailed. The civil war was raging. The demand for timber; wheat, hides soared. A new saw-mill was established at Liberty Landing (now Rockwood). Parker cut trees, which cleared land for farming, hauled logs to the sawmill, and took the profit in sawed lumber with which he built houses, barns and sheds. He built the large frame house across the road from the log cabin and a huge barn and re-routed the road to pass in front of them. With the death of Louisa in 1878, Parker again found himself with a help-meet problem which he solved by marrying Louticia Tabors in 1879. However, Leuticia had two children of her own so the big old house was literally stuffed with young people. But there were bitter pills to swallow. A daughter died at age 18 and four sons in succession died on reaching age 20, When Parker died only 6 of his 16 children survived,