Dust to Dust to Dust

By Lester D. Parker

When Henry Parker and Thomas Thompson arrived in Virginia Colony aboard the sailing
ship Endeavor, 1765, their altercation aboard ship was forgotten. Each went his separate way,
never expecting to meet again. Each, for his own reason, was anxious to depart the dock.
Thomas Thompson, with his wife Elinor and son James, headed for the dusty coal mines
of West Virginia. Thomas was jumping ship to avoid a return trip to England as promised
to the captain. Henry Parker was heading west to look for suitable farm land that could be
claimed free, if possible. He was anxious to get settled so that he could send for his bride,
with whom he had only three days before being ordered to leave England forever, by King
George III. Henry was to have a long three year wait before seeing his bride again.
The next meeting between the Parkers and Thompsons took place in a military hospital
during the revolutionary war, each had been wounded at the second battle of Yorktown.
Over the next many years chance meetings occurred between the two families through the
dust of Texas trail drives, wars, and homesteading in Oklahoma Territory. Then in 1922
the two families were forever joined as Arthur William Parker courted and wed, Lena May
Thompson. In 1935 and 1936 the Parker sharecrop farm was devastated by the depression,
drought, and choking dust storms of the 1930s. In 1937 Most members of both extended
families joined the long trail of okies headed for California in search of a better life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 28, 2009
• ISBN: 9781469108490

Lester D. Parker

Lester David Parker, the second son of a sharecrop dirt farmer was born July 18, 1926 in Greer County, Oklahoma. In 1937 the family migrated to California because of the choking dust storms and the deep depression that devastated the mid-west farmers. Parker began writing short stories (unpublished) when he was in the navy in World War II. During his career Parker wrote technical articles for trade publications, and in 2007 completed his fi rst published novel, Plight of the Albatross, about navy life of very young sailors. He has also written several published poems and is currently working on a book of poetry. After three years of navy service he married Dorothy Anderman in Chicago. Parker is the father of four, grand-father of eight and at this writing great grand-father of one and 5/9.

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Copyright © 2009 by Lester D. Parker.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2009905846

ISBN:    Hardcover    978-1-4415-4605-0

Softcover   978-1-4415-4604-3

ISBN:   ebook   978-1-4691-0849-0

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all those having the surname Parker or Thompson in their lineage. These are two proud names having, a long history of service to God and country. The Parkers herein depicted date back to 1553 in France, beginning with Villiam le Parker. Parker was employed by the king of France and given to England’s Queen Elizabeth I as a token of friendship shortly before hostilities broke out between the two countries.

The Thompson’s herein depicted began in Sweden 1685 with Lars, Thom’s son who migrated to England in 1705. Lars changed his name to Thompson, rather than Thom’s son. He then added John as a first name as Lars was an unknown name in England.

To these men and all their progeny, this book is dedicated.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to gratefully acknowledge the important contributions to this book of:

Norma Edwards Statham

Mary Alice Wilson Thompson

Leon Carol Rutledge

Delois Parker Nealy

Mary Parker Clark

Kenneth Cary Parker

Helen Jones Howard

Peggy Bielich of the Greer County, Oklahoma

Genealogical and Historical Society

My four children Randy Parker

Scott Parker, Leslie Parker Hall

Clint Casey Parker

And

Dorothy Anderman Parker my loving wife

of sixty-two years.

INTRODUCTION

While Creationists and Evolutionists will forever argue the origin of man on this planet, they all agree that the body of mankind will return to the dust from which (according to scripture) it came. Also, all will agree that man was a migratory being from early on, and moved from place to place due to climatic conditions, or to satisfy his curiosity about what lay on the other side of the mountain, or river, or ocean.

For thousands, nay millions, of years the great glaciers have advanced or receded due to changing climatic conditions, and mankind has moved from colder climates to warmer regions, or has adapted to survive the cold.

Man has always been curios to find out what lay over the mountain and this curiosity, coupled with necessity, has led to colonization of many lands, including the United States of America.

