Daniel Parker
Elder
1 Daniel Parker (1781-1844) - an "anti-missionary"
Baptist preacher and leader in the first half of the
19th century.
Daniel Parker was born on
April 6,
1781, in
Culpeper County, Virginia. He was the oldest son of Elder John Parker, a former Continental soldier, and Sarah (White) Parker. The family moved to
Elbert County, Georgia around
1785. Daniel professed conversion before the Nail's Creek Baptist Church in
Franklin County, Georgia, and was baptized on
January 19,
1802. He married Patsey Dickerson on
March 11, 1802. In
1803, John & Sarah, Daniel & Patsey, and other Parker family members moved to
Dickson County, Tennessee. Before the Parkers moved to Tennessee, the Nail's Creek church had licensed Daniel to the ministry. In August of 1803, Daniel and Patsy settled on Turnbull Creek. The Turnbull Baptist Church was organized by fourteen members (mostly the Parker family) in the home of John Parker in April of 1806. The Turnbull Church ordained Daniel Parker as a minister of the gospel on
May 28,
1806. Parker served several churches in
Tennessee. Though mostly self-taught, and often considered a backwoodsman, Parker was a skilled speaker.
John Mason Peck, a Baptist missionary, would later concede that Parker spoke "with such brilliancy of thought, force, and correctness of language, as would astonish men of education and talents."
2 He began to engage the "missions system" controversy at least as early as 1816. For many Baptists, this consisted of whether auxiliary missionary organizations usurped the authority of the local church. Daniel and Patsey moved to
Crawford County, Illinois in December of
1817, shortly before
Illinois entered the Union.
It was in
Illinois that Parker would enter politics, stir the foreign missionary controversy, and develop a form of doctrine that would isolate him from many of his brethren, while eventually creating a small Baptist sub-group. In
1820 Parker published a pamphlet,
A Public Address to the Baptist Society, and Friends of Religion in General, on the Principle and Practice of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for the United States of America, attacking missionary practices, especially those of the recently formed
Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. He published a newspaper, the
Church Advocate, from
1829 to
1831.
Parker became the developer of "two-seedism", a doctrine which teaches that from Adam mankind has been the bearer of two seeds, one divine and one diabolical. His teaching made (or appeared to make) the devil an eternal, rather than a created, being. Parker introduced this doctrine in a pamphlet in 1826 -
Views on the Two Seeds - and supported it with another in 1827. This "two-seedism" would separate him doctrinally from many other "anti-missionary" Baptists (later known as
Primitive Baptists). They remained in agreement in their opposition to missionary societies, tract societies,
Bible societies,
Sunday schools, and theological seminaries. The churches holding the
two-seed doctrine split from the Primitive Baptists late in the 19th century, and became known as
Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists. Opponents of Parker, both within and without the anti-missionary movement, would accuse him of
dualistic Manichaeism and even
Zoroastrianism.
Alexander Campbell, in
1830, marked Parker as "the author of American Manichaenism, and teacher of Persian Predestination."
3 Parker probably developed his beliefs independently of any knowledge of
Mani or
Zoroaster. Some scholars believe that his idea was developed to soften criticism of the doctrine of election.
Parker made a trip to
Texas to investigate the land and the laws. Still a part of
Mexico, the Texas (Mexican) law protected the
Roman Catholic Church and forbade the establishment of other religions. The Mexican government, nevertheless, tolerated the presence of
Protestants, and did not persecute them on religious grounds. Parker visited the Austin Colony in the winter of 1832-33. He perceived that while the law forbade establishing a Baptist church in Texas, it did not forbid the immigration of such a body. On
July 26,
1833, he and six others established the
Pilgrim Regular Predestinarian Baptist Church at
Lamotte, Illinois. The first assembly of the pilgrims and Pilgrim Church in Texas was on
January 18,
1834, in Daniel Parker's home near present-day
Navasota, Texas in
Grime County. From there they moved and built Fort Brown near what is now
Grapeland, Texas, and then a little further northwest to 4600 acres (19 km²) not far from the present-day city of
Elkhart in
Anderson County. On
October 17,
1840, representatives from four churches met at
Hopewell Predestinarian Baptist Church near
Douglass, Texas. Here Parker led in the organization of the
Union Association of Regular Predestinarian Baptists. It was the second Baptist association organized in Texas.
