y' John P. Parker died Bi bis home on ¦west Front street very suddenly Taes- : day morning. 'He had heen on the streets Sunday, and at his place of bus- ! iness Monday. ' At fire o'clock Taesday >morning he awoke his family with the complaint of feeling ill and a physician 'was hastily summoned. I?pfore his ar- .rival Mr. Parker had passed away. A ^complication of diseases running back 'o\>er sevei'al years had been tending to ^this sudden ending, and that it did not I come sooner was due to the indomita- ^ble will and energy of the man, who .held on to life with the same tenacity fWith which he gripped every auter-1 'prise and success along the years that brought him up the ranks oi Ripley s ' useful, prosperous and ' honored busi- 'ness men. Mr. Parker was probably the foremost colored luan in • oar com¬ munity. A' man of deep thdasht/l learning, and attainments, wlio labor¬ ed incessandy along his Chosen lines ^of mechanical worl{ until he bailded up a name for himse>f with his patent tobacco screws, and other devices, and afforded employment for his fellow men. To the people of his own race he I Was Indeed a friend, and in the darker 'days of slavery was a strong right arm to many of them. Of his relations to Jhis own family it need only to be said : that his sons are all occupying honora- ^ble positions to-day in the world. jiThey, as well as his daughters, all re¬ ceived collegiate educations. 'Their prosperity is the best tribnte that can be offered to ihe father. ^ Mr. Parker *;Wa8 not a member of any church. Tic /believed In the supremacy and wonder- ^.ful love of the Heavenly Father, and he lived out the precepts of caring for 'bis brother and giving secret alms to ;the needy. 'Of A truth, he was a great hearted, generous man. lie had been sole proprietor of the Phoeuix Foundry J for many years. A wife survives him, 'also three sons and three daughters—a son and daughter in Chicago, a son and daughter in Saint Louis, a son in Mem¬ phis, and a daughter at home. All the [children will be here to-day.. It was iMr; Parker's desire that his body be cremated.' Whether or not this will be /done will be decided later. A sou is tbijried in Mapievvood.' Seventy, years 'was the span of Mr. Parker's life
