James W. Parker (1822-1907) Records (KC148)

James Parker (sometimes referred to as John) received formal education from Transylvania University in both the literary and medical departments and graduated in 1846. He immediately began to practice medicine in Boone County, Kentucky. During the Mexican War he worked for a year in a military hospital attached to General William Jenkins Worth's Division in Texas after which he traveled to Missouri in 1849, crossed the plains to California in 1850, and then returned to Missouri to settle at Westport in 1851 where he again took up the practice of medicine. His work was largely among the Shawnee, Wyandotte, and Delaware Indians and extended as far as fifty miles from his home. Dr. Parker was one of a group of Westport men who tried to develop and promote a wind wagon as a means of transportation across the prairie. However, difficulties with guiding the wagons in a stiff breeze and wretched roads doomed the project. In April 1853, Dr. Parker went to Bullitt County, Kentucky to marry Elizabeth (Lizzie) Burdett. During the Civil War, Parker supervised a hospital in Westport before moving to Nebraska City, Nebraska, in September 1863. Besides having an active medical practice in Nebraska City, Dr. Parker was also the junior partner in the drug firm of Price and Parker. He may also have been involved in the business of overland shipping via wagon train between the years 1864 and 1868. Sometime after 1882, Dr. Parker returned to Westport.

The records contain four volumes of financial daybooks and journals concerning Dr. James W. Parker's medical practice in Westport, Missouri, 1851-1857, and Nebraska City, Nebraska, 1868-1872. Also included is a volume of financial accounts pertaining to overland shipping via wagon train, presumably out of Nebraska City, for the years 1864-1868. In one of the folders of the records is a letter dated 19 September 1853, from Jotham Meeker of the Ottawa Mission, Kansas Territory, calling on Dr. Parker for medical assistance for a Col. Moore. Each of the medical journals lists the name of the patient, the ailment, treatment and charge made for the service. The daybooks provide similar information as chronological ledgers of Dr. Parker's daily medical activities. A name index has been prepared. 1851-1872

2 folders and 5 volumes (MICROFORM)

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