Biographical Details
Date of Birth: March 25, 1820
Birth Location: Middlebury, VT, USA
Graduation Year(s): 1838
Degree(s) Earned: Bachelors
Date of Death: February 8, 1917
Death Location: Auburn, IL, USA
Samuel Chipman Parks
Life Experience
Samuel Chipman Parks was born in Vermont in 1820 and was educated in Madison, Indiana. He was the son of IU Professor B. Parks. After receiving his master’s degree from IU ("in course" -- an honorary distinction requiring no further work at the university) in 1841, Parks received a second master’s degree from Jacksonville College in 1844. After college, he was a teacher for six years.
Parks lived in Springfield, Illinois and became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln. He was a member of the Illinois Legislature in 1855 and a delegate to the first Republican National Convention in 1856. He studied law and practiced until September of 1863. He was a member of the Illinois Constitutional Convention and was appointed associate justice of Idaho in 1863 by President Lincoln. Parks was subsequently appointed associate justice of New Mexico; he served one term of four years before transferring to the Wyoming Territory at his own request in 1882. He served as judge of the 3rd Judicial District in the Wyoming Territory. He lived to age 96.
Interesting Anecdote
Parks served as a judge in three different territories before they became states.
References
- Wylie
- Findagrave.com
- Parks, Samuel Chipman (1900) The Great Trial of the Nineteenth Century