Excerpts From Unpublished Book
"Parks/Winter Family"
By D. L. Parks
Lord, help me dig into the past
And sift the sands of time
That I might find the roots that made
This family tree of mine.
Lord, help me trace the ancient woods
On which my fathers trod
And led them through so many lands
To find our present sod.
Lord, help me find an ancient book
Or dusty manuscript
That's safely hidden now away
In some forgotten crypt;
Lord, let me bridge the gap that haunts
My soul when I cannot find
The missing link between some name
That ends the same as mine
Author Unknown
Since that time the project has sent me across the United States from north to south and west to east some 40,000 miles through 32 states. Visits to many, many libraries and court houses. Joined about a dozen genealogical societies and walked more cemeteries than I can remember. Spent several weeks in Salt Lake City at the Latter Day Saint's genealogical library. The grandfather of all genealogical libraries.
Research shows that our family name has been spelled in several ways such as Park, Parke, Parkes and Parks. But mostly the early ones spelled their name as Parke. I use Parks because that's the name my old Daddy gave me. With so many families giving their children the same given names, John, Thomas, Samuel, William, Benjamin etc. made it difficult to trace the family lineage by public records. Especially since there were very few records kept in the early days in this country. At the time of the first census in America in 1790 there were more than three hundred Parks listed as heads of families. One source for the family name came from people who lived in the Valley of the Parch or Parc in southeastern France. Other researchers say the name came from a follower of William the Conqueror when he invaded England in 1066. This lineage has been traced back to Charlemagne, the great great grandfather of Europe, whos progeny include not only the House of Windsor but also William the Conqueror, Richard the Lionhearted, France's Capets, Valois and Burbons, some Hapsburgs, rulers of Spain and Portugal, Belgian and Hungarian rulers, some Prussians and Marie de Medici. On this side of the Atlantic the list includes John Adams, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ethan Allen and Nathan Hale; Gloria Vanderbilt, J. P. Morgan and Nelson Rockfeller; Orson Wells and Humphery Bogart....all of whom are Parks cousins by decent from one or more of the daughters of Alice (Freeman)(Thompson)Parke. One researcher has Charlemagne's birth date as 2 April 742, the illigitimate first son of Pepin the Short, Mayor of the Palace and Bertha Broadfoot, a Counts daughter. After Williams conquest of the British Isles he rewarded one of his men by bestowing upon him the title of Baronet. Thereafter he was known as Sir Thomas de Parke. It is said that one of his direct descendants was Sir Robert de Parke who came to Connecticut in 1630 as Secretary to Governor Winthrop. He soon dropped his title in the more equalitarian colonies and became a prominent citizen of the colony. This man is probably the most prominent of the Parks immigrants and has literally thousands of descendants in this country today. This is the man Zella Armstrong, the well know genealogist thought was connected to out Parks bunch. I have never found any proof of that.
People of the Parks name continued to come to America. There was Richard Parke who arrived from London on the "Defence" in 1635. He settled in Massachusetts and has descendants throughout the United States.
Edward Parks came to Connecticut around 1669. His descendants moved west, including several prosperous bankers and lawyers. Among them was Judge Samuel C. Parks of Kansas City, a lifelong friend of Abraham Lincoln.
Roger Park first appeared in Rye, New York records in 1699. His later descendants have said he was a French Huguernot who fled France because of persecution.. Some of his descendants were successful merchants in New York City, such as Joseph Parke of Parke and Tilford.
Alexander Park came to Boston in 1728/29. It has been said that he came from Antrim Ireland. Many of his descendants were brick and stone masons in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Among his descendants was Professor John Park who was head of a well known young ladies school in the early days of the nineteenth century.
Arthur Parke appeared in Chester County Pennsylvania in the early part of the eighteenth century. It is believed that he came from Ballybegley, Ireland and emigrated to America in 1724. Some of his descentants became prominent in military affairs such as John Parke who was appointed Assistant Quartermaster of General George Washington's personal staff.
William Park arrived in Boston in 1756 and settled in Groton Massachusettes. Some of his descendants still live there.
In 1631 William Parke became the first known Parks to arrive in the Virginia Colony. Two years later he died during a voyage back to England aboard the "Blessing". In his will he named his wife, Sarah and two sons, William and Daniel. Daniel (1628-1679) arrived in the colony and assumed ownership of his father's property. Engraved on a tablet in the Bruton Churchyard at William's Bay is the following.
