David and Susan J. Parker: Civil War veteran and farm family south of Parkers Creek
Table of Contents
Introduction: David and Susan J. Parker
David Parker (b. ca. 1830, d. ca. 1895) was an African American farmer and Civil War veteran. He and his wife Susan J. Parker (b. ca. 1840-1845, d. 1927, née Kelly), lived just south of Parkers Creek. Although historical information about the couple’s children is difficult to interpret, Parkers Creek Heritage Trail (PCHT) researchers are certain that five sons, three daughters, and one stepdaughter were born between 1861 and 1886. In addition, there may have been another boy and another girl. (Source information for this paragraph: endnote 1)
We know very little about David Parker’s family background and early years. A family history written by descendant Randi Parker Niles states that David Parker had been enslaved before the Civil War. (Endnote 2) Index records at the National Archives identify a pension-application file that indicates that David Parker served in the 9th Infantry Regiment of the United States Colored Troops. However, we have been unable to find the pension file or relevant U.S.C.T. records. Susan Parker applied for the pension in September 1895, likely a few months after her husband’s death.
In 1871, a scant six years after the end of the Civil War, David Parker acquired land from Samuel B. Wilson, deeded as containing 40 acres and shown in the illustration below. Approximately eight or ten acres of the tract are relatively flat ridgetop land, suitable for farming. The remainder is steeply sloped, falling toward the Parkers Creek marsh to the north, and to a tributary to the south. In Calvert County, this type of terrain typically remains as woodland, with trees harvested by landowners for fences and farm buildings or sold as timber to sawmills. (Endnote 3)
Property maps
Above: David Parker’s property acquired in 1871, as delineated in 2024 by Art Cochran for the PCHT project. As reported in a later section of this webpage, the family sold the land as the outcome of a 1931 legal case. There were intervening landowners and in 1995, the tract was acquired by Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Today, it is managed for DNR by ACLT.
Above: For context, two Parker properties south of Parkers Creek. The property nearest the creek is David Parker’s 1871 acquisition. The property farther south is James L. “Jimmy” Parker’s two-part acquisition of 40 acres, 1919 and 1926. Map by Exa Marmee Grubb.
Two sons, Nathaniel Parker and James L. Parker, featured on other webpages
- Nathaniel “Nat” Parker (b. 1880-1885, d. after 1931) plays an important role in the story Lemuel and Annie Wallace: Farm, House, and Family. Nat Parker was married to Lemuel’s daughter Rosie, and Nat built the house–now abandoned–that still stands on property once owned by Lemuel Wallace. The house is accessible to ACLT South Side hikers via the Wallace Lane secondary trail, linked to the Ridge Loop trail. Rosie passed away in the 1920s and by 1930, Nat had married his second wife, Loretta, called “Retta.” (Endnote 4)
- James L. “Jimmy” Parker (b. 1874-1877, d. 1944) was married to Ella (b. 1882 or 1883, née Simms, d. after 1950) and the couple had eight children. Jimmy Parker acquired two adjacent tracts of land south of Parkers Creek: 10-acres in 1919 and 30 acres in 1926. More information on the page James L. and Ella Parker: landowning farmers south of Parkers Creek.
David Parker's workhorse and tobacco crop as collateral on a farm loan
Farming was touch and go for many small operations in Southern Maryland, and the year-long wait for the sale of the tobacco crop often forced farmers to take out loans to tide them over. In 1888, for example, David Parker used a workhorse and his recently harvested crop (hanging in the barn “unstripped”) as collateral for a $105.68 loan from Thomas A. Hardesty, a neighboring White farmer, due for repayment the following January. (Endnote 5)
1931: Parker versus Parker regarding David Parker's land
David Parker died in 1895, his widow Susan Parker died in 1927, and neither had a will. The land that David Parker had bought in 1871 was still in family hands but there seem to have been disagreements about how to divide the property. Meanwhile, by 1931, the Great Depression brought new hardships to many Americans and four of David and Susan’s children faced overdue-debt judgments from four Calvert County merchants.
These factors led one group of David and Susan Parker’s heirs to take legal action against another group. In August 1931, Equity case 869 was brought before the Circuit Court for Calvert County. Equity cases pertain to civil law, and courts seek to award equitable remedies. Claims, as in this case, often involve real estate.
The plaintiffs were David and Susan’s son James L. Parker and granddaughter Daisy Chew (with her husband Willie Chew), representing the interests of Daisy’s now-deceased mother Sarah Parker Commodore. The defendants included four other still-living children of David and Susan Parker (including Nathaniel Parker, who has an important role in the story Lemuel and Annie Wallace: Farm, House, and Family), and the heirs of two other children now deceased.
We assume the plaintiffs worried that their share of the value of the land would be injured if the debt judgements were not addressed. And they presumably felt that this was an opportunity to sell the land and, after debt and costs were paid, to realize a portion of the proceeds. The plaintiffs engaged the well-established Prince Frederick attorney John B. Gray Jr. to represent them.
