Parker, Hon. John Milliken

Submitted by Mike Miller

Hon. John Milliken Parker, governor of Louisiana from 1920 to 1924, has for many years been a man of distinction in his home city of New Orleans, and has been well known in national life and politics because of his effective participation in the progressive party and his nomination as candidate for vice-president on the progressive ticket in 1916.

Governor Parker was born at Bethel Church, Mississippi, March 16, 1863, son of John M. Parker and Roberta (Buckner) Parker. His father was born at Port Gibson, Mississippi, in 1837 and died in New Orleans in 1893. A graduate of Princeton University in 1860, he married at Bethel Church Miss Roberta Buckner and for a number of years was a planter there. He served as a confederate soldier during the war between the states and in 1871 removed to New Orleans, where he engaged in business as a cotton factor. The name Parker has been prominent in Cotton circles in New Orleans for over half a century. He was a democrat. His widow is still living as New Orleans. She was born in Mississippi in 1839. Of their family of children Governor Parker is the oldest. Judge J. Parker is Judge of the Civil District Court of New Orleans, Arthur D. is president of the Parker-Blake Co., wholesale druggists of New Orleans; Dr. William E. is a surgeon at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Mrs. W. J. Montgomery, of New Orleans, is the widow of a prominent cotton factor of that city.

John M. Parker, the Governor, was reared in New Orleans from the age of eleven, and was educated in public schools. Leaving high school at the age of seventeen, he had a general working experience in the Cotton business until 1884. In that year he became associated with the wholesale grocery business, a member of the firm Parker-Haynes and Company, and was active therein for nine years. In 1892 Mr. Parker was president of the New Orleans Board of Trade and in 1897-98 was president of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange. For many years he has been president of the John M. Parker Company, cotton factors. He has had some more or less active connection with the cotton industry since 1880. From 1908 to 1911 he was president of the Southern Commercial Congress and was the first president of the Mississippi Valley Association. During the World war he acted as Federal food administrator, and in 1918 was appointed arbitrator in the metal workers' strike in New Orleans.

He took an active part in the progressive party movement in 1912 and in subsequent years, and in 1916 was nominated to the office of vice-president on the progressive ticket with Colonel Roosevelt. However, the progressive party organization came to an end before the election of 1916. In 1920 he was elected governor of Louisiana for the term of four years ending in May, 1924. Governor Parker is a democrat. He served as a southern member of the Advisory Committee of the Armament Conference after the World war. He is a Presbyterian, and has for thirty-s years been a member of the Masonic fraternity. He belongs to the Boston Club of New Orleans. the New Orleans Country Club, the Audubon Club of New Orleans.

January 11, 1888, he married Miss Cecile Airey, daughter of Colonel Thomas and Virginia (Carroll) Airey, now deceased. Her father was a: cotton factor. Governor and Mrs. Parker have three children: John M. Parker, Jr., vice president of the John M. Parker Company, cotton factors at New Orleans, enlisted in the regular army as a private, served in France more than a year, and returned home with the rank of lieutenant. The second son, Thomas Airey, secretary and treasurer of the John M. Parker Company, enlisted as a private in the navy, served all through the war, being with the mine laying squadron in the North Sea, and returned with the rank of lieutenant. The daughter, Miss Virginia, lives at home.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 4-5, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.

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Second article... some of the "facts" are not the same.

Parker, John M., was born in Claiborne county, Miss., 1838, and died at New Orleans, May 4, 1893. He was yet in the full vigor of manhood when death stilled his noble heart and bereaved the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana of a sterling, upright, and progressive business man and an honored citizen of the highest type, depriving a loving household of its mainstay, counselor, and revered chief. His parents were Dr. James Porter and Mary (Milliken) Parker. The father was a native of Lexington, Ky. and a son of Robert Parker, a native of Pennsylvania, and a captain in the colonial army of the American revolution. Capt. Parker removed from Pennsylvania to Kentucky while yet a young man, and married in that state, his wife being a daughter of Col. Andrew Porter, on whose staff Capt. Parker had previously served. As a young graduate physician, Dr. James Porter Parker located at Port Gibson, Miss., and, through exceptional professional ability and his high character, became a prominent and honored citizen of his adopted state. Dr. Parker married Mary Milliken, daughter of John Milliken, a prominent planter, for whom Milliken's Bend was named.

John M. Parker graduated from Princeton college in the class of 1857, and soon after completing his education engaged in mercantile pursuits. He removed to New Orleans in 1872, and shortly thereafter became a member of the firm of Harris, Parker & Co., brokers and cotton factors. This firm later succeeded by that of the John M. Parker Co., of which Mr. Parker's eldest son, John M., is now the senior member and president. The senior John M. Parker was also engaged in the wholesale grocery business at the same time, and both this and the cotton business prospered and continually expanded under his able management. He was very successful in business and his fortune continued to increase by reasonable degrees, but never did reproach touch his name. Throughout an unusually large circle of acquaintances, business and otherwise, he was regarded as a man of the very highest personal honor. Nor did he allow business to monopolize his attention. He had the keenest appreciation of the obligations of citizenship, and any movement that had for its object the common good, at all times received his earnest encouragement and support. In cases of need among his fellowmen, his means and his personal service were at their command. He was an active member of the Cotton exchange and the New Orleans Board of Trade, and became identified with several of the most substantial business concerns of the city. In 1882 Mr. Parker was elected a member of the police commission of New Orleans, and continued in that position to the time of his death. His reputation as a member of this board was soon established as being unalterably opposed to abuses of all kinds, and of strictest adherence to established rules and regulations, his decisions being always tempered with the soundest judgment, and a generous consideration for the weaknesses of human nature. Mr. Parker's social qualities were preeminent, and his friends many. In 1860 Mr. Parker was married to Miss Roberta Buckner, a daughter of Robert H. and Sarah (Freeland) Buckner, of Claiborne county, Miss. The Freeland family removed from Maryland to Mississippi, and of Buckner from Kentucky. Robert H. Buckner was a distinguished lawyer and jurist, and was chancellor of Mississippi from 1839 to 1845. Five sons and 1 daughter were born to Mr. and Mrs. Parker, namely: John M., William E., Robert B., J. Porter, Arthur D., and Sarah. The daughter, now deceased, became the wife of William G. Montgomery; Robert B., also deceased, had become prominent as a wholesale grocer of New Orleans; William E., is a practicing physician at Hot Springs, Ark.; J. Porter, elsewhere referred to in this work, is judge of the Civil district court at New Orleans; John M. is president of the John M. Parker Co., New Orleans, above referred to. The mother of these children survives her husband, and resides in New Orleans.

Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 785-786. Edited by Alcee Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.