From Memorial and Genealogical Record of Dodge and Jefferson Counties, Wisconsin, publ. 
1894 - Page 218-219
 
CHARLES E. PARKS was born in the town of Morreau, Saratoga County, in the State of New 
York, September 12, 1846.  He was a son of Hiram PARKS and Laura WOODWORTH - Hiram 
PARKS, son of Solomon PARKS and Susannah BURNHAM; Solomon PARKS, son of Daniel 
PARKS.  The father of Daniel PARKS was born in Connecticut and moved to South Glens Falls, 
town of Morreau, New York State, some years before the Revolutionary War, and there 
purchased the Glen Patent of John Glen.  The Glen Patent consisted of 6,000 acres of land, 
situated on the south side of the Hudson River and bounded on the north and east by the Hudson 
River and on the south and west by what was known as the Skew Line.  This line started at a 
large boulder on the small island in the Hudson River at the head of Baker's Falls, and ran in a 
northwesterly course to Little Falls on the Hudson River.  During the Revolutionary War, the 
father of Daniel PARKS, together with all of his family excepting three, was massacred at his 
residence in South Glens Falls by a party of Tories and Indians.  All records and papers were 
destroyed and house and factory burned to the ground.  Two daughters were carried into captivity 
by the Indians and no more was ever heard of them.  Daniel PARKS, the only survivor, was in 
command of Fort George at the head of Lake George, and as soon as the news of the massacre 
reached him he started in pursuit of the Tories and Indians, and with a file of soldiers followed the 
party into Canada, and was quite satisfied that his sisters were not massacred but carried into 
captivity.  At the close of the Revolution John Glen sent an agent from Canada and laid claim to 
the whole estate which had been bought and paid for, and Daniel PARKS who had fought 
throughout the whole Revolutionary War was left by that war a pauper, or at least a man without 
any means whatever, as John Glen proved his title to the estate and took it all.  Daniel PARKs' 
son, Solomon, commenced life working in a saw mill at $5 per month; his wife, Susannah, bore 
him a family of sixteen children, thirteen of whom lived to man's estate.  Notwithstanding the fact 
that he commenced life penniless where he should have commenced a wealthy man, he 
accumulated a large fortune, left his children in good circumstances, and died at the age of 
eighty-eight - his wife at the age of eighty-six.  Daniel PARKS died at the age of ninety-four. 
 
Laura WOODWORTH, daughter of Abel WOODWORTH and Olive PARTRIDGE, was born at 
Norwich, Ct.  The family consisted of four sons and four daughters.  Laura was educated at 
Norwich.  Her brothers were educated at Dartmouth College, and two of them afterward became 
professors of mathematics at same college, and one of them, Leonard Hartwell, is now living at 
Rock Falls, Ill., and is somewhere between ninety and ninety-five years old.  Abel WOODWORTH 
was born in Connecticut.
 
Hiram PARKS, son of Solomon PARKS and father of Charles E., was educated in the common 
schools of the town of Morreau.  In early life he had charge of the toll road and ferry and toll 
bridge cross the Hudson River, owned by his father.  He was also engaged in rope making in 
partnership with his father on the Morreau side of the Hudson opposite Sandy Hill, at the Morreau 
water power.  this rope and hemp mill was taken down and a saw mill erected which was owned 
by Hiram PARKS, Cyrus BURNHAM and George SANFORD. He afterward leased his interest in 
the saw mill to his partners, and engaged for several years in supplying the Hudson River, the 
Harlem and part of the New York Central Railroads in timber, cross ties and fuel.  He retired from 
business at the age of sixty and died at the age of seventy years.  He never ran for any public 
office.
 
Charles E. PARKS was educated at the Glens Falls Academy and at the Fort Edward Collegiate 
Institute.  He commenced life as a civil engineer, but, not liking the business, he taught school 
one year, then engaged as clerk in a dry goods house at Sandy Hill, N.Y., for a short time, when 
he again entered the schoolroom as assistant principal and teacher of mathematics for two 
years.  He came West in 1872 and was elected superintendent of Garnet, Kan., public schools, 
where he remained two years.  He then went to Golden, Colo., where he became superintendent 
of Golden public schools, serving one year.  He next went to Denver as superintendent of the 
north side schools, but returned the following year to Golden, where he remained a year and 
resigned his position and returned East.  He finally came West again, making Watertown, Wis. his 
home.  He married Lilla LEWIS, daughter of G. B. LEWIS.  He has been engaged in the 
manufacturing business with G. B. LEWIS as partner for several years, and is now secretary and 
treasurer and half owner of the G. B. LEWIS Company at Watertown.  He is the inventor of Parks' 
basket boxes and barrels and considerable amount of machinery.  He ran for public offices and 
has been twice defeated; first time, running for school commissioner, when, after an experience 
of ten years in the schoolroom, leaving same at a salary of $1,500 and being offered $1,800 a 
year to continue, he was defeated by a man who could little more than read and write.  He was 
defeated a second time when running for alderman.  He has three children: Lewis W., aged 
thirteen years; Olive, aged eleven years, and Clifton A., aged nine years.
 
Submitted by Carol