Isaac Parker

Isaac Charles Parker
Painting of Judge Isaac Parker, circa 1896.
U.S. District Judge presiding over the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas
In office March 19, 1875 – November 25, 1896[1]
Nominated by	Ulysses S. Grant
Preceded by	William Story
Succeeded by	John Henry Rogers
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri's 7th district
In office March 4, 1871 – March 4, 1875
Preceded by	Joel Funk Asper
Succeeded by	Thomas Theodore Crittenden
Judge of the 12th Missouri Circuit Court
In office 1868–1870
Personal details
Born	October 15, 1838 Barnesville, Ohio, United States
Died	November 17, 1896 (aged 58) Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States
Spouse(s)	Mary O'Toole

Isaac Charles Parker (October 15, 1838 – November 17, 1896) was an American politician and jurist. He served as the United States Congressman for Missouri's 7th congressional district for two terms and presided over the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas for twenty-one years.

He became known as the "Hanging Judge" of the American Old West due to the large number convicts he sentenced to death.^[2] In twenty-one years on the federal bench, Judge Parker tried 13,490 cases. In more than 8,500 of these cases the defendant either plead guilty or was convicted at trial.^[3] Parker sentenced 160 people to death, 79 of them were executed.^[4][5]

Parker's health deteriorated in the 1890s and the jurisdiction and power of his court was reduced by Congress. In September 1896, Congress effectively closed the District Court for the Western District of Arkansas by removing its jurisdiction. Shortly after, on November 17, 1896, Parker died of complications due to Bright's disease, he is buried in Fort Smith.

Early life

Parker was the youngest son of Joseph Parker and his wife Jane Shannon, and the great-nephew of Ohio Governor Wilson Shannon. He was raised on the family farm near Barnesville, Ohio. He attended Breeze Hill Primary School, followed by the Barnesville Classical Institute, a private school. He taught in a county primary school to pay for his secondary education.^[6][7] At seventeen he began an apprenticeship in law and passed the Ohio bar exam in 1859.^[7]

Parker moved to St. Joseph, Missouri between 1859 and 1861 and worked at his maternal uncle's law firm, Shannon and Branch.^[8][9] By 1862, Parker had his own law firm and was working in the municipal and country courts.^[7][9]

On December 12, 1861, Parker married Mary O'Toole with whom he had two sons, Charles and James.^[8]

Political career

Photo of Isaac Parker taken between 1860 and 1865.

In April 1861, Parker ran as a Democrat for the St. Joseph part-time city attorney. He served three one-year terms from April 1861 to 1863. The American Civil War broke out four days after Parker took office and he enlisted in a pro-Union home guard unit, the 61st Missouri Emergency Regiment. He had reached the rank of corporal by the end of the war.^[9]

During the 1860s Parker continued both his legal and political careers. In 1864, Parker formally split from the Democratic Party over conflicting opinions on slavery.^[10] He ran as a Republican for county prosecutor of the Ninth Missouri Judicial District. By the fall of 1864, he was serving as a member of the Electoral College and voted for Abraham Lincoln.^[11] In 1868, Parker won a six-year term as judge of the Twelfth Missouri Circuit.^[11]

After being nominated on September 13, 1870 for Missouri's 7th congressional district, backed by the Radical faction of the Republican party, Parker resigned his judgeship and devoted his energy on the campaign.^[6] Parker won the election after his opponent withdrew two weeks prior to the vote.^[12]

The first session of the Forty-second Congress convened on March 4, 1871. During his first term, Parker assisted veterans of his district in securing pensions and lobbied for the construction of a new federal building in St. Joseph. He sponsored a failed bill designed to enfranchise women and allow them to hold public office in United States territories. Parker also sponsored legislation to organize the Indian Territory under a territorial government.^[11]

Parker was again elected to Missouri's 7th district in the forty-third Congress.^[13] A local paper wrote of him, "Missouri had no more trusted or influential representative in ... Congress during the past two years ..."^[14] In his second term, Parker concentrated on Indian policy including the fair treatment of the Tribes residing in the Indian Territory. His speeches he made in support of the Bureau of Indian Affairs gained national attention.^[15]

In 1874, Parker was the caucus nominee of the Republican Party for a Missouri Senate seat.^[6] However the political tide had shifted in Missouri, when it became unlikely that he would be elected to the Senate he sought a presidential appointment as judge for the Western District of Arkansas.^[7][11]

