Alton Brooks Parker (May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American judge, best known as the Democrat who lost the
presidential election of 1904 to
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
.
A native of upstate
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, Parker practiced law in
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with t ...
, before being appointed to the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
and elected to the
New York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...
; he served as Chief Judge of the latter from 1898 to 1904, when he resigned to run for president. In 1904, he defeated liberal publisher
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
for the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
nomination for President of the United States. In the general election, Parker opposed popular incumbent
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
President Theodore Roosevelt. After a disorganized and ineffective campaign, Parker was defeated by 336
electoral votes to 140, carrying only the traditionally Democratic
Solid South
The Solid South or Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in those states. The Southern bloc existed especial ...
. He then returned to practicing law. He managed
John A. Dix's successful 1910 campaign for Governor of New York and served as prosecution counsel for the 1913 impeachment of Dix's successor, Governor
William Sulzer
William Sulzer (March 18, 1863 – November 6, 1941) was an American lawyer and politician, nicknamed Plain Bill Sulzer. He was the 39th Governor of New York and a long-serving congressman from the same state.
Sulzer was the first, and to date ...
.
Early life
Parker was born in
Cortland, New York
Cortland is a city and the county seat of Cortland County, New York. Known as the Crown City, Cortland is in New York's Southern Tier region. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 17,556.
The city of Cortland, near the county's western ...
, to John Brooks Parker, a farmer, and Harriet F. Stratton. Both of his parents were well educated and encouraged his reading from an early age. At the age of 12 or 13, Parker watched his father serve as a juror and was so fascinated by the proceedings that he resolved to become a lawyer.
He attended Cortland Academy, and left to begin working as a teacher in
Binghamton
Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...
. There he became engaged to Mary Louise Schoonmaker, the daughter of a man who owned property near his school. He then returned to Cortland Academy. While at Cortland Normal School, Parker was a member of Gamma Sigma Fraternity. After graduation, he attended the State Normal School in Cortland (now the
State University of New York College at Cortland
The State University of New York College at Cortland (SUNY Cortland or Cortland State College) is a public college in Cortland, New York. It was founded in 1868 and is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
History
The State Un ...
), Parker married Schoonmaker in 1872 and became a clerk at Schoonmaker & Hardenburgh, a legal firm at which one of her relatives was the senior partner.
He then enrolled at
Albany Law School
Albany Law School is a private law school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1851 and is the oldest independent law school in the nation. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and has an affiliation agreement with University at A ...
of
Union University, New York. After graduating with an
LL.B.
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
degree in 1873, he practiced law in
Kingston until 1878 as the senior partner of the firm Parker & Kenyon.
Parker also became active with the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
and was an early supporter of future New York governor and U.S. President
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
. He served as a delegate to the
1884 Democratic National Convention
The 1884 Democratic National Convention was held July 8–11, 1884 and chose Governor Grover Cleveland of New York their presidential nominee with the former Governor Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana as the vice presidential nominee.World Book
Bac ...
, at which Cleveland was named the party's presidential nominee; Cleveland went on to narrowly defeat Republican
James G. Blaine in
the fall election.
During this time, Parker also became a protege of
David B. Hill
David Bennett Hill (August 29, 1843October 20, 1910) was an American politician from New York who was the 29th Governor of New York from 1885 to 1891 and represented New York in the United States Senate from 1892 to 1897.
In 1892, he made an u ...
, managing Hill's 1885 gubernatorial campaign.
Judicial career
After his election, Hill appointed Parker to fill an 1885 vacancy on the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
created by the death of Justice Theodore R. Westbrook.
[ In 1886, Parker was elected to his own fourteen-year term in the seat. Three years later, Parker became an appellate judge when Hill appointed him to the newly formed Second Department of the Appellate Division. In November 1897, Parker successfully ran for the post of Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, defeating Republican ]William James Wallace
William James Wallace (April 14, 1837 – March 11, 1917) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and of the United States Circuit Courts for the Second Circuit and previously was a United St ...
.[
As a judge, Parker was notable for independently researching each case that he heard. He was generally considered to be pro-labor and was an active supporter of social reform legislation, for example upholding a maximum-hours law as constitutional.
