Dr. Ralph Almeran Parker

Out On A Limb - Meet a Member of My Family Tree

3^rd Cousin Twice Removed

Line of Descent: Richard Mower¹, Samuel Mower², Samuel Mower³, Jonathan Mower⁴ John Mower⁵, Pamelia Mower⁶, Sarah Parker⁷, Eliza Ann Howe⁸, Ralph Almeran Parker⁹

Photo Credit to Lewiston Evening Journal

Ralph Almeran Parker was born in Greene, Maine, on 7 January 1861, the first of four children born to Almeran Bodge Parker and Eliza Ann Howe. The Parker and Mower families were close, there being a few marriages between the families. In fact, Almeran and Eliza were 1^st cousins once removed.

Ralph grew up in Greene. The Parker homestead was a historic house, home to a tavern, located on the main road leading from Greene to Lewiston. After attending the public schools in Greene, Ralph attended Bates College, graduating in 1888, one of a class of thirty completing the four-year program that year. Like many of those graduates, Ralph entered the teaching profession. Throughout Maine he held several positions as either teacher or principal for the next twelve years –in West Lebanon, East Corinth, Westbrook and South Portland. He even held a position at the high school in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Throughout his career however, he had a yearning to enter the medical profession, cultivated from both a strong human sympathy and a sense of community service. The developing pull eventually won out. Ralph Parker attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick for his medical training, receiving his M.D. in 1904. He settled in Auburn, Maine, locating his office at the corner of Turner Street and the River Road, where he would remain for the next 10 years. He was a very popular and well-respected physician, known for his conscientiousness, honesty and compassion. He loved this profession because of the good works he could do. His work reflected this. Dr. Parker belonged to various medical societies and served on the staff of Central Maine General Hospital in Lewiston, Maine.

Around 1915, Dr. Parker and his wife (the former Marietta Merrill) moved back to his childhood home in Greene. His parents were getting along in years and could not carry on with the farm and the upkeep of the homestead without assistance. Along with farming, Dr. Parker was able to continue offering medical services in Auburn and Lewiston, as well as adding some business in Greene. In February 1918, a fire of unknown origin destroyed the home.  Dr. Parker’s aging parents moved to New York to reside with their son, Horatio. Dr. Parker and his wife began rebuilding a new home, which unfortunately he would not live to enjoy, dying a few days before they planned to move in.

On Saturday, 13 October 1918, Dr. Ralph A. Parker died suddenly of acute dilation of heart due to angina pectoris at the age of 57 in his native Greene, Maine. He is interred in the new Valley Cemetery in that town.

Ralph and his wife had two children, both born in South Portland: a stillborn boy on 31 Dec 1897 and a second son, Miles Robinson Parker on 17 August 1900. His wife survived him, passing away in 1935.