Jacob Parker
To write of the early men of Richland, the pioneers in the law, we must not pass by Jacob Parker and James Purdy. Neither of them were advocates, but both were good lawyers and Parker was a great judge. Parker all his life was embarrassed with a hesitancy of speech, stammering over the Ss-Ss-Ss and the hard Cs-Cs-Cs and the harder Ks-Ks-Ks and the busy Bs-Bs-Bs. There is one still living, his nephew, greater than he, who in exceedingly rapid speech is met with the same hesitancy, but in a much less degree -- a little blemish only. Parker was an omnivorous reader of text books and reports, and he both read and digested, Methodical, analytical, logical, using his knowledge with skill and ability, he knew the law. Always friendly with his brothers of the bar, he was of vast service to the profession throughout all northern Ohio. His intellect was keen. His apprehension and comprehension of facts quick and perfect and his application and industry marvelous, and the generosity in his nature, especially as manifested toward younger and less equipped members of the profession, made him most welcome in the offices of his juniors. He loved the law and the investigation of questions for the sake of the intellectual acumen which came from the effort. His service on the bench was under the constitution of 1802, when the Court of Common Pleas was composed of one lawyer and three laymen, and his circuit included the counties of Knox, Richland, Holmes, Medina and Wayne. Neither Ashland nor Morrow were then known to the map, but were portions of the other counties named, and practically he administered the law in that large circuit, for the associates mainly limited their labors to the probate of wills and the administration of estates. Now the number of Common Pleas Judges in the same territory is increased six to eight fold and the dockets were not more crowded than now. The salary of Judge Parker never exceeded twelve hundred dollars a year. The judiciary system in Ohio was not in fact improved by the Constitution of 1851. Prior and subsequent to his service on the bench, he was not averse to earning and obtaining good fees, and he did not lack in desire or ability to use his earnings for his own enjoyment. He was not only a most able judge and affable man and genial companion, but was a liver and knew how to tickle his palate and gratify his stomach. Born in New England, the brother-in-law of Charles Sherman, who was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and graced it as it was graced by Peter Hitchcock and Calvin Pease and Ebenezer Lane and Jacob Burnett, he was a good citizen and in his long life added to the fame of the bar of Richland, and to the standing of the whole community in which most of that life was passed. He died at a good age leaving behind him the accumulations of his years, one daughter, the wife of Mr. John Wood, and one son, Charles W. Parker. A second daughter, Elizabeth, preceded him to the undiscovered country. His residence in Mansfield for all the years I knew him was a stately mansion, well built, one of the very best in all the town, which later on was the home of his daughter, and still later yielded in part to the torch and then gave way to a statelier pile of stone, now the First Lutheran Church, in which another son of old Richland, able and wise, preaches the gospel of good tidings to men, the poor and the rich, the lonely and the high alike; preaches it in simplicity, yet with great vigor; preaches and is successful and is exceedingly useful. Parker, if alive, would not be averse to such use of his old home.
From The Richland Shield & Banner, August 25, 1894
