Isaac Parker, the 19th century Federal judge assigned to Fort Smith, Arkansas, earned a reputation as a harsh and strict authority in a region that was lawless and violent. The reality, however, was a bit more complex than that.
Isaac Parker was born in the town of Barnesville OH in October 1838. At that time, Ohio was sparsely settled and was very near the western frontier. Although one of his great-uncles was a former Governor of Ohio and Territorial Governor of Kansas, and his uncle was a successful attorney, his parents, Joseph and Jane, were farmers who had a small homestead outside of town.
Despite having to scrabble for a living, though, Isaac was ambitious and harbored dreams of being a successful lawyer. He did so well in school that by age 17 he had been hired to teach the younger students, and was attending the private Barnesville Classical Institute. Since it was impossible for him to attend any sort of law school, though, he bought whatever books he could and studied law on his own, allowing him to pass the bar in 1859.
Parker moved to St Joseph MO, a frontier town where he worked for his uncle’s law practice and was hired as an attorney first by the city and then by the state. He became involved with local politics, changed his party from Democrat to Republican, and was selected as a Republican Convention delegate for Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
When the Civil War ended, Parker was elected as a Judge in Missouri’s 13th District Court, then in 1870 he was elected for two terms in the US House of Representatives. One of the bills he sponsored would have given women the right to vote; another would have incorporated the “Indian Territory”, to which most of the eastern Natives had been forcibly relocated, into a state of Oklahoma. This bill was opposed by the Native American tribes as a treaty violation, but Parker argued that the territory was lawless and needed to be brought under government control. It would set the tone for the rest of his life.
In 1874, Parker ran for the US Senate but was defeated, and was then offered a judicial position by the Grant Administration. Given his choice of Utah or Arkansas, Parker picked Arkansas and settled in at Fort Smith. His district covered the western state of Arkansas and most of Oklahoma Territory.
His first task was to clean house. The previous judge had resigned under suspicion of bribery and corruption and many of the federal marshals and attorneys had been fired. As a result, thievery, horse stealing, drunkenness and violence was rampant. Parker hired new staff that he considered reliable and set out to once again establish the rule of law.
His first case as judge involved a young man named Evans who was charged with murdering one of his friends to steal his boots. Evans was convicted, and Parker sentenced him to hang. Over the next few months five more men were condemned to the gallows, and they were all hung together in September 1875 with more than 5000 spectators watching—earning Parker the name “The Hanging Judge”.
Decades later in an interview with the National Park Service, Parker said that he often felt bad about being so harsh and sometimes cried after sentencing someone to hang, but noted, “I have ever had the single aim of justice in view. No judge who is influenced by any other consideration is fit for the bench. ‘Do equal and exact justice,’ is my motto, and I have often said to the grand jury, ‘Permit no innocent man to be punished, but let no guilty man escape.’”
In his 21 years as a Federal Judge, Parker tried a total of 13,490 cases, most of which were for petty offenses. He sentenced a total of 156 men and four women to death (nearly all for murder), but only around half of these were actually executed (some sources say 79, some say 88).
Although Parker’s judicial district included most of the reservation land in Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma), the Federal courts only had jurisdiction over disputes between tribes or which involved a non-Native. Hearing these cases, however, softened Parker’s views of the Natives, and he became an advocate on their behalf, using his position to attempt to stop white encroachment onto Native lands and to halt the sale of liquor on the reservations. He also often asked the higher courts to reduce or commute the sentences of Native Americans which, he said, he had been forced by the law to administer but which he did not think were fair.
Judge Parker died in November 1885.
Today Fort Smith is a National Historic Site. Judge Parker’s courthouse has been preserved and is open for exhibit. There is a replica gallows nearby.
The Museum of World Treasures in Wichita KS displays one of the written indictments that was signed by Judge Parker.
Hidden History 