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John P. Parker John P. Parker was born in Norfolk, Virginia , the son of a white father and a slave mother. He was sold to a slave agent from Richmond, Virginia at age eight, who then sold him to a slave caravan that took him to Mobile, Alabama. In Mobile, Parker was purchased by a physician who employed him as a household servant, where Parker was taught to read and write. In 1843 the sixteen year old Parker accompanied the physician's sons north to attend college; however, Parker returned to Mobile when the owner feared the slave would escape to the north. In Mobile Parker was apprenticed to series of craftsmen in foundry and iron manufactures and learned the trade of plasterer. After attempting to escape to New Orleans following abuse by one of the plasters he was apprenticed, Parker was discovered as a riverboat stowaway and returned to the physician. In Mobile once again Parker was apprenticed to a molder at a local iron foundry where he became a competent molder. Parker's skill as a molder maker caused ill will with his fellow workers, which saw him transfer to a New Orleans foundry. His productive zeal again alienated his co-workers and Parker was dismissed from the New Orleans foundry. Fearing that he would become a field hand, Parker worked for two years at a foundry and the New Orleans docks as a stevedore and purchased his freedom from his earnings. The price of freedom for John P. Parker in 1845 was $1800. In 1845, Parker obtained a pass to travel north to Indiana, where he was lured by the work offered in foundries near New Albany or Jefferson, Indiana. Near Cincinnati, Parker began his career as a &qout;conductor&qout; on the Underground Railroad. Helping a local Negro barber, Parker was able to remove two young girls from Kentucky to freedom in Indiana and Ohio. &qout;He devoted his life to forays in Kentucky, to scouting on both sides of the Ohio River, to taking care of the helpless slaves who had found their way to Ohio and could not get across, to actual fighting for them and against their pursuing masters.&qout; (Source p.159) Around 1848 Parker left Cincinnati where he had worked in the molder's trade and opened a small general store in Beachwood Factory, Ohio. In 1850 he moved to Ripley, Ohio, which was also the home of Reverend John Rankin, abolitionist and operator of the Underground Railroad. Parker worked independently of Rankin and before the Emancipation Proclamation, taking an active role in removing an estimated 1000 slaves from bondage. Unlike other abolitionists Parker remained separate from organized church groups, which he viewed as an 'enemy of the people.' ( In 1854 Parker erected a small foundry near Ripley, Ohio, where he produced both special and general castings. The small shop grew into a large foundry were at its peak employed up to twenty-five men. Following federal approval of colored troops for Union service in 1863, Parker became a recruiter for the 27th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops (one of two Ohio units). Parker's foundry also furnish castings to the war effort.. Parker's business, which was known as the Ripley Foundry and Machine Company, manufactured slide valve engines and reapers. In 1871 an establishment known as the Phoneix Foundry with John P. Parker and William Hood, proprietors, was listed in the records of Brown County, Ohio. [Source: Carl N. Thompson, compiler. Historical Collections of Brown County, Ohio (n.p., 1969), pp.162, 165, 167, 190.)] The foundry was still operating in 1981, though no longer under family ownership. Parker remained in the foundry business until his death in January 30, 1900. Summary: Inventor. One of few blacks to obtain patents in the United States before 1900 for a screw for tobacco presses in 1884 and a similar one a year later. Established a business named Ripley Foundry and Machine Company, Ripley, Ohio.
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