HONORABLE DANIEL PARKE, Esquire
Of ye County of Essex
Who was one of his Majesty's Counselors
And sometimes Secretary of the Colony
He dyed ye 6 of March
Anno 1679
Another noted settler in Virginia was William Parke who is said to be related to the above Parke. He was the first printer and the "father of journalizm" in the American Colonies. He published the "Virginia Gazette" in Williamsburg in 1704. Many of his descendants remained in the area of Virginia and throughout the United States. It was through this lineage that one of Williams daughters, Francis Parke, married John Custis, One of their sons, Daniel Custis married Martha Dandridge. After Daniel died Martha married George Washington, Revolutionary War General and later first President of the United States.
Arlington National Cemetery occupies 612 acres in Virginia on the Patomac River, directly opposite Washington D. C. This land was only part of the estate of John Parke Custis, Martha Washington's son. His son, George Washington Parke Custis built the mansion which later became the home of General Robert E. Lee. In 1861 after the outbreak of the Civil War, the mansion and grounds were confiscated from the owner, Lee, by the Union Army. The house was converted to a hospital and in 1864 the grounds were used as a cemetery. After the Civil War the United States Supreme Court ruled that the property belonged to George Washington Custis Lee, the son of Robert E Lee and Mary Randolph Custis. Lee's father, Henry Lee(1756-1818)known as "Lighthorse Harry", the brilliant cavalry commander during the Revolutionary War. He earned his nickname for his frequent sucesses as an outpost leader. In 1775 Lee joined the Virginia Cavalry as Captain, and two years later he was transferred to the Continental Army unit of General George Washington in Pennsylvania. He was promoted to Major for valor in 1778 and was placed in command of two troops of horse, a force later increased by another troop of horse and one of infantry. Lee showed a masterly command of guerilla tactics in his use of this force, harassing the British both on the march and in camp. His capture of Paulus Hook (now Jersey City, New Jersey) which he took in a surprise raid on August 19 1779, is regarded as one of the brilliant exploits of the War. Lee was rewarded by promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and Congress awarded him a gold medal. In 1780-81 he operated in the Carolinas in support of General Nathaniel Green and his Army of the South in the Carolinas, covering ceaseless stinging forays against the British, Green'e retreat across North Carolina to Virginia. Lee resigned his commission because of ill health in 1782. From 1785 to 1788 as a member of the Continental Congress he supported the adoption of the United States Constitution. He was Governor of Virginia from 1791 to 1794 and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1799 to 1801.
It was Lee who in 1799 before both houses of Congress, delivered the funeral oration on George Washington, originating the familiar phrase: "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen".
(A book "Robert E Lee" by Emory Thomas has been published about the Lee descendants of the Parke Lineage)
Other famous people of Virginia
Richard Arlen, actor; Arthur Ashe, tennis champion; Pearle Bailey, singer; Warren Beaty, actor; Richard E. Byrd, polar explorer; Roy Clark, country music artist; William Clark, of the famous "Lewis & Clark Exploration"; Henry Clay, statesman; Joseph Cotton, actor; Ella Fitzgerald, singer; William H Harrison, President; Patrick Henry, statesman; Sam Houston, political leader; Thomas Jefferson, President; Robert E Lee, Confederate General; Meriweather Lewis, of Lewis & Clark; Shirley McClaine, actress; James Madison, President; John Marshall, jurist; Cyrus McCormack, inventor; James Monroe, President; Oppechancanough, Powhatan Indian leader; John Payne, actor; Walter Reed, army surgeon; Mathew Ridgeway, ex-Army chief of Staff; Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, dancer; George C Scott, actor; Sam Snead, golfer; Jeb Stuart, Confederate Cavaly; Zachary Taylor, President; John Tyler, President; George Washington, first President; Woodrow Wilson, President.
