The Twenty - Five Things That Made Genesee County Famous
Number 11
Ely Samuel Parker
Ely Parker was a Seneca Indian born in 1829 in Indian Falls, which at the time was part of the Tonawanda Indian Reservation. His English name came from a Baptist minister, Ely Stone, and he was given the Seneca name of Ha-sa-no-an-da or Leading Name. He pronounced Ely to rhyme with freely.
He began his education at the Baptist Mission School near the reservation, and then went to Yates Academy in Orleans County. At the schools, he worked hard at the English language and as a teenager he traveled to Albany and Washington D.C. and served as an interpreter for the Tonawanda Seneca.
Well-educated for any teenager of the time period let alone a Native American, he began to think about his future. He wanted to further his education and he applied to Harvard University, but his application went unanswered.
He was offered the opportunity to study law. Parker remembered the respect attorneys received and decided it would be a great opportunity for him. He studied law in the office of William P. Angel in Ellicottville, NY. Parker could not become a lawyer because under New York State law, only natural born citizens of the United States could be admitted to the bar as an attorney or counselor at law. Indians were not, by law, citizens.
Unable to practice law, Parker's friend Lewis Henry Morgan helped him get a job working on the Genesee Valley Canal. He started out as an axe man and worked his way up to engineer.
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On September 19, 1851, Parker was elected Grand Sachem of the Six Nations. He replaced the late John Blacksmith. He was one of 50 sachems in the Iroquois Confederacy. With his election, he was given the name of Do-ne-ho-ga-wa (open door) and received Red Jacket’s Washington Medal as a symbol of his position.
A month later, the New York State Canal Board made him the first assistant engineer on the state’s canals. Later, Parker moved to Norfolk, Virginia to help build the Chesapeake and Albemarle Ship Canal. He returned a month later to escape a yellow fever epidemic.
In 1857, he returned to Washington D.C. to argue the Fellows Case (see number 15 of the countdown) and with its successful ruling plus the construction of the Chesapeake and Albemarle Ship Canal he applied for a position in the Treasury Department to become a construction engineer in Chicago. The Treasury Department gave him an appointment in Detroit, but soon transferred him to Galena, Illinois, where he became the superintendent for the construction of a customs house and a Marine hospital. In Galena, he met future General and President Ulysses Grant.
Amid the excitement of the beginning of the Civil War, Parker returned to Tonawanda, and then went to Albany to ask the Governor for a commission. When no commission was forthcoming, he offered his services to the federal government, but his application was denied. He tried to volunteer for two years for the Army and began to lose hope, but his friends from Galena recommended him for a position on General Grant’s staff. He received a commission as assistant adjutant general of volunteers with the rank of Captain. Parker eventually was promoted to Brigadier General.
He arrived at Grant’s headquarters after the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863. He became Grant’s Military Secretary on August 30, 1864. When the Confederate Army surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia on April 9, 1865, Parker, as Grant’s Military Secretary, was the officer who, following Grant’s draft, wrote the terms of surrender that ended the war.
After the war, Parker traveled with Grant on victory tours throughout the North. He also worked as a commissioner to resolve Indian treaties in the west.
On December 24, 1867, the 39 year old Ely Parker married 18 year old Minnie Sackett. The wedding was scheduled for a week earlier, but Parker didn’t show up. To this day it’s unknown as to why he didn’t show up. Some newspapers theorized that he was drunk, while others thought that Indians opposed to his marriage to a white woman drugged him in an attempt to prevent the marriage. Regardless of what happened, Minnie married him and they eventually had a daughter named Maude.
With Grant’s election as President of the United States, Parker became the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The department was full of corruption with Indian Agents taking bribes or charging the Native Americans exorbitant prices for items such as food and blankets. Parker tried to rid the department of corruption and made enemies. His enemies brought him up on false charges. Parker was put on trial and acquitted; afterwards he resigned his post to save President Grant further embarrassment.
After 1871, Parker made and lost a fortune in the stock market.He spent his last days working as a clerk in the New York City Police Department. On August 30, 1895, General Parker died at the home of a friend in Fairfield, Connecticut. He was buried in Fairfield, but in 1897 he was reburied in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.
How Did He Make Genesee County Famous?
Parker is arguably one of the most famous people ever born in Genesee County. He spoke in front of the Supreme Court, knew United States Presidents, was one of the only Native American Generals in the United States Army and was one of President Ulysses S. Grant’s first nominees for a federal appointment.
He never forgot his Genesee County roots. Even when he was far away, Parker would return to the Reservation and fight for his people’s rights.
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Links:
A Warrior in Two Worlds: The Life of Ely Parker (PBS Website)
Ely S. Parker Papers at the University of Rochester