What happens to man’s earthly body is pretty much universally agreed, as the scripture puts it: ‘Dust to Dust, was not spoken of the soul.’ Creationists send the soul to any one of several regions, Pergatory, Nirvana, Heaven or Hell, depending on how that being behaved in keeping with his religious doctrine.. On he other hand, many Environmentalists believe that once the body is dead that’s all there is. The body returns to dust and all that is left of the being is his progeny or deeds. I do know that the bodies of all my ancestors have returned to the dust of In writing this narrative I have used factual material where available, but I have only surmised what might have occurred to people who may have existed in those instances where facts were not obtainable. At any rate, this is the story of the migration of my Parker and Thompson ancestors from France and Sweden to England, to Colonial America and as part of the expansion westward. It is factual for the most part to the best of my knowledge, however where facts were not available I have used a fertile imagination to fill in the gaps. For that reason I term this a Factional book.

Many of the early settlers in America fled England due to political strife, but many others fled due to religious conflict between England and the Roman Catholic papacy. Under different rulers England, Ireland and Scotland adhered to ether Catholicism or the Church of England Protestant beliefs. In the end Protestantism won out in England, Scotland and Southern Ireland, while Northern Ireland remained loyal to the Vatican. Even now conflicts between the Catholic population of Northern Ireland and the Protestantism of England causes bloody conflicts. Much less now than in years past.

CHAPTER ONE

Villiam le Parquer whistled happily as he set about his duties of tending the gardens of the Castle of Versailles under King Phillip of France. He loved his work and was justifiably proud of his accomplishments. On several occasions, both the king and queen had been extravagant in their compliments of his work. At the tender age of nineteen, he was charged with the care of many acres of flowers, shrubs, and in one area, lofty pine trees. Villiam was a very happy young man.

In 1570, Queen Elizabeth I visited France. While there, she was so impressed by the beautiful gardens in one area of the castle grounds that she inquired as to who the gardener was that grew such beautiful shrubs, trees, and flowers. She was informed that it was a young man by the name of Villiam le Parquer, whose father before him and his father’s father had all been in the service of royalty as keepers of the parks.

Please extend my compliments to that gardener. He must have been with you for many years to have such beautiful gardens.

No, Your Highness, he has only been here five years. He is a young lad who began at age fourteen. He is very talented and industrious. He practically never leaves the gardens and is loath to have any visitors, but the royal household visit them for fear they will not pay proper respect to the beauty of the grounds.

At the end of her visit, Elizabeth was asked what gifts she would like to take across the channel to England in memory of her visit to France.

Only one thing, Your Highness, she exclaimed. I would forever remember France with the greatest regard if I could but have the person who grows such beautiful flowers as my personal gardener, your Villiam le Parquer. Would you consider letting him return to England with me, Your Majesty?

You may have jewels, art, or many other treasures of France as mementos of your visit; but all you ask is a gardener, but of course, my dear, take him with my blessing. There are several brothers in his family who can replace Villiam.

In England, Villiam le Parquer was often referred to as that flower grower the queen brought back from France; but he was a favorite of the queen and, soon, was given added responsibilities. He was charged with the duty of keeping poachers from shooting deer or other game in the queen’s forest at Windsor Castle, consisting of over two hundred acres of heavily forested rolling land. A favorite hobby of a selected few of the commoners, who were employees of the royal family, was to shoot a deer, a few rabbits, a duck or two, or an odd pheasant to enhance the meager rations at their table. Regularly, one or two beautiful stags came up missing, and no sign of who may have been guilty of the murder, as the queen said, of her precious animals. So Villiam was assigned to make sure all those wonderful creatures were safe from the scurry individuals responsible for their untimely demise.

This then was the beginning of my English family Parker; for Villiam le Parquer, keeper of the parks, became plain William Parker, gardener and groundskeeper to the queen at Windsor Castle.

While the name Parker in England dates back to Anschetil Parker in the Domesday Book of 1086 and Adam le Parker and Peter le Parker appear in the Hundred Rolls of 1275, William le Parquer is the first of my personal ancestors in England (Lester D. Parker).

