Parker, Robert (2)

Parker, Robert (2), a pioneer minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born at Fisling Creek, Luzerne County, Pa., March 30, 1792; was converted at the age of eleven years, and joined the Methodist Church. He entered the Genesee Conference in 1820, and continued a member thereof until his death, being forty-seven years in faithful, active work, and seven years superannuated. The Genesee Conference at the time above mentioned included Western and portions of Central and Northern New York, part of Pennsylvania, the whole of Upper Canada, and a part of Michigan. His first charge was Canisteo Circuit, and included Dansville and Painted Post. His last was Rogersville, which was included in his first circuit. His earlier circuits required three hundred miles' travel, which occupied six weeks' time. Riding from morning till evening twilight through thick forests marked only by Indian trails, swimming rivers, climbing hills and mountains. and preaching nightly in log hut or school-house or barn, or out of doors, summer and winter. this veteran did an amount of labor for his Master that few modern preachers conceive of. His life was one of remarkable purity and earnestness, he being always willing to work wherever there was work to do. For the last two years of his life he was almost entirely bereft of reason by a paralytic stroke. Yet he never lost his hold on the higher life, but prayed as intelligibly and eloquently, and sang the old familiar hymns as sweetly, as when in the vigor of manhood. He died in Sparta, N.Y., Dec. 3,1874. See Minutes of Annual Conferences M. E. Ch. p. 875; Conable, Hist. General Conf. ch. ii, § 1; Boehm, Autobiography.