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{{Short description|American judge}}
{{Infobox Person
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2023}}
|name = Amasa Junius Parker
{{Infobox officeholder
|image =
|birthname = Amasa Junius Parker
|image_size =
|caption = Amasa Junius Parker |image = Amasa Junius Parker (US Congressman from New York).jpg
|caption = From 1897's ''Delaware County, New York; History of the Century, 1797-1897''
|birth_name = Amasa Junius Parker
|office1 = Member of the<br>]<br>from ]'s {{ushr|NY|20|
|birth_date = 2 June 1807
20th district}}
|term_start1 = March 4, 1837
|term_end1 = March 3, 1839
|predecessor1 = ]
|successor1 = ]
|office2 = Justice of the ]'s Third District
|term_start2 = June 7, 1847
|term_end2 = December 31, 1855
|alongside2 = ]<br/>]<br/>Malbone Watson
|predecessor2 = None (Position created)
|successor2 = George Gould
|office3 = Judge of New York State's ]
|term_start3 = March 6, 1844
|term_end3 = June 6, 1847
|predecessor3 = ]
|successor3 = None (Position abolished)
|office4 = Member of the ] for the ]
|term_start4 = January 20, 1835
|term_end4 = May 4, 1844
|predecessor4 = ]
|successor4 = ]
|office5 = Member of the ] from ]
|term_start5 = January 1, 1834
|term_end5 = December 31, 1834
|alongside5 = ]
|predecessor5 = ]<br/>Stoddard Stevens
|successor5 = Dubois Burhans<br/>]
|office6 = ] of ]
|term_start6 = 1833
|term_end6 = 1836
|predecessor6 = ]
|successor6 = ]
|birth_date = {{birth date|1807|6|2|mf=y}}
|birth_place = Sharon, Connecticut |birth_place = Sharon, Connecticut
|death_date = 13 May 1890 |death_date = {{death date and age|1890|5|13|1807|6|2|mf=y}}
|death_place = Albany, New York |death_place = Albany, New York
|resting_place = ], ]
|body_discovered =
|death_cause = |nationality = American
|resting_place = Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York |alma_mater = ], ]
|occupation = Attorney
|resting_place_coordinates =
|spouse = {{Marriage|Harriet Langdon Roberts|August 27, 1834}}
|residence =
}}
|nationality = United States
'''Amasa Junius Parker''' (June 2, 1807{{spaced ndash}}May 13, 1890) was a ] American attorney, politician and judge from ]. He is most notable for his service as a member of the ] (1834), a ] (1837-1839), and a justice of the ] (1847-1855).
|ethnicity =
|citizenship =
|other_names =
|known_for =
|education =
|alma_mater =
|employer =
|occupation = ]
|years_active =


==Early life==
}}'''Amasa Junius Parker''' (], ] ] - ], ] ]) was a ] from ] and a justice of the ].
Amasa Junius Parker was born in ] on June 2, 1807, the son of Anna (née Fenn) and Rev. Daniel Parker.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=157}} His father was a Congregational clergyman, and also a teacher in ], and elsewhere.{{sfn|''Appleton's Encyclopedia''}} Parker's family moved to ], in 1816, where he was instructed by his father and several private tutors.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=157}} At age 16 in 1823, he was hired as a teacher and principal of Hudson's academy, where he worked until 1827.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=157}} In 1825, Parker underwent a comprehensive examination at ] which covered the curriculum of the school's entire four year program.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=157}} He passed easily, and received his degree as a member of that year's graduating class.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=157}} In 1827, he began the ] with attorney ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=157}} He completed his studies in the ] office of his uncle Amasa Parker, was ] in 1828, and commenced practice in partnership with his uncle.{{sfn|''Appleton's Encyclopedia''}}


==Life== ==Start of career==
Parker grew a law practice that expanded to cover several counties adjacent to Delhi, and frequently appeared in both the state circuit and chancery courts.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} A ], in 1833, he was elected ] of ], and he served until 1836.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}}{{sfn|''Delaware County, New York''|page=77}}


Parker was a member of the ] (Delaware Co.) in 1834 (the ]).{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} He was elected a ] of the ] in 1834, the youngest person ever elected to the board, and he served from 1835 to 1844.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}}
He moved with his parents to ], in 1816. He was taught by private tutors and graduated from ], ], in 1825. He was the principal of Hudson (New York) Academy from 1823 to 1827. Later he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1828, and commenced practice in ]. He was a member of the ] in 1833 and 1834. He was a regent of the ] from 1835 to 1844.