True, for some time, William was only the queen’s gardener but did such an excellent job that at age twenty-five, he was promoted to chief groundskeeper for all the lands surrounding Windsor Castle. This included the vast woods frequented by the queen’s precious stags, the more than two hundred acres of wooded hills and valleys as well as all the lands farmed by the serfs. One day, a prized stag came up missing, and the incident was not reported to the queen. William soon learned or perhaps already knew that the culprit was a friend of the family of his true love, Victoria Maitland, so was loath to report this extracurricular activities to the queen. He covered the loss of the stag by reporting a battle between two stags over a doe, resulting in the death of one of the combatants, which he said he buried to save the queen the sight of one of her stags dead and mutilated. The queen completely trusted William; though she suspected that the deer meat made a sumptuous banquet for his family and friends, the matter was dropped.

To insure that the Maitland family had no excuse to further decimate the queen’s precious deer herd, William arranged to move a pregnant young doe to a section of the forest never visited by the queen or her entourage. Later, a young buck, unknown to the queen and her men, joined the doe. The Maitland family now had the start of their own deer herd to provide meat for the table. William assured them that if they made sure the rabbit hunting and the duck killing were kept to a minimum and if they let the queen keep all her precious deer, all would be well. The promise was made, and the promise was kept. In due time, William and Victoria Maitland were married, and they raised a family of four boys and two girls. In time, the second son of William and Victoria, Richard, began training to replace his father as royal gardener. His older brother, Thomas William Parker, had apprenticed himself to a London silversmith at age fourteen and moved to the city. After four years, the silversmith was widowed, and he married a young woman the age of Thomas. The young wife and Thomas grew much too fond of each other and were soon caught in a compromising situation. To avoid serious complications, perhaps even death at the husband’s hands, Thomas signed aboard a sailing ship headed for the West Indies and was never heard from again.

England, in the sixteenth century, was in the throes of change. Drastic change was taking place over religious control of the British royalty. Until this time, Rome and the pope dictated religious control in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. King Henry VIII, who ruled from 1509 until 1547, had married Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, a very advantageous political union. Catherine had previously been married to Arthur, Henry’s older brother, who died around the age of twenty-one. Now, as heir to the throne, Henry was expected to make a politically correct marriage and produce sons as heirs. Catherine was the best candidate for that position; however, papal law forbids a man to marry his brother’s widow. But due to the power of the throne, the pope issued a special dispensation and allowed the marriage of Henry and Catherine. When Catherine failed to produce a son and heir to the British throne, Henry petitioned the pope for permission to have the marriage annulled so that he could choose a bride who would produce a male heir. The pope refused. Henry then requested the English parliament to name him head of the Church of England; this granted, he promptly annulled his marriage to Catherine.

Henry and Catherine had six children, but only one, Mary Tudor, survived past infancy—no male heir to the throne. No female had ever sat upon the throne of England, and Henry was not about to let a female rule England on his watch.

Later, in order to find a biblical reason for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine since she bore no sons, Henry had England’s best religious scholars search for scripture and found that the pope had originally made an error. In waving that passage in the scripture that prohibited a man from marrying his brother’s widow, the pope had violated the Catholic law. The act, which allowed Henry to marry Catherine, was against Catholic doctrine. The scripture was Leviticus 21:14. The same scripture was used to prove there never was a sanctioned marriage, so an annulment was possible. Henry and Catherine’s six children were, in the eyes of the church, illegitimate, including Mary Tudor who, for a time, was queen of England and strongly advocated Catholicism.

After the annulment, Henry went on to marry five more times, and four of the five wives failed to provide him with a male heir. Some were divorced and some he had killed. Under England’s new religious order, divorce was legal. Ann Bolyn, for example, was beheaded for crimes against the Crown.

Henry’s last wife, Jayne Seymour, presented him with a son, Edward, who ruled from 1547 until 1553.