Now the story continues with Thomas Parks I who lived in Virginia and died in Albemarle County Virginia in 1761. As I try to be completely candid in my family history, the above is not to imply in any way that this Thomas Parks is connected to those people. I simply do not have any proof. Thomas is the proverbial brick wall in my Parks genealogy. I added the people above in hopes that some day, some how, with modern technology the ancestors of Thomas Parks can be documented. In this day and age with computers, misinformation can and does travel from coast to coast almost over night. A lot of misinformation has been circulated about Thomas Parks I. Please, let us not kid our selves. It does not help anyone to circulate genealogical information on the World Wide Web there is no proof for it. It only leads to a lot of heartache and disapointment for those who come to believe in something and find out later there is no proof for it. Now in 1999 as I write this story and after 35 years of study no one has ever found where Thomas Parks came from, his age or the name of his wife.
The purpose of this web site is to help other Thomas Parks I researchers document their ancestry. There is a document or documents to prove every person listed as a descendant of Thomas. It is dedicated to all those proud and truthful descendants listed in the "Documented Thomas Parks Historians" page who made it possible. They worked long and hard to find proof of their lineage back to Thomas. Without their help this web site would not have been possible.
Essex County Virginia was taken from "old" Rappahannock in 1692.
Spotsylvania was taken from Essex in 1720/21
Orange was taken from Spotsylvania in 1734
Albemarle was formed in 1744
Amherst was taken from Albemarle in 1761
Thomas Parks leased land from Alexander Spottswood in Spotsylvania County Virginia in 1728. This was the beginning of the on going movement south and westward for the pioneer Parks families across the United States. A hardy bunch. Records show that Thomas was in all the counties listed above. It does not mean that he moved but continual additions and or changes were made in county lines. A god fearing bunch as indicated by their wills. Very prolific by their large families. Pioneers in every sense of the word. Farmers by choice and for survival. Cleared the land. Built their log cabins. Tilled the soil. Raised their own food crops. Tanned leather and made their own shoes Built and maintained the roads. Generally when they did move the whole clan pulled up stakes and traveled by wagon train together.
Thomas Parks made his will in Albemarle County Virginia 24 Feb 1752. Probated in 1761. I have never found any data for his wife so it is assumed that she was deceased prior to writing of the will. The text of the will as transcribed by me from a copy of the original in the Virginia Archives.
In the name of God amen, I Thomas Parks of Ballengers Mountain in Albemarle County being weak in body but in perfect sense and memory considering the perils and dangers of this transitory life and to avoid further strife and controversy I do make this my last will and Testement.
First: I do commit my body to the grave and my soul to God who gave it to me and for many causes and due consideration I do bequeath all my stock and worldly substance unto my best beloved son, Thomas Parks. I do make and constitute him my sole heir and executer.
Secondly: I doth leave to my son John Parks one English shilling.
Thirdly: I doth leave to my son Samuel on English shilling
Fourthly: I doth leave to my son Charles one English shilling
Fiftly: I doth leave to my daughter Martha Russell one English shilling
Sixtly: I doth leave to my daughter Mary Bond one English shilling
Seventhly: I doth leave to my daughter Elizabeth Hutchings one English shilling
As witness by hand this twenty fourth day of February in the year of our Lord God One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty Four.
Thomas Parks
Of the sons and daughters of Thomas Parks
John married Mary Sharp and went to Wilkes County N. C. and died there.
Samuel married Mary North, no other data
Charles married Susannah, no other data
Martha married a Russell, no other data
Mary married John Bond. Lived in Culpeper County
Thomas Parks II married Priscilla, moved to Wilkes Co N. C. Died there
Elizabeth married Christopher Hutchings, moved to Pittsylvania County Virginia and died there.
(Note:With the thought that reading a lot of names, dates and place may get rather boring I have added the following story.)
Elizabeth Parks and Christopher Hutchings had a son, Thomas Hutchings. He married Catherine Donelson. Catherine was the daughter of Col. John Donelson. Both Capt Col. John Donelson and Christopher Hutchhings were very active in the Revolutionary War. In the late 1700's John Donelson made up a flotilla of settlers who had a desire to settle in the area of Tennessee. This is the story of their many, many hardships as they went down the Cumberland River. Excerpts from the journal as written.
Journal of a Voyage, intended by God's permission,
in the boat adventure, From Fort Patrick Henry on the
Holsten River in Virginia to
French Salt Springs on the Cumberland River in Tennessee
Thursday March 2nd ran half the day and passed the mouth of French Broad River.
