Orin B PARKER (VETERAN UNION)

CAPTAIN US Army
10 Battery Indiana Light Artillery
Civil War Union
June 5, 1845 - March 30, 1929

Mausoleum

*Obituary
Benton County Record & Democrat & Sun
Thursday, April 4, 1929

PARKER, Orin B. - Orin Parker, one of the oldest observers of the U.S. Weather Bureau, died at his home in Bentonville Saturday morning, March 30th, 1929 at the age of eighty-three years. Sixty-three of these years had been spent continuously in this branch of service. During this length of time Mr. Parker had never had a day off on account of sickness. This was a record of which he was justly proud. Mr. Parker served three years in the Union Army, enlisting in Indiana when he was nineteen years of age, where he served as a "powder monkey" during the closing year of the war. Re-enlisting, he saw garrison duty in Florida and Montana and later in Salt Lake City when Brigham Young was leader of the Mormons there. At his request he was transferred to the signal corps which later was assigned to the weather bureau service and became one of the observers of that bureau. He was assigned first to the Montgomery, Ala. station and then to New Orleans, Boston, Buffalo, Washington, Chicago, Rochester, N.Y., Columbus, Ohio, Dubuque, Iowa. During his residence in these different cities he met some of the most distinguished citizens of those days. When the weather bureau was established in Bentonville in 1906 Mr. Parker came here from Dubuque to take charge and has remained here in service until his retirement, August 20, 1920. Mrs. Parker was appointed in his place where he served as her assistant until the first of January 1928 when she resigned and was succeeded by Mrs. J.T. Gibson, the present observer. Mr. Parker was born in Indiana June 5, 1846 and was married in New Orleans in 1875 to Miss Julia Slater. Funeral services were held at the home Sunday afternoon, the Rev. A.W. Henderson conducting the services. Surviving is his widow, Mrs. Julia Parker, and a son, John Parker of Los Angeles, Calif.

*Obituary
Rogers Democrat
Thursday, April 4, 1929

Bentonville, March 31.- Funeral services for Captain Orin B. Parker, eighty-three years old, Federal soldier and a pioneer in the government weather service, who died at his home here early Saturday morning, were held Sunday afternoon at the family residence by the Rev. A.W. Henderson, pastor of the First Presbyterian church and burial was in the city cemetery. Captain Parker was born in Indiana, near Indianapolis, and when nineteen years old volunteered as a soldier in the federal army in the Civil war. He served in the Atlanta campaign as a member of the Tenth Indiana volunteer battery under division Commander E.M. McCook and after his volunteer service of a year and a half, enlisted for eight years in the regular army with service in a number of the southern and border states. Joining the Signal Corps he went into training at Washington, D.C. for the Weather service and served in the stations at Montgomery, Ala., New Orleans, Washington, Boston, Buffalo, Smithville, N.C., Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Rochester, Dubuque and other cities. A bill having been passed by congress establishing a weather station in Bentonville for the benefit of the Ozark fruit interests, Captain Parker was sent here to open the new station on March 16, 1906. He served as director of the Bentonville station until 1920 when he reached the age for retirement but Mrs. Parker was named to succeed him and he served as her assistant until her retirement on January 1, 1928. After leaving the weather station Captain Parker purchased a home in Bentonville and continued to reside here. While he was stationed in Greencastle, Ind. he graduated in law at DePauw university, though he never practiced that profession and also during his stay in Greencastle he was an instructor on weather in the agriculture department of the university. Captain Parker was chosen to accompany General A.I. Greely on the polar expedition in 1881 but was unable to make the trip. He devised the key cipher used by the weather bureau for many years which effects large savings in telegraph tolls and has devoted much time to scientific research and experiment. During the World war he devoted much effort to a submersible boat and he has given much study to airships and landing devices, concerning which he has corresponded with scientific men in many parts of the country. He was particularly interested in his scheme for making air journeys safe between the United States and England by a system of anchored islands for every 200 miles between the two countries that airplanes might land and find supplies available and corresponded with experts in regard to the cost of transporting passengers by such a plan. Captain Parker served the United States government as a soldier, as a member of the Signal Corps and as a weather observer for 63 years and during that long period never missed a day on account of sickness or for any other reason. He claimed this was a world's record under any government or at any period in the world's history. He was never ill but once during his 63 years in service and at that time happened to be absent on leave from his post. His health has been failing for some months but his death was probably hastened by the recent death of his daughter, Mrs. George Vroom, former mayor of Centerton and widely known club woman and civic worker. He is survived by his wife and by one son, John A. Parker.

Contributed on 9/18/13 by judyfrog
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Record #: 928227

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