In 1549, from Edward’s influence, Parliament passed the Supreme Act, making the reigning monarch head of the Church of England and essentially making the Catholic mass illegal. Several devout Catholics were put to death for refusal to take the oath to the king. Among the Catholics at that time was Sir Thomas Moore, who held strongly to the papal rule. His arrest was ordered, and he too was sentenced to death. Most of England, Scotland, and Wales embraced the new Church of England religion; but Northern Ireland held fast to the papal control of the church. When Edward died and Mary Tudor, a devout Catholic, came to power in 1553, England was quickly returned to a Catholic-controlled country. The papal edicts were enforced until 1558 when very Protestant Elizabeth became queen.

After her visit to France, Elizabeth incurred the wrath of King Philip of Spain when she helped the Protestants of the Netherlands in revolt against the papal edicts. Philip had been married to Mary Tudor when she was queen, but he had specifically been forbidden to have any ruling authority in England. When Elizabeth began returning England to the Protestant religion, Philip was livid. He sought permission from the pope, and it was granted to prepare for the invasion of England to return it to papal rule. Philip began building the world’s strongest navy.

In 1588, Phillip’s Spanish Armada, as the fleet was known, set sail for England under the command of the duke of Medina Sidonia, a power in Spain, an experienced warrior on land, but with no sea experience. On July 19, 1588, the Spanish fleet was sighted, and the alarm went out to all British naval vessels. Sir Francis Drake had previously sunk several of the Spanish fleet in a surprise raid at Cádiz, Spain. This time, the British ships managed to circle around and take up an advantageous position behind the Spanish fleet. Under cover of darkness, the British set fire to obsolete small ships and set them sail on the tide toward the Spanish fleet, setting fire to several ships. Finally on Monday, July 29, 1588, the two fleets met in battle, a battle that lasted only two days. Although the Spanish losses were not great—three ships sunk, three run aground, and several were severely damaged, the Duke of Medina Sedona withdrew and returned to Spain in defeat. Elizabeth continued with her plans to make the British Empire Protestant.

William Parker had always been a favorite of Elizabeth, and she welcomed Richard as his replacement. By 1603, when James replaced Elizabeth as monarch, Richard had married Mary Payson, and they had three sons, among them was William Richard who was destined to inherit his father’s position. William Richard became the royal gardener under Oliver Cromwell who assumed the throne in 1649, a position he retained until 1670. On the retirement of William Richard, his son, Silas William, was awarded the same position; and the title to the thatch cottage built originally by his grandfather, William le Parquer, now enlarged to five rooms from the original three. In addition, a stone floor had replaced the dirt floor, and two fireplaces had been added in the bedchambers. For the time, it was very comfortable living quarters, far better than that of most of the serfs who labored for the Crown on Windsor lands.

Silas was an industrious lad and a romantic who wooed and won the daughter of one of the court ladies in waiting, Sarah Andrews, giving him more power at court than his predecessors. He took advantage of this to acquire a plot of land for his own use and began breeding his own small herd of deer. First, he took a young orphan doe, with permission from the new king, Charles I, raised her, and borrowed a stag when the doe was ready. The breeding produced not one, but two fawns, a buck, and a doe—the beginning of his personal deer herd. His wife had acquired some hens, a rooster, two ducks, a drake, a peahen, and a peacock. In 1658, added to the family was Abraham, a son, and in 1661, a daughter, Rebecca. The son grew straight and strong, the animal population increased normally, and by the time Silas grew too old to continue his duties, Abraham was ready to take over under a new king. James II had assumed the throne of England in 1685.

Abraham had three sons of his own; and as soon as his first son, Paul, reached the age of twelve, Abraham began teaching him the duties and responsibilities of the royal gardener. When Paul was seventeen, Abraham was thrown from a horse, suffering fatal injuries. He was bedridden for several weeks, but the king was not informed as Abraham kept hoping to recover and to resume his responsibilities. Paul, his oldest son, did a good job of filling in for his father on the king’s behalf. However, he was kept so busy tending the Windsor lands that the family’s own stock of animals suffered depletion during this time. One of Paul’s brothers was very ill, and the other was too young to tend the animals. Three years later, still bedridden, Abraham expired from his injuries, leaving a widow and three sons, one of who died shortly thereafter. This left Paul not only the duties of the caring for the king’s land, but the responsibility of caring for his mother and younger brother.

