"The Larkin Lies Saga" - Part 8 - About Sheriff Parker & The Conclusion

 

ABOUT SHERIFF PARKER

Sheriff Parker lived for many years after the death of Larkin Liles, and finally moved to Maysville, Kentucky, where he and his wife died at the home of their son-in-law T.K. Ball.

Before giving an account of some of the descendants of this famous sheriff we wish to duplicate the obituary of Sheriff Parker as it appeared in the Maysville Republican, under the date of December 5, 1868. It is as follows:

“An old citizen gone--- Mr. W.B. Parker, whose illness was noticed in our last issue, died on Wednesday morning last at half-past three o’clock.  He was in the 80^th year of his age.  The name of “Uncle Buck Parker” has been to us as familiar as a household word since the earliest of our recollections.  He was among the oldest of our citizens, was celebrated as a hunter in his younger days, and known far and wide as a publican.  His friends were legion, and as to enemies he had none.  But all that was earthly of Uncle Buck has passed away.  He has been gathered to his fathers, full of honors and full of years; but his good name lives after him, and many who have been the recipient of his kindness mourn with the family, who have been thus afflicted.  His funeral took place on Thursday afternoon, at two o’clock, from the residence of his son-in-law, T.K. Ball, and was largely attended.”

Two of Sheriff Parker’s great grandchildren are Mrs. Lida T. Pollitt and O.P. “Pat” Tannian, of Vanceburg. Great-Great-Great Grand children are Mary Catherine (Mrs. Go. M.) Plummer and Preston Pollitt.

In order to connect Sheriff William B. (Red Buck) more definitely with the present generation, a few statistics are not out of order.  The High Sheriff was born in 1788, and died, as we have noted, in 1868, at the age of 80.  His son was Leroy Preston Parker, who was born Oct. 19, 1817, and died April 16, 1877, the same year which saw the passing of his close personal friend, William Cottingham Halbert, whom we have noted as the Administrator of Larkin Liles’ estate.  Leroy Preston Parker’s children were Lucy Catherine, born Dec. 15, 1845, and died Nov. 2, 1919.  She married the late Judge James S. Pollitt, and was the mother of the late Orville (O.P.) Preston Pollitt, who was county clerk here from 1898 to about 1918, and was County Judge when the present Court House was built in 1939, and whose son, Preston Pollitt, now lives on the farm of his late father.  The second child was Thomas Beverly Parker, born April 17, 1849, and died Jan. 19, 1914.  He never married.  The third child was John I. (Jack) Parker, born Feb. 15, 1854, and died April 23, 1925.  He married Eliza Voiers.  They had one daughter, Lena Morton Parker, who died in her twenties.  Jack Parker was in the hotel business for many years operating the old St. Nicholas Hotel, at 3^rd an Main, across from the C&O Depot.  The next of the children was Mary (Mollie) Preston Parker, who was born Sept. 7, 1857, in the old McKellup house in Vanceburg, and died July 27, 1937.  She will be remembered by many of our middle aged citizens.  In 1875 she married the well known Colonel C.L. Tannian, (born Feb. 22,1857, died May 9, 1938.)  Their children are Mrs. H. carr (Lida Tannian) Pollitt, who lives on West Second Street in Vanceburg, Eugene Tannian, now deceased, and Col. Orville Preston (Pat) Tannian.  This makes the latter three great-grandchildren to the famous Sheriff Red Buck Parker, and Mrs. Pollitt’s daughter, Mary Catherine (  Mrs. Geo. M. Plummer), and Orville Pollitt’s son Preston, great-great-grandchildren.

It will be noted that the names ‘Preston’ and ‘Beverly’ have run consistently through every generation.  Of children of the original, William B. Parker, we have no other record than the son Leroy Preston Parker, although there were others, relatives have told us.  Of Leroy Preston Parker’s children, there were others who died very young, and we have listed only those who reached maturity.

And now a word for those whose information have made this story possible.  As we have indicated, much of this has been handed down from one generation to another.  As one of the trio whose work and research have made this possible, we the other two can only say that if it had not been for the work of Amos Howard, we could have accomplished very little.  Always with a nose for history, Mr. Howard has kept careful record of the things told him by his parent and grandparents.  It was Mrs. Abigail (Aunt Abbey) Cooper whose mother, “Aunt Edie” Liles (1842-1920) who was seven years old when Larkin Liles was killed, who told us about Larkin who used to be at her father’s house when she was a child, quite frequently.  She told us that “Doctor Liles looked like Larkin.”  This was Dr. J.D. Liles who died in 1937, and whom many remember well.   The late Judge George Morgan Thomas, who was School Commissioner in 1849, and was present during the Clarksburg trials and has often spoken of it to the late R.J.Heinisch and the writer.  Likewise former Judge Wm. C. Halbert has told us details which his father, the administrator of the Liles Estate, have related to him.  Thus we have talked to no less than TWO persons who had seen him in the flesh, and Judge Halbert and Judge A.H. Parker’s fathers had also known him personally.  From 1914 to 1920 Mrs. Edith Cooper Munro and the writer had discussed and made endless inquiries of persons then living about Larkin, and we were indebted to her and her sister, Mrs. Grace Cooper Mathewson.  These are granddaughters of “Aunt Edie” Liles, heretofore referred to.  Hon. Lovel Liles of Catlettsburg kindly put at our disposal his record of his ancestor. The late County Judge W.T. Stone  told us of personal recollection of his father “Uncle Zeke” St one.  The late Dr. J.D. Liles knowing of our interest in the subject, never lost an opportunity in his office or  on the s treets, to give us some new data that he had dug up.  Miss Gladys Cooper has told us many anecdotes that we might have overlooked but for her thoughtfulness.  The late W.H. Liles, and the late Granville Liles has related to us many happenings about our subject that had been handed down to them by ancestors.  Mrs. Jessie Adams, of Garrison, has helped greatly in establishing relationships and names, all of which add to the value of this manuscript, as Mrs. J.T. (Anna Lewis) Henderson has helped, in locating old graveyards, and genealogical data.  The late W.T. (Uncle Bill) Cooper (1858-1956) frequently related details which his father Wyatt Cooper, and mother Louisa Blankenship, both of whom knew Larkin well, had told him from childhood, and Manneth Forman, Garrison.  There may have been others, doubtless there were, and if we fail to recall their names at this late hour, we truly thank them, as we do those we have named.

This has been the labor of fifty years research, digging up bits of information jotted down and filed away (not too efficiently), trips to old graveyards in the heat of the noonday sun, trips to old archives in Frankfort, checking and re-checking, going for miles over almost impassable roads to check once more the date on an old gravestone.  We three have done our best, and compiled for posterity and his descendants, a tale of pioneer which is without parallel insofar as it has come to our knowledge.  We have tried to separate the authentic from the lore that has been handed down over a period of 126 years.  The witnesses who gave testimony before our little court of inquiry did not know that they were speaking to perpetuate history – they had no reason to ‘doctor up’ their story.  We have taken the details to which the great majority of our witnesses have agreed, and recorded them herein.  And while we would not want to go through the labor of it again, now that it is finished, we can look back and hope that the reader may find pleasure in persuing this tale as we had (now that it is behind us) in writing it.