District Judge

On May 26, 1874, President Ulysses S. Grant nominated Parker as Chief Justice, Utah Territory to replace James B. McKean. However, following a request from Parker, Grant instead nominated him for the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas replacing William Story who was facing impeachment proceedings due to allegations of corruption..^{[16][17][12][18]}

Parker arrived in Fort Smith on May 4, 1875, initially without his family. His appointment at age 36 made him the youngest federal judge in the West.^[7] Parker's first session as the district judge was on May 10, 1875 with court prosecutor W. H. H. Clayton. Clayton who remained the United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas for fourteen of Parker's twenty-one years on the court.^[19]

Photo of Parker's courtroom reconstructed at the Fort Smith National Historic Site taken in 1966.

In May 1875, during his first session of court, Parker tried eighteen men who were charged with murder; fifteen were convicted in jury trials. Parker sentenced eight of them to a mandatory death penalty.^[7][12] Parker ordered six of the men to be executed at the same time on September 3, 1875.^[8] One of those sentenced to death was killed trying to escape, and another's sentence was commuted to life in prison because of his youth.^[7] In an interview Parker gave to the St. Louis Republic on September 1, 1896 he stated that he had no say whether a convict was to be hanged due to compulsory death sentences and that he favoured "the abolition of capital punishment".^[20][21]

Parker's court had final jurisdiction over the Indian Territory as, from 1875 until 1889, there was no court available for appeals. While the legal systems and governments of the Five Civilized Tribes and other Native American tribes in the Indian Territory covered their own citizens, federal law applied to non-Native American United States citizens in the territory.^[22][23]

According to Congress, the federal court for the Western District of Arkansas was to meet in four separate terms each year; in February, May, August, and November. The court had such a large case load that the four terms ran together. To ensure that the court tried as many cases as possible each term, Judge Parker held court six days a week, and often up to ten hours each day.^[7][8]

In 1883, Congress reduced the jurisdiction of the court, reassigning portions of the Indian Territory to federal courts in Texas and Kansas, however the increasing number of settlers moving into the Indian Territories actually increased the court's workload.^[24][8]

From May 1, 1889 changes made by Congress allowed appeals of capital convictions to the United States Supreme Court.^[25][26] Forty-four cases where Parker imposed the death penalty were appealed to the Supreme Court which overturned and ordered a re-trial for thirty of them.^[8][27][28]

While serving as a District Judge in Fort Smith, Parker served on the Fort Smith School Board and was the first president of St. John's Hospital (known today as Sparks Health System).^[29][30][31]

Present day image of the reconstructed gallows now located at the Fort Smith National Historic Site.

In his time on the court, Parker was the judge in a number of high-profile cases including the trial of Cherokee Bill and in "Oklahoma Boomer" case involving David L. Payne who illegally settled on lands in the Indian Territory.^[32] In 1895 Judge Parker heard two cases involving Crawford Goldsby (Cherokee Bill). The first involved Goldsby killing a bystander during a general store robbery in 1894. In a case which lasted from February 26, 1895 to June 25, 1895 he was convicted and Parker sentenced him to death. However while awaiting execution, Goldsby attempted to escape prison and killed a prison guard. He was again brought before Parker who sentenced him to a second death sentence on December 2, 1895. Goldsby was eventually hanged on March 17, 1896.^[33]

Later years

Keeping up with continued settlement in the West, the Courts Act of 1889 established a federal court system in the Indian Territory; this decreased the jurisdiction of the Western District Court at Fort Smith.^[20]

Parker clashed with the Supreme Court on a number of occasions with around two-thirds of cases appealed to the Supreme Court being upheld.^[22][23] In 1894, the judge gained national attention in a dispute with the Supreme Court over the case of Lafayette Hudson.^[34] Hudson was convicted of assault with intent to kill and sentenced to four years imprisonment, he appealed to the Supreme Court and was granted bail. Parker refused to release Hudson on the grounds that statute law did not provide the Supreme Court the authority to demand Hudson's release.^[35][36]

In 1895, Congress passed a new Courts Act, which removed the remaining Indian Territory jurisdiction of the Western District, effective September 1, 1896. Thereby effectively closing the federal court for the Western District of Arkansas by removing its jurisdiction.

Sickness and death

When the August term of 1896 began, Judge Parker was at home, too sick to preside over the court. He suffered from Bright's Disease. When the jurisdiction of the court over lands in the Indian Territory came to an end on September 1, 1896, reporters wanted to interview him about his career and had to talk to Parker at his bedside.^[20]

Parker died on November 17, 1896 of a number of health conditions including heart degeneration and Bright's Disease.^[8] His funeral in Fort Smith had the highest number of attendees up to that point.^[37] He is buried at the Fort Smith National Cemetery.^[38]

In twenty-one years on the federal bench, Judge Parker tried 13,490 cases, more than 8,500 defendants either pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial.^[3] He sentenced 160 people to death and 79 were executed, the others died while incarcerated, were acquitted, pardoned or their sentence was commuted.^[4][5]

Representation in media

Judge Parker is featured prominently along with Bass Reeves in the historical fiction novel, "The Nations" by Ken Farmer and Buck Stienke.

• Pierre Watkin played Judge Parker in a 1955 episode, "Cherokee Bill" of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century, starring and narrated by Jim Davis.^[39][40]
• Charles Portis features Judge Parker in his novel, True Grit, which has twice been adapted as films of the same name. Parker is a featured character in the sequel to the first film. Parker was portrayed by James Westerfield in the 1969 movie and by John McIntire in the sequel. He was played by Jake Walker in the 2010 remake of True Grit.^[41]
• The character played by Pat Hingle in Hang 'Em High has a different name and operates out of a fictional Fort Grant, but the figure has many of the characteristics of Judge Parker.^[42]
• Larry McMurtry's 1997 novel Zeke and Ned tells the story of Zeke Proctor, one of Parker's deputy marshals.^[43]
• Loren D. Estleman's 2009 novel The Branch and The Scaffold is a novel fictionalizing Parker's tenure at Fort Smith. Moreover, in Estleman's series of western novels featuring Deputy US Marshal Page Murdock, Murdock works out of the Federal District Court of Judge Harlan Blackthorne, who, though he presides over Montana Territory rather than Indian Territory, shares many traits with Parker.^[44]
• In the Steve Earle song, "Tom Ames' Prayer," the narrator Ames is sentenced to death by Parker.^[45]
• In the midseason finale of Warehouse 13, Evil Artie uses an artifact called Judge Parker's Noose to magically suspend a room full of museum visitors.^[46]
• Judge Isaac Parker was portrayed in the 2015 series "Legends and Lies"^[47]