During his time as Chief Judge, Parker and his wife sold their Kingston home and bought an estate in Esopus on the ]Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
, calling the house "Rosemount".[ They were the parents of two children, Bertha and John.][ John died of ]tetanus
Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'', and is characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually ...
while still a child.[ Bertha Schoonmaker Parker married the Reverend Charles Mercer Hall, with whom she had two children, Alton Parker Hall and Mary McAlister Hall Oxholm.][
]
Notable cases
* In the landmark ''Hamer v. Sidway
''Hamer v. Sidway'', 124 N.Y. 538, 27 N.E. 256 (N.Y. 1891), was a noted decision by the New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in the state), New York, United States. Hamer v. Sidway is an important case in American contract l ...
'' (1891) case, Parker held that forbearance (voluntarily abstaining) of legal rights on promises of future benefit made by other parties can constitute valid consideration
Consideration is a concept of English common law and is a necessity for simple contracts but not for special contracts (contracts by deed). The concept has been adopted by other common law jurisdictions.
The court in ''Currie v Misa'' declared ...
for the purposes of forming a contract. Parker's ''Hamer'' opinion also held that unilateral contracts were valid under New York law.
* In '' Roberson v. Rochester Folding Box Co'' (1902), Parker held against Abigail Roberson, a teenager whose face had been used in advertisements without her permission. Parker held that this use did not violate her common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
privacy rights. The decision was unpopular in the press and led to the passage of a privacy law by the New York State Legislature
The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an official ...
the following year.
* In ''People v. Place'' (1902), Parker wrote an opinion upholding the death sentence given to convicted murderer Martha Place
Martha M. Place (September 18, 1849 – March 20, 1899) was an American murderer and the first woman to die in the electric chair. She was executed on March 20, 1899, at Sing Sing Correctional Facility for the murder of her stepdaughter Ida Place ...
, who became the first woman to be executed by electric chair
An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...
.
Presidential nomination
As the 1904 presidential election approached, the Democrats began to search for a nominee to oppose popular incumbent Republican president Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, and Parker's name arose as a possible candidate. Roosevelt's Secretary of War
The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
Elihu Root
Elihu Root (; February 15, 1845February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and statesman who served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War in the early twentieth century. He also served as United States Senator from N ...
said of Parker that he "has never opened his mouth on any national question", but Roosevelt feared that the man's neutrality would prove a political advantage, writing that "the neutral-tinted individual is very apt to win against the man of pronounced views and active life".
The 1904 Democratic National Convention was held in July in St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, Missouri, then also hosting the 1904 World's Fair
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an World's fair, international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds tota ...
and the 1904 Summer Olympics
The 1904 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the III Olympiad and also known as St. Louis 1904) were an international multi-sport event held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from 29 August to 3 September 1904, as part of an extended s ...
. Parker's mentor David B. Hill
David Bennett Hill (August 29, 1843October 20, 1910) was an American politician from New York who was the 29th Governor of New York from 1885 to 1891 and represented New York in the United States Senate from 1892 to 1897.
In 1892, he made an u ...
—having attempted and failed to capture the nomination himself at the 1892 convention—now led the campaign for his protege's nomination. William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running ...
, who had been nominated but defeated by William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
in both 1896 and 1900, was no longer considered by delegates to be a viable alternative. Radicals in the party supported publisher William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
but lacked sufficient numbers to secure the nomination due to opposition from Bryan and Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
, a powerful New York political machine. Small clusters of delegates pledged support to other candidates, including Missouri Senator Francis Cockrell
Francis Marion Cockrell (October 1, 1834December 13, 1915) was a Confederate military commander and American politician from the state of Missouri. He served as a United States senator from Missouri for five terms. He was a prominent member o ...
; Richard Olney
Richard Olney (September 15, 1835 – April 8, 1917) was an American statesman.
He served as United States Attorney General in the cabinet of Grover Cleveland and Secretary of State under Cleveland.
As attorney general, Olney used injunct ...
, Grover Cleveland's Secretary of State; Edward C. Wall, a former Wisconsin State Representative; and George Gray, a former Senator from Delaware. Other delegates spoke of nominating Cleveland, who had already served two nonconsecutive terms, but Cleveland was no longer popular outside the party or even within it, due to his rift with Bryan.