Reuben Harrison went hunting and did not return. After a fruitless search the group proceeded after leaving old Mr Harrison and his son, they later found him a considerable distance down the River. Sunday the 5th 12 O'clock passed the mouth of the Clinch River, At 3 p m came up with the Clinch River Company, who we joined and camped, the evening rainy.
Monday 6th Capt Hutching's negro man died, being much frosted in his feet and legs of which he died
Passed several Indian towns where the people called to us as brothers and appeared friendly and invited us to land. Some of the enemy lay concealed and fired on the boats
Wed 8th we must regret the death of young Mr Payne an board Capt Blackmore's boat, who was mortally wounded by the reason of the boat running to near the shore opposite the town where some of the enemy lay concealed, and the more tragical misfortune of poor Stuart, his family and friends to the number of twenty eight persons. This man had embarked with us for the western country, his family being diseased with small pox, it was agreed upon between him and the company that he should keep at some distance to the rear, for fear of infection spreading: and he was warned each night when encampment should take place by the sound of a horn. After we had passed the town, the Indians who having collected to considerable numbers, observing his helpless situation off from the rest of the fleet, intercepted him and killed and took prisoners the whole crew, the grief of the company uncertain how they might share the same fate: their cries were distinctly heard by those boats in the rear. We still perceived them marching down the river in considerable bodies, keeping in pace with us until the Cumberland Mountains withdrew them from our sight, when we were in hopes we had escaped from them.
The boat of Jonathan Jennings ran on a large rock and the others were compelled to go on and leave him. Two days later they hear the cries of "help poor Jennings" and he came up in wretched condition. He had seen their fires. He said that when the Indians saw they were stuck on the rock, they kept up a heavy fire on the boat. His wife, son and two negros tried to throw all the goods in the river to lighten the boat. The young men and a negro ran off.
Fri 10th...Mrs Jennings, however and the negro woman succeded in unloading the boat, but chiefly by exertions of Mrs Jennings, who got out of the boat and shoved her off, but was near falling to herself a victim of her own intrepidity on account of the boat starting so suddenly, as soon as loosed from the rock...Mrs Peyton who was the night before delivered of a baby infant, which unfortunately was killed in the hurry and consequence upon such a disaster...assisted them being exposed frequently to wet and cold then and afterwards.
(Mary Donelson said later Mrs Jennings and her daughter, Mrs Peyton threw some articles over board and with the blankets and bedding in a hurry, fear and confusion, was thrown the young child of Mrs Peyton, and did not discover the mistake until some time after)
Sunday 12th Came in sight of Muscle Shoals. Halted on the northern shore at the upper end of the shoals to search for signs of Capt James Robertson was to make for us at that place, that we might know that he had been there, and that it was practical for us to go across by land. But to our mortification we could find none, From which we conclude that it would not be prudent to make an attempt, and we determined knowing we were in such imminent danger, to pursue our journey down the river. After trimming the boats in the best possible manner we ran before the shoals before night. When we approached them they had a dreadful appearence to those who had never seen them before. The water made a terrible roaring which could be heard some distence, among the drift wood heaped frightfully upon the points of the islands: the current running in every possible direction. We did not know how soon we would be dashed to pieces and all our troubles ended at once, Our boats frequently dragged the bottom. And appeared constantly in danger of striking. They warped as much as a rough sea, But by the hand of providence we are now preserved from danger also. I know not the length of this wonderful shoal: it has been presented to me to be 25 to 30 miles; If so we must have descended very rapifly, as indeed we did, for we passed it in about two hours.
It was high water at Muscle Shoals that enabled the boats to get safely over. By Stuarts Company falling into the hands of the Indians, that dreadful disease the small pox spread fearfully throughout the Indian Nation, and many jumped into the rivers which instantly killed them. To this instance was contributed to the fact that the imigrants were not molested after the 14th of March, not far below the shoals-the last attach was on the Renfro boat, in which five persons were wounded. How easily all might have been cut off by a large body of Indians on both sides of the narrow Cumberland, starving as they were, exausted from the failure of provisions and so long coming up. Old Mr Harrison, a grey headed man, would occasionally catch fish with hook. When the provisions gave out descending the Cumberland, got the Shawnee salad and Lambs quarter, and other wild salads and ate them,
After making camp Tuesday the 14th the barking dogs warned that the Indians were near "retreated preciptiously" to the boats and went down where we made camp.
