Research topic: Isaac Charles Parker

Isaac Charles Parker 1838-96, American frontier judge, b. Belmont co., Ohio. Self-taught in law, Parker began practice in St. Joseph, Mo., in 1859. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1870 as a Republican. Parker was appointed (1875) judge of the western district of Arkansas, an unruly area that included in its jurisdiction the Indian Territory . He became known as a "hanging judge" because of the many death sentences he meted out. However, Parker's rigorous justice helped bring law and order to the area. Bibliography: See biographies by F. Harrington (1951) and... Read more