When he learned the death of Abraham, King James at first rejected Paul as being too young to replace his father as the royal gardener. James felt that Paul would be unable to supervise the older men, some of whom had been working in the fields and forests for more than twenty-five years. Paul made a request to plead his case before the court, and out of deference to the memory of his father, an audience was granted. Paul brought with him five of the older workers, careful to select those who had been his father’s friends and knew and liked him. All five assured the court that they represented all the men who worked on the king’s land, and all felt that Paul was indeed capable of supervising the men. They insisted that all preferred Paul to any other as royal gardener to King James II. On learning of the meeting and the opinion of the men, James summoned Paul to his chambers and personally bestowed upon him the title of royal gardener of Windsor Castle, Windsor town, and its surrounding properties.

Paul’s younger brother left home at an early age and ventured off with a merchant ship sailing to Spain and Portugal. Two years after his brother departed Windsor, Paul received word that the ship laden with merchandise from Spain, Portugal, and France had been boarded and sunk by pirates; none of the crew had survived.

The rest of the Parker family fortunes continued as royal gardeners through Paul’s son, Addison, and even unto Addison’s son, William Arthur, and William’s son, Henry. By now, the British monarchy had progressed through James II, William III, and Queen Anne. King George I had assumed the throne in 1714. Henry, the second son of William Arthur, became heir apparent to the king’s gardener position as his older brother, Jonas, was not, in the least, interested in the work. At an early age, Jonas let his father know that he had no desire to continue the tending of the king’s lands; instead, he wanted to study law. Jonas journeyed first to London where he studied law for a short time then to the Boston area of the colonies. Henry took to the duties of the king’s gardener with enthusiasm and pride, but then, fate took a different turn under a different king, George III. When George II died, his eldest son, George, became King George III at age twenty-two. As a youth, young George had been a regular at Windsor. He loved to dress as the farmers and forest keepers did and roam the lands around Windsor Castle. He and Henry had became fast friends and frequently went shooting pheasant, grouse, and occasionally even a deer more for sport than a desire for venison on the part of George. The meat and deerskin were most often given to the groundskeepers’ families.

Even though King George III hunted in the king’s woods, he was a no-nonsense king. He laid down laws concerning the lands and the creatures thereof at Windsor. The small private herds of deer, pheasant, and peacocks—acquired over the years by the families who labored on the king’s behalf—were to be returned to the king’s premises; and no private possession, except for chickens and pigs, was allowed. The previous orders, originally set forth by Queen Elizabeth, of death to poachers, he reestablished. Many of the serfs, however, continued to take an occasional deer, pheasant, or grouse for their tables. Even Henry broke the law on the occasion of his 1763 wedding to Sarah McPherson, daughter of a Scotsman brought to Windsor to tend the flock of sheep. Henry stalked and, with his long bow, killed a young buck for the wedding feast.

Unfortunately, a losing rival for the hand of Ms. McPherson witnessed the deed and promptly reported the killing to one of the king’s tax collectors who promptly reported it to the king’s guard, who quickly advised the king. Sire, I have news of a grave event. The very man you have trusted to oversee your lands and holdings at Windsor has violated your trust. Master Henry Parker has wantonly killed one of your stags.

The family of King George had always been fond of the Parker family, and George III was especially close to Henry with whom he had played and hunted as a young man. He was cognizant of their long history of service to the Crown, and some years before had even given young Henry a black stallion colt that Henry promptly named Midnight. But to George III, poaching was a dastardly crime, and punishment must be meted out. He ordered the arrest of Henry and instructed the guard to bring him to Buckingham for punishment. The word was already out around the palace that the king’s own gardener had violated the laws regarding poaching by killing a deer at Windsor. The big question was will the king punish this poacher as he would any other, or will his long family relationship with the Crown give Henry special privileges?

All ears were tuned to Buckingham Palace, awaiting an answer.