Some of the testimony provides glimpses of the farm. Nathaniel Parker testified, “There is a house on it and a small barn. It has been used as a farm and that is its chief value. It would be best to sell the land, and the proceeds divided among those entitled.” James L. Parker testified, “In my judgment it would be best to sell the property and to divide the proceeds among those entitled. There is no more than enough [land] there for one person to work.” Eddie Bowen, keeper of the general store in Port Republic later operated by Earl Ogden, testified, “I know the property by passing through it very frequently. I do not think they could divide the land among the heirs to do anyone any good. It is nice little piece of property. It has some marsh and some good land. I think the property is worth about $1000. If the property were divided at all it would destroy the value of the property as a farm, and that is all the property is good for.”
Outcome of the Equity case
In the end, the plaintiffs had their way. Circuit Court judge William Meverel Loker wrote, “It is thereupon, this 6th day of July, in the year nineteen hundred and thirty-one, by the Circuit Court for Calvert County, adjudged, ordered and decreed that the property mentioned in the proceedings be sold; that John B. Gray, Jr., be, and he is hereby, appointed trustee to make said sale . . . .”
Thomas Parran (endnote 6) made the winning bid of $1,000 when the property was auctioned at the courthouse door in September 1932; the resulting deed describes the tract as containing 40 acres (AAH 30/98). Here’s how the revenue was divided:
Direct payments to selected heirs of David and Susan Parker
- $136.26 Heirs of Sarah Parker Commodore
- $ 40.86 Heirs of Maggie Parker Height
- $ 40.85 Heir James L. Parker
Payments against debts owed by selected heirs
- $136.26 Part payment of Henry Parker’s debt to Arthur Dowell
- $136.26 Part payment of William Parker’s debt to O.L. King
- $136.26 Part payment of Nat Parker’s debt to Calvert Motor Company
- $136.26 Payment of David “Cook” Parker’s debt to Brooke Bond
Other payments
- $103.00 Trustee for commission and expenses
- $122.85 Funds to pay the plaintiff’s case-related costs
- $ 11.14 Balance due on taxes
Total
- $1,000.00
Parran held the former Parker tract until 1951, when he sold it to Woodrow Wallace (AWR 28/251). In 1970, Wallace sold it to Page Jett for incorporation into the property known as Warrior’s Rest (JLB 117/37). Jett’s heirs sold all of Warrior’s Rest to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in 1995. The entire tract is managed for DNR by the ACLT.
Endnotes
Endnote 1. Susan J. Parker’s maiden name Kelly is taken from the 1944 death certificate for her son James L. Parker. In contrast, the surname Skinner is provided on the Chew-Parker family tree assembled by Michael J. Sullivan and hosted by Ancestry.com:
- https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/193971538/person/182525598580/facts, consulted 23 May 2025.
Readers should note that a man named David Parker (b. 1850-1853, d. after 1900), married to Hannah Kelson Parker, lived near Parkers Creek in the early 1900s, owning land just north of creek from 1908 to 1911. Although they may be related, at this writing (June 2025), we have not found any information that connects this David Parker to the man who is the subject of this webpage.
Regarding the children in the David and Susan Parker household described here, information is provided by (a) census enumerations from 1870 to 1930, (b) the records from a 1931 Equity legal case (number 869), and (c) family trees hosted by Ancestry.com. However, these documents do not fully agree. Heritage Trail researchers have conferred with Randi Parker Niles, a descendant who has written a book about the family, and she joins us in hoping that fresh information about the family will be found. Randi Parker Niles’s book is titled Pieces of Me: The History of the Parker Family, Calvert County MD (KB Management Consulting, 2024), offered for sale at
- http://lulu.com/spotlight/randiparker, consulted 10 May 2025
At this writing (May 2025), we identify the following eight as the children of David and Susan Parker, including married names for women and birthdate(s), which vary according to source: Ella Frances Parker, usually called Frances, 1868; Henry H. Parker, 1871 or 1870; Margaret “Maggie” Parker Height, 1871; William Parker, 1873; James L. Parker, 1874, 1876, or 1877; Sarah Parker Commodore, 1878; Nathaniel “Nat” Parker, 1876, 1880, or 1882; and David “Cook” Parker, 1885 or 1886. In addition, census records identify one stepdaughter (possibly Susan’s child born prior to her marriage to David): Rachel Coates, 1861. Names identified as children in census records, but with facts that seem not to mesh with other information: John Parker, 1864 or 1865 (may have died at birth or when very young); and Frances D. Parker, 1874.
Endnote 2. Randi Parker Niles, op. cit., p. 4.
Endnote 3. The 1871 deed had been destroyed in the 1882 courthouse fire, and it was re-recorded in 1923 (AAH 8/342). The metes and bounds were used to create the 2024 map presented here, a mapping that shows an extent of 27 acres.
Endnote 4. Loretta Parker is identified as Nathaniel Parker’s wife in the 1930 census and Equity case 869, op. cit.
Endnote 5. We found five contracts documenting cash loans to David Parker in land records dated from 1888 to 1913. Since there were at least three men with that name living in the vicinity of Parkers Creek during that period, we cannot be certain which David Parker took out which loan. However, the fact that the lender in this 1888 example (land record JS 01/243) is the neighbor of the David Parker under discussion here, together with other details in the five agreements, leads us to believe that that this loan (at least) was made to the David Parker discussed on this webpage. A note written at the end of the agreement indicates that the loan was repaid in 1892, three years after the due date.
Endnote 6. Parran was an active political figure in Calvert County, including service as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1911 to 1913. Parran made many loans to Black and White land buyers, and his name turns up frequently in property transactions and mortgages in the first third of the 20th century.