==Congressman==
Parker was elected as a ] to the Twenty-fifth Congress (], ]-], ]). Afterwards he resumed the practice of law. In 1844, he moved to ] and served as vice chancellor and circuit judge from 1844 to 1847. In 1847 he was elected a justice of the ] for the third district, and in 1853 became one of the supreme court justices sitting on the ], holding both offices until 1855. He was one of the founders of the Albany (New York) Law School in 1851. He was twice defeated as a ] candidate for ], in 1856 by ] ], and in 1858 by ] ]. He served as delegate to the ] of 1867 and 1868.
Parker was elected to the ] as the representative from ] and ] counties, and served from March 4, 1837 to March 3, 1839.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} A supporter of President ], initiatives and issues on which Parker worked while in Congress included Van Buren's unsuccessful ] bill (which passed in 1840), the Mississippi election case (which resulted in two Democratic House members being supplanted by ]), the operations of the ] and its processes for disposing of public land, and the House's response to the duel between ] and ], which ended in Cilley's death.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} After leaving Congress, Parker resumed the practice of law.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} In 1839, he was a candidate for the ], and lost a close race to ].{{sfn|''Delaware County, New York''|page=185}}


==Judge==
His wife was Harriet Langdon Roberts, granddaughter of ], one of New Hampshire's representatives to the ]. They had four children, among them Mary Parker who married Erastus Corning (1827-1897) and was the mother of ] .
===Circuit court===
In 1844, Parker moved to ] to accept appointment as judge of the ]' Third Circuit, a post he held until the circuit courts were abolished in 1847.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} Parker presided at the 1845 trial of ] ("Big Thunder"), a leader of the tenants during the ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} Parker declared a mistrial, and the retrial was heard by ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} the second trial resulted in a conviction, and Boughton receiving a life sentence, which was later commuted by Governor ], who had been elected with the support of the tenants.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}}


===State supreme court===
He was buried at the ].
Parker was elected to the ] (Third district) in 1847, and he served until 1855.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} In 1854, he was one of the '']'' judges of the ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} Among his cases on the Court of Appeals was S''nedeker v. Warring'', a landmark case in the field of ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} The central question was whether a large, ornamental statue on a country estate should be considered ] or ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}} Parker's opinion concluded that the statue was real property, and was sustained by a vote of 5 to 2.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=159}}


The Whig Party had disintegrated by 1855, and when Parker ran for reelection, he was opposed by a candidate of the new ], George Gould, and Ambrose Z. Jordan, the candidate of the short-lived ] Party.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=160}} Gould narrowly defeated Parker, who left the bench at the end of his term.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=160}}
==Source==

==Later career==
]
After leaving the bench, Parker resumed practicing law in Albany, and founded a partnership that included former judge Edwin Countryman and Parker's son ]{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=160}} Among his well known cases was his successful argument to the ] that national banks were subject to state taxation.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=160}}

Parker was one of the founders of the ] in 1851, and he was a member of the school's faculty for over twenty years.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=160}} He was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for ] twice, losing to Republicans ] in 1856 and ] in 1858.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=160}} During the administrations of New York's Democratic governors, Parker declined several offers to reappoint him to the bench, and during the presidential administration of ] he declined appointment as ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=160}}

During the period before the ], Parker remained loyal to the Democratic Party and advocated a moderate course in the hope that concessions on the slavery issue would avoid bloodshed.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}} In 1861, he was the permanent chairman of the state Democratic convention.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}} Once the war started, he supported the ], but argued against what he saw as the excesses of the ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}} In 1864, he successfully argued the case of ''Palin v. Murray'' in ], obtaining a judgment for the plaintiff on the grounds of false imprisonment by federal authorities.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}} The case was later moved to the federal courts, where it was decided in Palin's favor by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1869.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}}

In 1867, Parker was a delegate to the ] of 1867.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=160}} He was heavily involved in committees that considered reorganization of the state courts, and successfully advocated abolition of the chancery courts, and the vesting of both ] and ] powers in the same courts.{{sfn|''Appleton's Encyclopedia''}} In 1868, Parker took on a rare criminal defense case and obtained an acquittal for ] on the grounds of temporary insanity after Cole shot and killed ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=160}} In the early 1870s, Parker declined the large retainer offered to defend ] during Tweed's trials for corruption.{{sfn|"Obituary, Amasa J. Parker"|page=7}} In his later years, Parker compiled, edited and published six volumes of reports on criminal cases, and took part with several colleagues in publishing a revised edition of New York's state statutes.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|pages=160-161}}

