John N. Parker

John Nelson Parker, known as J. Nelson Parker, was born in Billerica on July 10, 1851, a son of Gardner Parker and Adeline M. Wilson and a great-grandson of the tanner John Parker. He worked in Boston as a bookkeeper and clerk for Wason, Peirce & Co. and later as a merchant with Cobb, Bates & Yerxa, but he lived all his life on the family homestead on River Street, which he appears to have rebuilt in its present form about 1900. In 1875 he married Charlotte Scammon of Saco, Maine; their children were Fanny and George Nelson.

He was a trustee of the Howe School from 1887 and president of the trustees by 1916, when he spoke at the dedication of the new Howe High School. He served as a water commissioner from 1897 to 1908, as a cemetery commissioner from 1899 until his death, for many years as chairman, on the Finance Committee in 1910 and as one of the first park commissioners from 1913 to 1919. In 1902 the town meeting accepted his gift of a strip of land beside the cemetery with a unanimous rising vote of thanks. He also chaired the parish committee of the First Parish.

He died on May 14, 1921, aged 69. The 1922 town meeting adopted a memorial resolution noting that "he never held a remunerative office, but from the time of his majority till his death, he was deeply interested in, and for the most part officially connected with, every special movement meant for the improvement and prosperity of the Town," from the railroad to Bedford and the water and electric light systems to the building of the Town Hall, and it recalled "his great and affectionate interest in the Veterans of our Civil War."

He was the last of the Parkers to play a leading part in the life of Billerica Centre. The Parker School, opened in 1953 on River Street near the homestead, carries the family's name.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 107, PARKER family #24
2. Catalogue of Howe High School, 1897, Board of Trustees
3. Annual Town Meeting, March 1901, Article 29 (cemetery land)
4. 'Billerica' magazine, July 1912 (First Parish)
5. School Committee Report, 1916 (Howe High School dedication)
6. Deaths, 1921
7. Annual Town Meeting, 1922, Article 3 (memorial resolution)
8. MACRIS BIL.55, John Nelson Parker House, 16 River St