William H. Parker (politician)

William Henry Parker ( born May 5, 1847 in Keene, New Hampshire, † June 26, 1908 in Deadwood, South Dakota ) was an American politician. Between 1907 and 1908 he represented the second electoral district of the state of South Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives.

William Parker participated as a soldier in the Union Army in the Civil War at the age of 14 years. From June 24 1861 to October 16, 1866, he remained in the army, after which he studied at the present-day George Washington University, which at that time was called Columbian College, Jura. In 1868 he was admitted to the bar. In June 1874 Parker was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant appointed head of the Federal tax authorities in the Colorado Territory. This office he held until 1876. After Colorado had joined in 1876 as a new state of the United States, was Parker federal prosecutor in the new state. In 1877 he moved to Deadwood in the Dakota Territory, where he worked as a lawyer.

Political career

Parker was initially no party, but later joined the Republicans. In 1885 he was a member of the Constituent Conference of South Dakota. After this state was admitted to the Union in 1889, Parker was elected to the House of Representatives from South Dakota. He then worked again as a lawyer before he became a 1903-1907 district attorney in Lawrence County. In the congressional elections of 1906 he was able to prevail Martin and conquer its seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the second constituency of South Dakota against Eben. Parker took up his new post on March 4, 1907, and practiced there until his death on 26 June 1908. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The due -election for his seat in Congress won his predecessor Eben Martin.