King George III was to decide Henry’s fate. Queen Elizabeth, long ago, had been a friend to William le Parquer and his family. That friendship had carried down for more than one hundred years even to King George III, but the transgression of poaching was a major crime, even punishable by death should the king so rule.

Several days later, when Henry was brought before King George, he bowed deeply then fell to his knees, asking for forgiveness and mercy.

Henry, said George, "you and I have been friends, yea, even playmates as children, but I must punish you according to the law. If you had asked, I certainly could have allowed you to have the deer for your wedding feast, but you broke my trust. Now all the people of field and farm as well as the palace staff are aware of that trespass and are waiting to see if I grant you special privileges. Because of our long friendship and your family devotion for these many years, I am inclined to temper justice with mercy, however, none but you and I must know of what I am to do. When the guard comes to return you to your cell in the tower, he will walk away at the corner of the tower building. Around that corner, you will find Midnight saddled and ready to run. Mount and ride like the wind, for the guards will be soon in pursuit. Ride to Portsmouth town. There you will find a ship ready to sail to the colonies. The ship is the Endeavor. The captain is Reginald Worthington, and he is expecting you and knows you will remain in the colonies once there. Go now, and Godspeed to you."

But, Your Majesty, said Henry, I have just taken a bride, what of her?

I will see that no harm comes to your bride or her family, and you may send for her after you have established yourself in the colonies. We have many royal ships that go back and forth, a message to the captain of one of those ships will reach me, and I will see that your bride has an opportunity to join you. Now go quickly. The guard awaits. With that, he dismissed Henry and summoned the one guard to escort him back to the tower.

As promised, his stallion, Midnight, a gift from the king in better days, was standing saddled near the corner of the tower wall, looking fresh and prepared to run. The guard suddenly disappeared around the corner, and Henry quickly mounted and moved at a brisk pace through the open palace gate, turning south westward toward the sea. He soon was moving at a run, away from Buckingham, away from his beloved Windsor forest home, away from his new bride. Little did Henry know that he not only had a new wife, but in nine months, he would have a new son. Had he been aware of this, he may not have departed so quickly. Henry kept the ground-covering pace for over an hour until his horse was lathered and breathing heavily. He realized that he must slow the pace or risk exhausting the horse and being afoot. He also remembered the king had admonished him to cover his trail as the guards would be searching for him, perhaps with dogs. He was now wanted, an escaped fugitive, and subject to being captured or killed by the king’s guard who were unaware that the king had arranged his escape.

As he approached a village some ten kilometers from Buckingham, he realized that he should cover his trail better. A small stream ran in the general direction he was traveling. He guided Midnight into the stream and rode on for another twenty minutes then exited the stream near a rocky plateau. After riding across the rock for some five hundred feet, Henry reversed his direction and again headed for the stream. He stopped momentarily to cut a leafy branch from a tree and used this to sweep out Midnight’s tracks where he exited the stream. Returning to the stream, he rode hard for another twenty minutes and again exited the stream on the opposite bank. He rode back up the stream for another five minutes, crossed the stream three times, again used the tree branch to obliterate Midnight’s hoofprints then reentered the stream, and continued on toward Portsmouth, riding hard.

Riding out of the stream to avoid passing through a village, Henry began looking for a stable where he might acquire another horse as Midnight was showing signs of exhaustion. A short way past the village, Henry spotted a stable with several horses and moved toward the cottage nearby. An elderly man was tending the horses. As Henry approached him, he looked up with some consternation. A young man on a fine horse that had been ridden hard, here in the country, must have been somewhat disconcerting.

Good day, good sire, greeted Henry. I am on a mission prescribed by King George, and I have a weary horse as you can see. I would like to trade this fine stallion for your best horse. This is quite an urgent matter.

Are ye riding for or from the king, lad? Why such hurry and to where do ye go? Who or what is chasin’ ye?

I ride to Portsmouth at the behest of the king, sire, and those that chase me are of his doing.

"Ye ride at the behest of the king, or ye ride to avoid his guards? Either way, I’ll look at your horse, and maybe I can make a trade. I have little love for His