A discussion of Parker's origins would hardly be complete without talking about Parker's founding brothers, James Sample and George Parker. James Sample Parker is a bit easier to track so we will discuss him first. James drove a stagecoach for the Butterfield/Overland Stage company before becoming station master at the Kiowa station. A Civil War veteran, James met and married Mattie Haynes Wallace, the widow of a Civil War soldier in 1868. Mattie was the mother of two young girls, Georgia and Ellen, who later married Parker area residents.

In October of 1870, James Parker established homestead rights through the 1841 Pre-Emption act to a piece of land across the street from the 20-mile house property then owned by Nelson Doud. According to property abstracts, Parker purchased the 20-mile property from Doud although the popular belief was that Doud owned the property until 1874 when the family moved to the 17-mile house.

James Parker added a store to the already busy mile house where stages arrived in need of blacksmith work and freighters stopped to have their oxen shoed. Parker also granted rights-of-way for a future road, the Parker ditch, and later for the telephone/telegraph company. When word of the Denver and New Orleans railway's need for land came to Parker's attention he sold the right-of-way for $1. Insuring that the tracks would pass through Parker and thus protecting the future of the burgeoning town.

When Edith Parker reached school age, James Parker was concerned about the six-year-old making the trip from the 20-mile house to the Fonder school which stands near Ponderosa High School, so he built the town's first school on his original Pre-Emption land, paid for the school's furnishings, and the teacher's salary as well as giving her room and board.

The U.S. Postal Service pressed Parker, then postmaster to change the name of the town from Pine Grove. His first suggestion was Edithville, in deference to his daughter, but the Postal Service vetoed this suggestion as another Edithville already existed in Colorado. Finally the matter was solved with the name of Parker's (later the "s" was dropped) in honor of both brothers. James Parker remained as postmaster of the Parker Post Office until shortly before his death in 1910.

George Parker built a small cabin and established a saloon in the early 1870's on the west side of the current Highway 83. His timber claim homestead encompassed the area currently perceived as Parker. He filed his final paperwork on the timber claim in 1888. George always walked with a cane. An early photo of the Parker Railroad Station shows George sitting on the baggage wagon. He was never married and could be found playing cards or shooting the breeze with his cronies.

Sandy Whelchel is the author of Hide and Seek, the first in the series of thrillers featuring main character, Tiffanie Westerland.