Parker's long service on the bench proved to be an advantage in his nomination, as he had avoided taking stands on issues that divided the party, particularly that of currency standards. Hill and other Parker supporters remained deliberately silent on their candidate's beliefs. By the time the convention cast their votes, it was clear that no candidate but Parker could unify the party, and he was selected on the first ballot. Henry G. Davis, an elderly West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
millionaire and former senator, was selected as the vice presidential candidate in the hope that he would partially finance Parker's campaign.
The convention was riven by debate over whether to include a free silver
Free silver was a major economic policy issue in the United States in the late 19th-century. Its advocates were in favor of an expansionary monetary policy featuring the unlimited coinage of silver into money on-demand, as opposed to strict adhe ...
plank in the campaign's platform, opposing the gold standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...
and calling for the government to mint large numbers of silver dollars. The "free silver" movement, a key plank for the party in 1896 and 1900, was popular among indebted Western farmers who felt that inflation would help them repay their debts. Business interests, in contrast, supported the lower inflation of the gold standard. Bryan, famous for his 1896 "Cross of Gold" speech opposing the gold standard, fought bitterly to avoid the inclusion of the gold standard in the party platform in 1904. Ultimately the convention agreed not to include a plank on the subject.
However, seeking to win the support of the Eastern "sound money" faction, Parker sent a telegram to the convention immediately upon hearing news of his nomination that he considered the gold standard "firmly and irrevocably established" and would decline the nomination if he could not state this in his campaign. The telegram sparked a new debate and fresh opposition from Bryan, but the convention eventually replied to Parker that he was free to speak on the issue as he liked. National support for Parker began to rise, and Roosevelt praised his opponent's telegram in private as "bold and skillful" and "most adroit".
Campaign
After receiving the nomination, Parker resigned from the bench. On August 10, he was formally visited at Rosemount by a delegation of party elders to inform him of his nomination. Parker then delivered a speech criticizing Roosevelt for his administration's involvement in Turkish and Moroccan affairs and having failed to give a date on which the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
would become independent of American control; the speech was considered even by supporters to be impersonal and uninspiring. Historian Lewis L. Gould described the speech as a "fiasco" for Parker from which the candidate did not recover. After this initial speech, Parker retreated into a strategy of silence again, avoiding comment on all major issues.
Parker's campaign soon proved to be poorly run as well. Parker and his advisors opted for a front porch campaign
A front porch campaign is a low-key electoral campaign used in American politics in which the candidate remains close to or at home to make speeches to supporters who come to visit. The candidate largely does not travel around or otherwise act ...
, in which delegations would be brought to Rosemount to see Parker speak on the model of McKinley's successful 1896 campaign. However, due to Esopus's remote location and the campaign's inefficient use of funds to bring in delegates, Parker received few visitors. Rather than introducing issues that would differentiate the two parties, the Democrats preferred to emphasize Roosevelt's character, portraying him as dangerously unstable. Parker's campaign also failed to reach out to traditional Democratic voting blocs such as Irish Catholic
Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...
immigrants. In contrast, Roosevelt's campaign, headed by George Cortelyou
George Bruce Cortelyou (July 26, 1862October 23, 1940) was an American Cabinet of the United States, Cabinet secretary of the early twentieth century. He held various positions in the presidential administrations of Grover Cleveland, William McKi ...
, organized committees to appeal specifically to demographics including Jewish, black, and German-American voters. John Hay, Roosevelt's Secretary of State, wrote of Parker's poor showing to Henry Adams
Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents.
As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fra ...
, calling it "the most absurd political campaign of our time".
A month before the election, Parker became aware of the large volume of corporate donations Cortelyou had solicited for the Roosevelt campaign, and made "Cortelyouism" a theme of his speeches, accusing the president of being insincere in previous trust busting
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
efforts. In late October, he also went on a speaking tour in the key states of New York and New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, in which he reiterated the president's "shameless exhibition of a willingness to make compromise with dignity". Roosevelt, enraged, released a statement calling Parker's criticisms "monstrous" and "slanderous".
Parker's attacks came too late to turn the election, however. On November 8, Roosevelt won in a landslide of 7,630,457 votes to Parker's 5,083,880. Roosevelt carried every Northern and Western state, including Missouri, for a total of 336 electoral votes; Parker carried only the traditionally Democratic Solid South
The Solid South or Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in those states. The Southern bloc existed especial ...
, accumulating 140 electoral votes.[ Parker telegraphed his congratulations to Roosevelt that night and returned to private life.
