The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1904-07-20
THE FARMERS BOY
Who Rose to be the Leader of q
Great Party.

Who Rose to be the Leader of
Great Party.
EoW TIE DEMOCRATIC NoMINE1
Studied at Nights, Taught School
Took up Law and Pushed
His Way to the Front
Born on a farm, living on farm
the son OF farmer, married to the
daughter Of farmer; plo0ding schoo
teacher, shrewd country lawyer
steadily successful politician, CHE
judicial officer OF the greatest State II
the Union. These, in two score words,
are the two sides TO the life and char
acter OF Alton Brooks Parker, the
base and elevation OF the man chosen
by the Democrats as nominee fo1
President OF the United States.
1t is the typical American story
that has been broadened into hun
dred biographical Libraries and whose
features are so similar that they might
be stereotyped.
Judge Parker comes from close tC
the American soil and he comes, tco,
from old American Stock-for there
was a Private Parker in one OF Wash.
ington,s New York regiments, and
that private was the great grandfather
OF the present Chief Judge Of the New
York Court Of Appeals.
He BELIEVES IN ANCESTRY.
1t is to be noted here that while
Judge Parker might not hand down
dissenting opinion if the much.abused
term 'self-made man" were applied to
him, he puts god deal OF trust in
ancestry as a man-maker, and in the
library Of his house at EsopuS hangs
a framed emblazonment OF the Parker
coat Of arms. 1t is not on record that
the warrior spirit Of the ParkerS dis
turbed any Of the Judges forebears
after the days of the Colonial private.
At any rate Alton BIS father, John
Brooks Parker, was a farmer who lived
little way out Of Cortland, n.
Y. There Alton B. was born May Il,
1852, which would make him just past
the ffty-two year mark.
The elder Parker had married Har-
riett Stratton, and the old mother, she
is past eighty, by her vigorous frame
and strong mentality shows that her
son came Of good stock on both sides
Of the family. She is now enjoying
the mothers supreme triumph OF see
ing her boy famous man. The sud-
denneSs of bis later rise has somewhat
overpowered her, but in the estimates
that she has been induced to give Of
her sons early years there is no incli-
nation to make him prodigy.
a PASSION FOR BOOKS.
Alton was strong boy and good
boy" the mother says, "but he was
not so good a boy that l did not think
I cculo make a better cne Of him.
So when he needed it I switched him
and switched him soundly. he help
ed his father about the farm after
hours when be came home from the
district school which be attended.
He had his chores to do in the morn
ing and in the evening. During the
Sumner time he worked in the fields
according to his years and in his youth
he did a big days wark without a
murmur. Yes, he was cheerful and
dutiful SON."
It was his fathers wish that his son
should be a farmer and grow up to
work the homestead, but while Alton
liked farmers life be could not limit
his ambition to the fed fences. He
always wanted to learn things. His
chores over be sought his botkS, por-
ing over them so long ard late that
his parents were obliged to drive him
away from them and to bed, and when
he outgrew the books Of the district
school he took up those Of the Acade-
my in Cortland.
Then be thought he would like to
open books to others. and so attended
the State Normal School, where be
studied to he teacher.
TERAsHED SCHOOL BULLY.
His years of hard work in the open
fields and the good stock tefore re-
ferred to made young Alton strap
ping youth and when he was sixteen
he was almost as big as he is now, and
he stands over six feet high, and has
shoulders like a Columbia oarSman.
The school committee Of Ulster, n.
Y, had district school at Napanoch,
where the older boys were in the habit
of making it so extremely interesting
for the teacher that be usually found
one term sufficiently exciting to last a
lifetime. The committeeman lookss d
at young Parker'S inches and solidllv
and gave him the distinction Of being
schoolmaSter for the troublesome dis
trict and three dollars week to boot.
The troublesome pupils also looked
over their young teacher and, though
one or two Of the bolder tried to keep
up the reputation Of the district, it
was a failure. The bully of the school
was smashed and the school teacher
was a success.
He tried teaching for TWO years and
at the end OF that time, though the
committee raised his salary to the
princely sum Of $50 month, young
Parker concluded that be had had
enough OF school boys and school books
and would take up those OF the law.
There was a tender side to this deter
nination, it must be confessed. The
last school il which be taught was at
Accord, and in Accord lived Moses /.
SHOEMAKER, and Shoemaker had a
daughter, Mary.
COURTS AND CoURTsHIP.
The Schoonmakers are of the early
Dutch settler period and trace back
%ar tho R0rSayaltS G