Parker was a longtime promoter of higher education, and served as a trustee or board of governors member of several institutions, including Union College, ], ], and the ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}} While serving in the Assembly in 1834, Parker advocated the creation of a state hospital for the insane.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}} When the facility was finally established as the ] in the 1860s, Parker was appointed to its board of trustees, and he served until 1881.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}}

===Harmanus Bleecker Library===
When ] died in 1848, he left his ] to his much younger wife with the stipulation that, upon her death, the money would be spent to benefit the city of Albany.{{sfn|''Bleecker Fund''|pages=13-14}} She survived him by almost 40 years, and the ] of her estate decided the $130,000 ({{formatprice|{{inflation|US|130000|1887|r=-3}}}} in modern dollars{{Inflation-fn|US}}) would best be spent to benefit the Young Men's Association, an organization Bleecker had strongly supported, including service on its board of directors.{{sfn|''Bleecker Fund''|pages=19-21}} Under the terms of Bleecker's will, Parker and ] were involved in disposing of his estate, which resulted in construction of Harmanus Bleecker Hall, a library and theater complex, which was built in 1889.{{sfn|''National Register of Historic Places Registration''}} In 1919, the board of the Young Men's Association decided it would be better off with a structure dedicated purely for use as a library.{{sfn|''National Register of Historic Places Registration''}} It sold the hall and used the proceeds to build ].{{sfn|''National Register of Historic Places Registration''}} The association ]ed the library building to the city in 1924.{{sfn|''National Register of Historic Places Registration''}} It was the first library building in the city, and the beginning of Albany's current public library system.{{sfn|''National Register of Historic Places Registration''}} The library later relocated to other facilities, and the Bleecker library building was eventually redeveloped as commercial office space.{{sfn|''National Register of Historic Places Registration''}}

==Death and burial==
Parker continued to practice law into his old age, and argued a case before the state Court of Appeals the week before his death.{{sfn|"Obituary, Amasa J. Parker"|page=7}} He died in Albany on May 13, 1890.{{sfn|"Obituary, Amasa J. Parker"|page=7}} He was buried at ], Section 54, Lot 8.{{sfn|"Albany Rural Cemetery Burial Cards"}}

==Honors==
In 1846, Parker received the ] of ] from ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=158}}

==Family==
On August 27, 1834 Parker married Harriet Langdon Roberts, a daughter of ] and granddaughter of ].{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}} Among their children were: ]; Mary Parker, who married Erastus Corning (1827–1897) and was the mother of ] and ] and grandmother of ] and ]; Anna Fenn Parker (1840–1909), the second wife of ]; and Katharine Langdon Parker, the wife of New York Militia General Selden E. Marvin.{{sfn|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''|page=161}}

==Works==
* (1860)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
===Books===
*{{cite book |last1=Howell |first1=George Rogers |last2=Tenney |first2=Jonathan |date=1886 |title=Bi-centennial History of Albany |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924080795127/page/n205 |location=New York, NY |publisher=W. W. Munsell & Co. |ref={{sfnRef|''Bi-centennial History of Albany''}}}}
*{{cite book |last=Murray |first=David |date=1897 |title=Delaware County, New York; History of the Century, 1797-1897 |url=https://archive.org/details/delawarecountyne00murr/page/76 |location=Delhi, NY |publisher=W. Clark |ref={{sfnRef|''Delaware County, New York''}}}}
*{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Parker, Amasa Junius|year=1900|ref={{sfnRef|''Appleton's Encyclopedia''}}}}
*{{cite book |last=Young Men's Association for Mutual Improvement |date=1888 |title=Sketch of the Lives of Harmanus Bleecker and Sebastiana Cornelia Coster; With a History of the Gift of the "Bleecker Fund" to the Young Men's Association |url=https://archive.org/details/youngmensassocia00youn_0 |location=Albany, NY |publisher=Weed, Parsons & Company |ref={{sfnRef|''Bleecker Fund''}}}}

===Newspapers===
*{{cite news |publication-date=May 14, 1890 |date=1890-05-13 |title=Obituary: Ex-Judge Amasa J. Parker |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122694302/obituary-ex-judge-amasa-j-parker/ |newspaper=] |location=Albany |via=] |ref={{sfnRef|"Obituary, Amasa J. Parker"}}}}

