Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-11-02
Character Sketch Of The Democratic
Standard Bearer
ALTON Brooks PARKEG'S CAREER
Descended From Farmers and Pat.
riots, Judge Parker While
MA ntaining a High Ca~
reer Oh the bench
Has Ilung to
4aiS arms

him, and theirs before them, were
farmers, honest men who lived their
lives on their farms, cultivating the
soil, raising crops and cattle. His
grandfather, John Parker, passed
from the old homestead in MasSachu
sets and bought Il farm in Cortland
County, New York, i'll 1903; and here
was born John Parker, and on May ii,
1852, Alton Brooks Parker, the Dem
ocratic candidate for President. Love
of the soil, of crops, of cattle, Of pure
air and clear we'll water are Unborn
traits ef this sterling American citi-
zen.
One day John Parker, who was q
man of studious habits, widely and
deeply read and gifted with rare mem
Org for the best passages i'll the works
of best authors was summoned to do
Jury duty in Cortland. He took Alton
with him. The boy was so greatly
Impressed with the proceedings that
he determined to become q lawyer.
Overcoming by diligence, persistency
and ability all obstacles, he not only
became u lawyer, but was elected by
81, 900 majority Chief Judge of the
Court Of Appeals, the greatest gift in
the legal profession that can be be-
slowed by the people ca the Empire
State.
AS soon as circumstances permitted
the Judge bought himself a farm at
Esopus, n. Y. Here he~began raising
his now famous herd of Red Polls,
hOrnless cattle good in the dairy and
in beef.
In the fine old house he has a great
library. Out of doors Alton Brooks
Parker is the farmer who seeks to win
from nature every gift sought by the
husbandman; in his library the same,
rugged, hearty man seeks i'll volumes
of yellow calf parallels and precedents
to guide him in his decisions. And so,
by reason of his dual occupations, his
many friends call him the Farmer
Judge.
MEN AND THE CONSTITUTION.
To every man who loves his country
"a country made great and powerful
by virtue of institutions rooted in the
Constitution, guarded and shielded by
the Constitutional is pleasing, nay,
inspiring, to behold in this age of
wealth and corrupt political and imam
cial organization, a man of simple ORR
gin, removed from every favorable
condition save those Of honest and in
duStrious parentage, SO battle all OBJ
stacles and so rise i'll the esteem, affec-
ton and admiration of men that he
be called upon to resign virtually a
life position, the most commanding at
the bar of his or any other State, to
become the standard bearer of one of
the great political parties. And when
1t is borne in mind that the great
grandfather of Alton Brooks Parker
was one of those farmers who left his
farm when the War of the Revolu-
ton broke out to shoulder a muSket,
that by the work done by these en-
battled farmers liberty and independ-
ence was won for all Americans, and
that the Constitution was the direct
outcome of the self-sacritice, heroism,
patriotism and blood of those farmers,
1t is not to be wondered at that Alton
Brooks Parker, the great-grandson, is
now engaged i'll the battle to preserve
that Constitution from usurpation and
destruction. AS the great-grandfather
fought that liberty might be secured,
so the great-grandson fights that lib
erty may ever be preserved by the
Constitution.
What the Constitution has enabled
Alton Brooks Parker to become, so will
the indebted Constitution enable all
other farmers sons to become in the
future years.
HIS EARLY STRUGGLES.
But what of those early days3
Young Parker was greatly i'll earn
est to become a lawyer. His father
did not possess the means to educate
him thoroughly for the profession; not
withstanding, Alton persevered in his
purpose. He was graduated at the
Cortland Academy when sixteen years
OF age, and on that very day he start
ed out TO obtain school to teach and
ne obtained one in Virgil, thirteen
miles from his home. His first expert
ehce as Il teacher was extremely try
ing. Some of his pupils were nearly
as OLD ana as large as he. More than
one conflict of authority was neces-
sary before he could subdue and con
troll his scholars. but this is the end
he accomplished The year following
the young teacher obtained a license
or degree from the normal school of
MS town, and through this credential
secured a position in the county in
when he now resides, Ulster County.
N. i. His salary was three dollars
per DAY, and the position was as
principal or the school, which gave him
some leisure in which to study law.
and, III fact, so industrious and ener
getic. was he that he held this posi-
ton but year, when he became TWEEN
ty-one years of age and was ready
to be admitted to the bar, having now
supported himself for the five wears
just past.
AS soon as he was admitted to prac-
ice he became the junior partner in
the office of Shoemaker & Harden
oergh, of Kingston, n. Y. He had a
strong friend in Augustus Schoonmak.
er, who took an interest in him and
encouraged him to take course at the
Albany Law School. The friendship
between Schoonnfaker and Parker he-
came still closer. Youn.. Parker was
hardly partner in the firm when he
took a lively interest in the political
fortunes of Schoonmaker, who had
been county judge, but was defeated
Tor reelection, and was SO discouraged
by this that he was about to give nm
nOliffCg forever XOsrur,