In the morning I prevailed on Mr Coffee and son to cross below in a canoe, and return to the place; which they did and found an African negro, which we had left in a hurry, asleep by one of the fires. The voyagers then returned and collected their utensils which had been left.
On Monday the 20th arrived at the mouth of the Tennesse and landed on the low point immediately on the bank of the Ohio...our boats not constructed for the purpose of stemming a rapid stream, our provisions exausted. The crews almost worn down by hunger and fatigue. And know not what distance we have to go or what time it will take to our place of destination...several boats will not attempt to ascend the rapid current. Some intend to descend the Mississippi to Nachez: Others are bound for the Illinois. Among the rest my son-in-law and daughter (Thomas Hutchings & Catherine Donelson) We now part, perhaps to meet no more, for I am determined to pursue my course happen what will.
(Please note, The Thomas Hutchings family continued on to Davidson County Tennessee)
Monday the 27th. Set out again. Killed a swan which was very delicious
Tuesday 28...Killed some buffalos
Wednesday 29th..gathered some herbs in the botom of the Cumberland, which some of the Company called Shawnee salad.
Putman says the locality was known as Pat's Injun Patch, He noted that Donelson's old woman cook, Patsy, gathered and cooked onion greens there for the party well nigh famished for vegetable food". "It was a poor dish and only just better than nothing" Comments Haywood
Friday 31st.. After running some distance met Col Richard Henderson, who was running the line between Virginia and North Carolina, we were much rejoiced. He gave us every information we wished, informed us that he had purchased a quantity of corn in Kentucky to be shipped at the falls of the Ohio for use of the Cumberland settlement.
(When they met Col. Richard Henderson, Gen. D. Smith and Capt Hart, on the Cumberland, remembered Mary Donelson, all were rejoiced, particularly Col. Donelson, who highly delighted-learned that Capt. Robertson's arrival at the French Salt Lick (name of Nashville, Tenn) that corn had been purchased in Kentucky, But Mrs Donelson thinks it never came. Col. Henderson spoke in high terms of the Clover Bottom at Stone's River and advised Col. Donelson to settle there, and he concluded to do so)
Monday April 24th, 1780 this day we arrived at our journey's end at Big Salt Lick. Where we find the pleasure of Capt Robertson and his Company. It is a source of satisfaction now to be able to restore to him and others of their families and friends who were entrusted to our care, who some time since, despaired of meeting again. Tho our prospects at present are dreary: We found a few log cabins which had been built on a cedar bluff above the Lick by Capt. Robertson and his Company.
The winter of 1779-1780 was long memorable for it's severity, James Robertson and other husbands of the women voyagers thought that Col Donelson must have turned back rather than face the bitter weather
About the hard winter Mary Donelson said "that cattle at French Salt Lick would lay down and put their heads to their sides, as is their way, and thus would be found frozen stiff-and that turkeys were frozen to their roosts and tumble off"
Mrs. Donelson said that Col Donelson made but a short stop at Nashville (probably without unloading the boats) and went on up the Cumberland about 8 miles and then another 3 miles up Stone's River, and landed at the Clover Bottom on the 1st day of May. There was a single cabin built by Col. Nathl. Hart for his negroes, of which there were several, some of Col. Henderson's, Thomas Henry, Cartwright, Armstrong and others of Col. Donelson's party in the settlement of the Clover Bottom.
(Note: President Andrew Jackson, Old Hickory", by far the most colorful of our Presidents is only related to the Parks family by marriage. In 1804 he formed a business partnership with John Coffee, a local businessman, who would soon marry Mary (Polly) Donelson, and John Hutchings a great grandson of Thomas Parks I. This business was established at Clover Bottom, the site of a race course, four miles from Jackson's home, The Hermitage. It included a store, boatyard, a tavern and a racetrack. They sold dry good for the most part, blankets, calico, cowbells, grinding-stones, coffee, rum, salt and whatever else their neighbors wanted and they could obtain. The company prospered and soon expanded into Sumner County and at the Cantonment on the Cumberland River close to Muscle Shoals.)
I was able to tour the Hermitage on one of my trips through the south several years ago. A beautiful place. It is maintained by The Ladies Hermitage Association. The association had a book printed. It has a lot of pictures of the mansion and grounds. "Andrew Jackson's Hermitage", Library of Congress catalog number 79-88622.