Parker served as a state senator in Illinois from
1822 to
1826. He voted against pay raises for legislators, opposed increasing the bounty on wolf scalps, worked to reform the method of county road maintenance, favored the construction of a canal from the Illinois River to
Lake Michigan, and introduced bills for the construction of at least four roads. He worked actively for abolition of slavery, though his opinion was in the minority in the Senate. His last official act, on
January 21,
1826, was to dismiss the Senate with prayer. Parker's anti-slavery stance probably contributed to his defeat in the election of 1826. The religious controversies in which he was engaged did not help either. In
1832 he appeared on the Crawford County ballot for the House of Representatives, but was defeated. Wimberly noted, "By 1832, Parker had not changed, but Illinois had." (
Frontier Religion: 54)
Daniel Parker was elected to represent
Nacogdoches County at the General Council of the Provisional Government of Texas in the fall of
1835. At this consultation, he served on several committees and proposed several resolutions. Parker spoke in favor of peace with Mexico, citing their liberal dealings with the Texans, including large grants of land and exemption from taxes and duties. He also proposed consulting with the Cherokee and Shawnee Indian tribes concerning certain land grievances. A resolution by Parker, perhaps his most important, led to the establishment of the
Texas Rangers, the oldest law enforcement body in
North America with statewide jurisdiction.
He was elected a member of the Fourth Congress of the
Republic of Texas in 1839. He took his seat on
November 11, and was elected to a committee. The House vacated his seat on
November 14, because ordained ministers were constitutionally ineligible to serve, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Texas. President Mirabeau B. Lamar declared the seat officially vacant on
November 18,
1839.
Parker remained quite active into his sixties. In August of
1844, he set out on a trip to visit some churches he had organized, and probably to assist in the formation of an association in
Jasper County. He became ill and had to return home, yet continued church and familial activities. His body weakened and he became bedridden in November. Daniel Parker died at his home in
Anderson County, Texas on
December 3,
1844, and was buried in the Pilgrim Predestinarian Baptist Church Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, nine children, and five siblings. His wife Patsey died two years later. Daniel and Patsey Parker had eleven children.
J. M. Carroll declared Parker's ministry "left a mighty empress on East Texas" - not only on the Primitive Baptists, but on the missionary Baptists as well. The
Pilgrim Predestinarian Baptist Church, which meets near
Elkhart, Texas, is the oldest Baptist church in the state. Pilgrim Church is now identified with the Absolute Predestinarian branch of the Primitive Baptists, but not with "two-seedism". The
Union Association remains in existence with three churches (but not the Pilgrim Church), also identified as Absolute Predestinarian Primitive Baptist. Parker's legacy of "two-seedism" also remains in Texas, with two congregations meeting near
Jacksboro in
Jack County, Texas. Though mostly self-taught, Parker made his mark in both religion and politics. He traveled extensively and wrote several books to promote the faith that he preached. Apparently the toils and travels of Texas frontier life silenced the pen of Parker. Except for correspondence, there seems to be no extant writings from that period. Though remembered as an "anti-missionary", he was responsible for the organization of about 9 churches in Texas, as well as several in Illinois,
Indiana, and
Tennessee.
A Public Address (1820)
Plain Truth, &c. (1823)
The Author's Defence (1824)
Views on the Two Seeds (1826)
The Second Dose of Doctrine on the Two Seeds (1827)
A Short Hint (1827)
A Short History (1831)
*
Daniel Parker's "Homepage"A History of Texas Baptists, by James Milton Carroll
Dictionary of Baptists in America, Bill J. Leonard, editor
Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists (4 vols.), Norman W. Cox, et al., editors
Frontier Blood: The Saga of the Parker Family, by Jo Ella Powell Exley
Frontier Religion: Elder Daniel Parker, His Religious and Political Life, by Dan B. Wimberly
The Genesis of American Anti-Missionism, by Benajah Harvey Carroll
*
Baptist General Convention of Texas*
Fort Parker Massacre*
Quanah Parker*1. Elder - an ordained Baptist minister
*2.
Historical Sketches of the Baptist Denomination in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, by John Mason Peck in
The Baptist Memorial and Monthly Chronicle, July 15, 1842
*3. Alexander Campbell in
The Christian Baptist, March 1, 1830