===Internet===
*{{cite web|url=http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=574|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: Harmanus Bleecker Library|date=October 1995|access-date=2010-10-13|author=Lee Pinckney III and John A. Bonafide|publisher=]|ref={{sfnRef|''National Register of Historic Places Registration''}}|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111210125250/http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=574|archive-date=2011-12-10|url-status=dead}}
*{{cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.com/ |title=Albany Rural Cemetery Burial Cards, 1791-2011, Entry for Amasa J. Parker |last=Albany Rural Cemetery |date=May 16, 1890 |website=Ancestry.com |publisher=Ancestry.com LLC |location=Lehi, UT |url-access=subscription |access-date=May 16, 2019 |ref={{sfnRef|"Albany Rural Cemetery Burial Cards"}}}}

==External links==
{{CongBio|P000054}} {{CongBio|P000054}}
*{{Find a Grave|7640419}}
* at Historical Society of the New York Courts
* at The Political Graveyard

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{{s-ttl|title=] nominee for ]|years=], ]}}
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{{US House succession box |
state=New York |
district=20 |
district_ord=20th |
before=] |
after=] |
years=1837-1839
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Bioguide}}

{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Amasa Junius}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Amasa Junius}}
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Latest revision as of 22:59, 8 December 2024

American judge

Amasa J. Parker
From 1897's Delaware County, New York; History of the Century, 1797-1897
Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 20th district
In office
March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1839
Preceded byWilliam Seymour
Succeeded byJudson Allen
Justice of the New York Supreme Court's Third District
In office
June 7, 1847 – December 31, 1855Serving with William B. Wright
Ira Harris
Malbone Watson
Preceded byNone (Position created)
Succeeded byGeorge Gould
Judge of New York State's Third Circuit Court
In office
March 6, 1844 – June 6, 1847
Preceded byJohn P. Cushman
Succeeded byNone (Position abolished)
Member of the Board of Regents for the University of the State of New York
In office
January 20, 1835 – May 4, 1844
Preceded bySimeon De Witt
Succeeded byJames S. Wadsworth
Member of the New York State Assembly from Delaware County
In office
January 1, 1834 – December 31, 1834Serving with Samuel Gordon
Preceded byJohn Edgerton
Stoddard Stevens
Succeeded byDubois Burhans
William B. Ogden
District Attorney of Delaware County, New York
In office
1833–1836
Preceded byNoadiah Johnson
Succeeded bySamuel Gordon
Personal details
BornAmasa Junius Parker
(1807-06-02)June 2, 1807
Sharon, Connecticut
DiedMay 13, 1890(1890-05-13) (aged 82)
Albany, New York
Resting placeAlbany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York
NationalityAmerican
Spouse Harriet Langdon Roberts ​ ​(m. 1834)
Alma materUnion College, Schenectady, New York
OccupationAttorney

Amasa Junius Parker (June 2, 1807 – May 13, 1890) was a 19th Century American attorney, politician and judge from New York. He is most notable for his service as a member of the New York State Assembly (1834), a U.S. Representative (1837-1839), and a justice of the New York Supreme Court (1847-1855).

Early life

Amasa Junius Parker was born in Sharon, Connecticut on June 2, 1807, the son of Anna (née Fenn) and Rev. Daniel Parker. His father was a Congregational clergyman, and also a teacher in Greenville, New York, and elsewhere. Parker's family moved to Hudson, New York, in 1816, where he was instructed by his father and several private tutors. At age 16 in 1823, he was hired as a teacher and principal of Hudson's academy, where he worked until 1827. In 1825, Parker underwent a comprehensive examination at Union College which covered the curriculum of the school's entire four year program. He passed easily, and received his degree as a member of that year's graduating class. In 1827, he began the study of law with attorney John W. Edmonds. He completed his studies in the Delhi office of his uncle Amasa Parker, was admitted to the bar in 1828, and commenced practice in partnership with his uncle.

Start of career

Parker grew a law practice that expanded to cover several counties adjacent to Delhi, and frequently appeared in both the state circuit and chancery courts. A Democrat, in 1833, he was elected District Attorney of Delaware County, and he served until 1836.

Parker was a member of the New York State Assembly (Delaware Co.) in 1834 (the 57th New York State Legislature). He was elected a regent of the University of the State of New York in 1834, the youngest person ever elected to the board, and he served from 1835 to 1844.

Congressman

Parker was elected to the 25th United States Congress as the representative from Delaware and Broome counties, and served from March 4, 1837 to March 3, 1839. A supporter of President Martin Van Buren, initiatives and issues on which Parker worked while in Congress included Van Buren's unsuccessful Independent Treasury bill (which passed in 1840), the Mississippi election case (which resulted in two Democratic House members being supplanted by Whigs), the operations of the United States General Land Office and its processes for disposing of public land, and the House's response to the duel between Jonathan Cilley and William J. Graves, which ended in Cilley's death. After leaving Congress, Parker resumed the practice of law. In 1839, he was a candidate for the New York State Senate, and lost a close race to Erastus Root.