In ]Irving Stone
Irving Stone (born Tennenbaum, July 14, 1903 – August 26, 1989) was an American writer, chiefly known for his biographical novels of noted artists, politicians, and intellectuals. Among the best known are '' Lust for Life'' (1934), about the l ...
's 1943 book, '' They Also Ran'', about defeated presidential candidates, the author stated that Parker was the only defeated presidential candidate in history never to have a biography written about him. Stone theorized that Parker would have been an effective president and the 1904 election was one of a few in American history in which voters had two first-rate candidates to choose from. Stone professed that Americans liked Roosevelt more because of his colorful style.
Later life
After the election, Parker resumed practicing law and served as the president of the American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
from 1906 to 1907. He represented organized labor
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
in several cases, most notably in ''Loewe v. Lawlor
''Loewe v. Lawlor'', 208 U.S. 274 (1908), also referred to as the Danbury Hatters' Case, is a United States Supreme Court case in United States labor law concerning the application of antitrust laws to labor unions. The Court's decision effectivel ...
'', popularly known as the "Danbury Hatters' case". In the case, the fur hat manufacturer D. E. Loewe & Company had attempted to enforce an open shop
An open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join or financially support a union (closed shop) as a condition of hiring or continued employment.
Open shop vs closed shop
The major difference between an open and closed s ...
policy; when unions had subsequently boycotted the company, it sued the United Hatters of North America for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author.
Th ...
. The U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
found for Loewe by ruling that the union had been acting in restraint of interstate commerce.[ Parker had more success representing ]Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers (; January 27, 1850December 13, 1924) was a British-born American cigar maker, labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as the organization's ...
and other labor leaders in '' Gompers v. United States'', in which the Supreme Court overturned their convictions for contempt of court
Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
on statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...
grounds.
Parker later re-entered politics, managing John Alden Dix
John Alden Dix (December 25, 1860 – April 9, 1928) was an American businessman and politician who served as 38th Governor of New York from January 1911 to January 1913.
A native of Glens Falls, New York, Dix attended Cornell University befo ...
's successful 1910 gubernatorial campaign and delivering the keynote address of the 1912 Democratic National Convention
The 1912 Democratic National Convention was held at the Fifth Regiment Armory off North Howard Street in Baltimore from June 25 to July 2, 1912.
The Convention
The convention was held at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore from June 25 t ...
, which nominated Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
for president.[ He announced his support for women's suffrage in 1911, telling a group of women lawyers that he supported the suffrage movement "most heartily." In 1913, he was counsel for the managers of the trial leading to the impeachment of Dix's successor as governor, ]William Sulzer
William Sulzer (March 18, 1863 – November 6, 1941) was an American lawyer and politician, nicknamed Plain Bill Sulzer. He was the 39th Governor of New York and a long-serving congressman from the same state.
Sulzer was the first, and to date ...
.
Parker's wife, Mary, died in 1917. He remarried in 1923 to Amelia Day "Amy" Campbell. On May 10, 1926, only a few days after recovering from bronchial pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity of ...
, Parker died from a heart attack while riding in his car through New York City's Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
, four days before his 74th birthday. He was survived by Mrs. Charles Mercer Hall, his daughter from his first wife, two grandchildren, and his second wife. He was buried in Wiltwyck Cemetery in Kingston.[
]
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
* Shoemaker, Fred C. "Alton B. Parker: the images of a gilded age statesman in an era of progressive politics" (MA thesis, The Ohio State University, 1983
online
Primary sources
*
External links
''Address by Alton B. Parker, in memoriam David Bennett Hill; delivered at the joint meeting of the Senate and Assembly in the capitol at Albany, July 6, 1911''
''American Constitutional Government''; a 1922 address by Judge Parker
*
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Alton Brooks
1852 births
1926 deaths
19th-century American judges
20th-century American judges
20th-century American politicians
Albany Law School alumni
Chief Judges of the New York Court of Appeals
Democratic Party (United States) presidential nominees
New York Supreme Court Justices
People from Cortland, New York
People from Esopus, New York
Politicians from Kingston, New York
Presidents of the American Bar Association
Progressive Era in the United States
Theodore Roosevelt
Candidates in the 1904 United States presidential election
Bourbon Democrats