Memorials › James Henry Parks

James Henry Parks

1835 – 1922

Birth	1835
Death	1922
Cemetery	Oak Branch Cemetery Waxahachie , Ellis County , Texas , USA
Added by	Patricia Kemper on 08 Jun 2008
FaG	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27409210

Bio

James Henry Parks was born in Lancaster County South Carolina in 1835. He was the son of Kinchen Parks of Virginia and Margaret Owen of South Carolina. By 1850, Kinchen moved his family to St. Clair County, Alabama settling near the railroad community of Steele's Depot. They later relocated to the nearby town of Ashville. James' sister, Parmelia, married William Newman on March 24, 1853. He was the son of Reuben Newman of South Carolina and his wife, Mary. Four years later, on October 4, 1857, James married William Newman's younger adopted sister, Irina. At the outset of the Civil War, James Parks enlisted in the Confederate Army. He served in Company "E" of the 51st Alabama Partisan Rangers organized in the summer of 1862. He fought in many skirmishes and battles and on September of 1863, was a participant in the battle of Chickamauga, a major battle in which there were more than 24,000 casualties from both sides. He continued in the war until his capture by Union forces on November 24, 1863 during action at Kingston, Tennessee. James was taken to Nashville, and on 11 December of that same year, was sent to a Union Prison in Louisville, Kentucky. The Union army then transferred him to the Rock Island Barracks in Illinois. Prison conditions were deplorable. The men were sheltered in makeshift shanties with dirt floors. Period photographs document that many of the prisoners were walking skeletons, emaciated and starved for lack of food. Disease spread rampant and unchecked through the squalor taking many lives. The United States offered clemency to any Confederate who took a renewed oath of allegiance to the Union. To escape certain death, James enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the Rock Island Barracks on January 25, 1864. Rather than being a grand gesture, as it would appear, this was just more of a form of continued forced prison labor. The Union Navy transferred him to a naval rendezvous at Camp Douglas, Illinois. Less than one month after his departure from the Rock Island Barracks, over three hundred men died there in a smallpox epidemic that swept through the camp. James remained in the Union navy until the close of the war. By 1880, James Henry Parks moved his family from St. Clair County to Blount County settling near the town of Oneonta. It was in Oneonta that word of Texas reached them. The rich black dirt, they were told, was good for growing cotton and with cotton, fortunes could be made. Many Blount County families, the Bynums, Glovers, Cornelius and Trammels had already made the trek to Texas and the Parks family followed by 1886. When they arrived in Ellis County, Texas, they found land near the town of Oak on a branch of the Waxahachie Creek. James and his sons found the rich black dirt that was promised them and soon began to prosper. They farmed much of the land that now comprises the town of Maypearl, Texas, originally called Eyrie. The town of Oak was started by those families who had come from Blount County, so the Parks found themselves among friends. The Oak Branch Church was organized in 1871, at the home of the Asa Reverend Bynum and by 1873; the community had constructed a brush arbor to serve as the meeting place for regular camp meetings. The entire Parks were staunch Methodist and members of the church at Oak Branch in good standing. Eventually, one of James' sons, James Robert Parks, married and settled further to the south in the Dresden community of Navarro County. James and Irena went to live with him until Irena's death in 1911. After she was buried in the Dresden Cemetery near Blooming Grove, James returned to Oak Branch and lived there until his death in summer of 1922. At age 87, James, who lived with his son, Pinkney, was working in the field one day and at sundown, collapsed as he was returning home. The undertaker and his helper came to the house bringing with them a wooden coffin from the hardware store in nearby Maypearl. They cleaned and prepared the body in the home, which was the custom in those days, and, because it was summer, buried James the next day. Though the funeral was hastily organized, many of his long-time friends came to bid him goodbye. See Also: 51st Alabama Partisans Ranger Virtual Cemetery. Randell Tarin – 2nd Great Grandson of James Henry Parks

Photos

Family

Spouse

Irina Newman Parks 1840–1911

Children

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