See also

• Shannon Political Family

References

1. Isaac Parker at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center. (The Western District of Arkansas lost its jurisdiction over Indian Territory on September 1, 1896, but he continued as district judge until his death.)
2. National Park Service. "Judge Isaac C. Parker". National Park Service. Retrieved 22 November 2015. Remembered in Western novels and films as a "Hanging Judge"
3. Burton 2008, p. 30
4. "Men Executed at Fort Smith: 1873 to 1896". National Historic Site: Fort Smith. National Park Service.
5. "History — Historical Federal Executions". US Marshals Service. U.S. Federal Government. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
6. "PARKER, Isaac Charles, (1838–1896)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. US Federal Government. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
7. "Judge Isaac Parker — Page 1". Old West Legends. Legends of America. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
8. Radcliff, Maranda (December 5, 2014). "Isaac Charles Parker (1838–1896)". The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. The Central Arkansas Library System. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
9. Leonard, Eric. "Parker's Missouri Years". National Historic Site: Fort Smith. National Park Service. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
10. Brodhead 2003, p. 7
11. Leeper 2014, p. 90
12. Friedman, Mark (March 15, 2004). "Judge Isaac Parker: A legend hangs on". Arkansas Business. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
13. "Rep. Isaac Parker [R]". GovTrack. US Federal Government. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
14. Tuller 2001, p. 36
15. Leonard, Eric. "U.S. Congressman from Missouri". National Historic Site: Fort Smith. National Park Service. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
16. Riggs, Lamar (1955). "Judge Isaac C. Parker". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly (Arkansas Historical Association) 14 (1): 85–89. doi:10.2307/40018689. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
17. Grant & Simon 1998, p. 9
18. Tuller 2001
19. Shirley 1968
20. Leeper 2014, p. 91
21. Hafnor 2009, p. 18
22. "Judge Isaac C. Parker". National Historic Site: Fort Smith. National Park Service. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
23. "Local Obituary of Judge Parker". National Historic Site: Fort Smith. National Park Service. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
24. Brodhead 2003, p. 103
25. Leonard, Eric. "Judge Parker: An Able Jurist". National Historic Site: Fort Smith. National Park Service.
26. Daily, Harry P. (1933). Chronicles of Oklahoma: Judge Isaac C. Parker. Oklahoma State University. p. 678. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
27. Boardman, Mark (February 11, 2014). "Beginning of the End: How famed "Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker lost his power". True West Magazine. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
28. "Judge Isaac Parker — Page 2". Old West Legends. Legends of America. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
29. Galonka 2000, p. 218
30. "Our history timeline". History. Sparks Health System. 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
31. "Church History". St. John's Episcopal Church. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
32. "Publishing a Newspaper in a "Boomer" Camp". Chronicles of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society. December 1927. p. 363. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
33. Metz 2014, p. 98
34. "Overruled the Supreme Court: An Amusing Conflict of Judge Parker with the Highest Tribunal". The New York Times. November 25, 1894. Retrieved December 16, 2015. Direct link to article (PDF)
35. Tuller 2001, p. 186
36. Brodhead 2003, pp. 167–169
37. Stolberg, Mary M. (1988). "Politician, Populist, Reformer: A Reexamination of "Hanging Judge" Isaac C. Parker". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 47 (1): 3–28. doi:10.2307/40038130. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
38. Isaac Charles Parker at Find a Grave
39. Movie Times. "Pierre Watkin Movies and Career Information". San Diego Movie Times. Movie Times, Inc. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
40. "Stories of the Century: "Cherokee Bill"". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
41. Brodhead 2003, p. 186
42. Brodhead 2003, p. 187
43. Brodhead 2003, p. 189
44. Estleman 2009
45. JimC (October 20, 2014). "Frontier Partisan Ballads — Steve Earle". Frontier Partisans. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
46. Gillette, Danielle (October 2, 2012). "The Warehouse team catches up with Artie in this week's midseason finale". Blast Magazine (B Media Ventures). Retrieved December 16, 2015.
47. Ellison, Gary (9 April 2015). "McMurry History Professors Featured on Fox News Program Legends and Lies: Into the West" (Press release). Abilene, Texas: McMurry University. Retrieved 2016-03-06.

Books

• Brodhead, Michael J. (2003). Isaac C. Parker: Federal Justice on the Frontier. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806135274. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
• Burton, Art T. (2008). Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves. University of Nebraska Press. p. 30. ISBN 9780803205413. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
• Burton, Jeffrey (September 1, 1997). Indian Territory and the United States, 1866–1906: Courts, Government, and the Movement for Oklahoma Statehood. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806129181.
• Estleman, Loren D. (2009). The Branch and the Scaffold. New York: Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN 9781429924368.
• Galonska, Juliet L. (2000). Williams, Nancy A.; Whayne, Jeannie M., eds. Arkansas Biography: A Collection of Notable Lives. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 9781557285881. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
• Grant, Ulysses Simpson; Simon, John Y. (1998). The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: June 1, 1871-January 31, 1872. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780809321988. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
• Hafnor, John (2009). Strange But True, America: Weird Tales from All 50 States. Lone Pine Productions. ISBN 9780964817555. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
• Harman, S. W. (1992). Hell on the Border: He Hanged Eighty-eight Men. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803223622.
• Harring, Sidney L. (February 25, 1994). Crow Dog's Case: American Indian Sovereignty, Tribal Law, and United States Law in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521467155.
• Harrington, Fred Harvey (1951). Hanging Judge. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806128399.
• Leeper, Maranda (2014). Lancaster, Guy, ed. Arkansas in Ink: Gunslingers, Ghosts, and Other Graphic Tales. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 9781935106739. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
• Metz, Leon Claire (2014). The Encyclopedia of Lawmen, Outlaws, and Gunfighters. New York: Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438130217.
• Shirley, Glenn (1968). Law West of Fort Smith. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803251830. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
• Tuller, Roger (2001). "Let No Guilty Man Escape": A Judicial Biography of "Hanging Judge" Isaac C. Parker. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806133065.

External links

• National Park Service (National Historic Site) entry about Judge Isaac Parker

• United States Congress. "Isaac Parker (id: P000059)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Judge Isaac Parker reference on About.com
• Isaac Parker at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• List of men executed at Fort Smith while Isaac Parker presided