Ely Parker
(pron. EE lee)
Ely Parker
(pron. EE lee)
Perhaps the most famous soldier from Western New York was Ely Parker, a Seneca Indian who was born in 1828 in Indian Falls, then the Tonawanda Reservation, at the hill opposite the now Falconcrest Restaurant. His father, William Parker, a Tonawanda Seneca chief, fought for the states in the war of 1812 against the British. His mother was a granddaughter of "Sos-he-o-wa," the successor of Handsome Lake. Five sons and one daughter were born to them. Ely was the third son. Before he was born his mother had a dream that was interpreted as follows:
A son will be born to you who will be distinguished among his nation as a peacemaker, he will become a white man as well as an Indian. He will be a wise white man, but will never desert his Indian people. His name will reach from the east to the west, the north to the south. His sun will rise on Indian land and set on white man's land. Yet the ancient land of his ancestors
Click on illustrations for larger size
Lee's Surrender
Red Jacket (statue) and Ely Parker memorials at Forest Lawn Cemetery
Ely Parker headstone
Ely's father farmed his land with acres extended to both sides of the Tonawanda Creek, raising fields of corn. Ely once wrote of his father as a fine hunter. William had fine horses and enjoyed horse trading He often made trips to Buffalo, then a trading post 30 miles away, and considered it a mere jaunt. Buffalo in 1825 had a population of 2,412 Batavia was at that time a larger city with 3,352 and was nearer his home; however he preferred going to Buffalo to trade furs he had caught along the Tonawanda.
Travelers ate and slept at Ely's home, and Red Jacket, the famous Indian orator, was often a guest at the Parker home.
Ely learned to read at the mission school at Tonawanda. The mission school was undoubtedly on the Judge Road, still a part of the Reservation on the north end. The missionaries found him an excellent student and eager to learn. Ely studied law and entered his career as a student in the law office of Angel and Rice in Ellicottville, Cattaraugus County. He was not allowed to pass the bar exam.
He studied to become a Civil Engineer. He took a short course at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy and then worked on the Erie Canal. For five years he held the office of resident engineer in Rochester and he was a United States interpreter. Later in 1855, he was appointed chief engineer on the Chesapeake and Albamarie Canal.
In 1857, Parker was appointed superintendent of construction for a custom house and marine hospital in Gaiena, Illinois. He remained in Galena while the building was being constructed and struck up a firm and lasting friendship with a clerk in a harness shop in that town. The name of the clerk was Ulysses S. Grant.
At the outbreak of the Civii War, Ely tried to enlist as an engineer, but was told by Secretary of War, William H. Seward that it was a "white man's war" Later, however, he was given a commission in the union army and was discharged a Brigadier General. He was an aide to General Ulysses S Grant, and it was Ely Parker who wrote the final draft of the surrender terms at Appomattox.
He was the first Indian named Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He died on August 31, 1895 and on January 20, 1897, his remains were buried in Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Red Jacket plot.
Black and white illustration and text source: "The Town of Newstead Septquicentennial 1823-1998" Book
See also:
