Nearly two years have elapsed since this venerable father and brother in the ministry quit the walks of men, and though serving the congregation as pastor where Brother Parks held his membership the writer had earnestly hoped that some one better suited by reason of experience, and acquaintance with the subject of this notice would write more extensively than it is his purpose to do in this article; and that a more becoming tribute should be paid this great and good man. This desire, it seems, will not be realized, and with the hope that all criticisms will be made in charity, the writer would set forth a statement of a few facts incident in the life and death of Brother Parks.
He was of an English and Irish ancestry. Some time before the Revolutionary War eleven brothers by the name of Park came to this country from England. One of the family who lived in Guilford county, North Carolina, was a captain in the Revolutionary army, and his company was spoken of as Captain Park's company. He was called Parks in the army, and he accepted the name, and after the war he spelled his name Parks.
A son of Captain Parks, whose name was Jacob, moved to Sumner county, Tenn., and married Miss Ann Hamilton, whose father built Hamilton's Station in Sumner county. From this marriage there were born eight children, five of whom lived to be old. Their names are as follows: Dr. William Parks, Robert H. Parks, the Rev. Hamilton Parks, Perina Hamilton, and Esquire Smith Parks. They all moved to West Tennessee, and settled in the counties of Dyer and Gibson, during the time from 1830 to 1845. Jacob Parks and his wife and all their children were devoted members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
The Rev. Hamilton Parks was born June 8, 1809, in Sumner county, near the line of Robertson county, and near to the old Ridge church, which stood in Robertson county. In the winter of 1832-3 the members of this congregation held a series of prayer meetings from house to house, continuing some months, and during this meeting over a hundred persons professed faith in Christ. Among that number was the Rev. Hamilton Parks.
In December, 1832, he joined the old Ridge church. He put himself under the care of Nashville Presbytery at Zion meeting-house March 20, 1835; was licensed to preach March 6, 1836, at Suggs' Creek, Wilson county, and ordained at Charlotte, Dickson county, May, 1838, by the Nashville Presbytery. From that time until 1845 he preached in the different counties around Nashville, extending his work to the Tennessee river.
In 1845 he moved to Dyer county, Tenn., and settled on a farm, where he lived for more than forty-three years, and near where the town of Newbern now stands. When he moved to Dyer county there was no Cumberland Presbyterian church there, and not more than a dozen members of that faith in the whole county. He devoted himself to the ministry, and was instrumental in leading thousands to Christ and in adding great numbers to the church.
Brother Parks organized the following congregations in Dyer county: Poplar Grove (now Newbern), Dyersburg, South Union (since changed to Ro Ellen), Hurricane Hill, Mt. Bethesda, and Palestine. He preached to those congregations for many years, and they are strong, thriving churches to-day.
A few years before the late war he was employed as financial agent to endow Bethel College, and he gave the institution one thousand dollars, which he paid in services, besides raising twenty-three thousand dollars or more in money and solvent notes as an endowment fund. But the late war caused the college to lose most of said amount.
In 1867-8, when Cumberland University was struggling under financial embarrassment, Brother Parks acted as agent for that magnificent institution of his church, and, although the country was in great poverty and distress, resulting from the ravages of war, he succeeded in settling many of the university's claims, and thereby saved to the institution many thousands of dollars.
Owing to ill health he was forced to desist from preaching several years before his death; but he never ceased to be interested and solicitous for the welfare of his church, and this is especially true in regard to the congregations which he organized, for he always assisted liberally in sustaining them. When he began his ministerial labors, he was several hundred dollars in debt--a poor man--and had a wife and several children. He put his life and all he had upon the altar; the offering was accepted. God blessed his ministry, and, through divine grace, he led many souls to joy and peace in Christ. But our heavenly Father did not forget his temporal necessities--Brother Parks became wealthy. With his abundance he was neither pompous nor arrogant. He was a man of few domestic wants. He gave liberally to all church enterprises, to all institutions of charity, and to the destitute poor. He often assisted the poor through others, so that they knew not from whence their help came. He implicitly believed in God's special providence, and that all should give at least a tenth of all their income. He did not believe that God would let any one suffer on account of his liberality toward the needy, or in supporting the gospel, and thus he put his belief into practice. He was faithful and punctual to meet all his appointments. He often left his crop in the hands of his servants, and would be gone for several weeks at a time, but in all things he was prosperous. Brother Parks was not jealous of his brethren in the ministry. He wished to see them all succeed. Was always ready to sympathize with them, and give them his fatherly advice or counsel. He was a great help to his pastor. After placing all his property as he saw fit to do, he placed the following item in his will, as a father's last bequest: "I most earnestly request all my children and grandchildren to live honestly and uprightly; to be fair and just in all their dealing with their fellow men; to take the Bible as their great guide in life--to read it, study it, and obey its precepts; and to live humble, devoted, sincere Christian lives, so that, when done with this world, we may all be reunited in a far better and happier world than this."
He died September 13, 1888, in his eightieth year. One brother, Smith Parks, Esq., four sons, and two daughters survive him. For many years before his death there was not a shadow nor a cloud between him and his Savior. Assured of his acceptance with God, a peaceful future opened before him. Death to him had no terrors; it only wrought the exchange of worlds. In his last sickness his sufferings were intense, but he bore them with patience and Christian fortitude. He yielded up his life with a peaceful and tranquil spirit. Thus he passed to his glorious and eternal rest.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, July 3, 1890, page 2]