Born in
Great Barrington,
Berkshire County, Massachusetts, he attended the public schools and was graduated from
Cornell University in 1887. He taught at
St. Paul's School in
Concord, New Hampshire in 1887 and moved to
Salem,
Washington County, New York in 1888 and taught at St. Paul's School at Salem. He began farming in Salem in 1898. He was also interested in breeding
harness racing horses. He was a member of the
New York State Assembly (Washington Co.) in
1904,
1905,
1908,
1909,
1910,
1911 and
1912. There he was allied with the opponents of the policies of
Charles Evans Hughes. Parker was elected as a
Republican to the Sixty-third and to the ten succeeding Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1913, until his death on December 19, 1933. While in the House, he was Chairman of the
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce during the Sixty-ninth through Seventy-first Congresses. He and Senator
Charles McNary of Oregon introduced a bill in 1930 to give mail contract subsidies for transoceanic trip to American dirigibles. He was married twice: first in 1899 to Marian Williams, who died in 1923; second to Amy Glidden, two years after his first wife's death. He had 6 children. He died on December 19, 1933, in
Washington, D.C., and was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Salem, NY. ==See also==