Judge

Circuit court

In 1844, Parker moved to Albany, New York to accept appointment as judge of the New York State Circuit Courts' Third Circuit, a post he held until the circuit courts were abolished in 1847. Parker presided at the 1845 trial of Smith A. Boughton ("Big Thunder"), a leader of the tenants during the Anti-Rent War. Parker declared a mistrial, and the retrial was heard by John W. Edmonds. the second trial resulted in a conviction, and Boughton receiving a life sentence, which was later commuted by Governor John Young, who had been elected with the support of the tenants.

State supreme court

Parker was elected to the New York Supreme Court (Third district) in 1847, and he served until 1855. In 1854, he was one of the ex officio judges of the New York Court of Appeals. Among his cases on the Court of Appeals was Snedeker v. Warring, a landmark case in the field of fixtures law. The central question was whether a large, ornamental statue on a country estate should be considered real property or personal property. Parker's opinion concluded that the statue was real property, and was sustained by a vote of 5 to 2.

The Whig Party had disintegrated by 1855, and when Parker ran for reelection, he was opposed by a candidate of the new Republican Party, George Gould, and Ambrose Z. Jordan, the candidate of the short-lived Know Nothing Party. Gould narrowly defeated Parker, who left the bench at the end of his term.

Later career

Parker as depicted in Volume 3 (1911) of Legal and Judicial History of New York

After leaving the bench, Parker resumed practicing law in Albany, and founded a partnership that included former judge Edwin Countryman and Parker's son Amasa J. Parker Jr. Among his well known cases was his successful argument to the United States Supreme Court that national banks were subject to state taxation.

Parker was one of the founders of the Albany (New York) Law School in 1851, and he was a member of the school's faculty for over twenty years. He was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of New York twice, losing to Republicans John Alsop King in 1856 and Edwin D. Morgan in 1858. During the administrations of New York's Democratic governors, Parker declined several offers to reappoint him to the bench, and during the presidential administration of James Buchanan he declined appointment as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

During the period before the American Civil War, Parker remained loyal to the Democratic Party and advocated a moderate course in the hope that concessions on the slavery issue would avoid bloodshed. In 1861, he was the permanent chairman of the state Democratic convention. Once the war started, he supported the Union, but argued against what he saw as the excesses of the Lincoln administration. In 1864, he successfully argued the case of Palin v. Murray in Greene County, obtaining a judgment for the plaintiff on the grounds of false imprisonment by federal authorities. The case was later moved to the federal courts, where it was decided in Palin's favor by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1869.

In 1867, Parker was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867. He was heavily involved in committees that considered reorganization of the state courts, and successfully advocated abolition of the chancery courts, and the vesting of both law and equity powers in the same courts. In 1868, Parker took on a rare criminal defense case and obtained an acquittal for George W. Cole on the grounds of temporary insanity after Cole shot and killed L. Harris Hiscock. In the early 1870s, Parker declined the large retainer offered to defend William Tweed during Tweed's trials for corruption. In his later years, Parker compiled, edited and published six volumes of reports on criminal cases, and took part with several colleagues in publishing a revised edition of New York's state statutes.

Parker was a longtime promoter of higher education, and served as a trustee or board of governors member of several institutions, including Union College, Cornell University, Albany Medical College, and the Albany Female Academy. While serving in the Assembly in 1834, Parker advocated the creation of a state hospital for the insane. When the facility was finally established as the Hudson River State Hospital in the 1860s, Parker was appointed to its board of trustees, and he served until 1881.

Harmanus Bleecker Library

When Harmanus Bleecker died in 1848, he left his estate to his much younger wife with the stipulation that, upon her death, the money would be spent to benefit the city of Albany. She survived him by almost 40 years, and the executor of her estate decided the $130,000 (4.41 million in modern dollars) would best be spent to benefit the Young Men's Association, an organization Bleecker had strongly supported, including service on its board of directors. Under the terms of Bleecker's will, Parker and John V. L. Pruyn were involved in disposing of his estate, which resulted in construction of Harmanus Bleecker Hall, a library and theater complex, which was built in 1889. In 1919, the board of the Young Men's Association decided it would be better off with a structure dedicated purely for use as a library. It sold the hall and used the proceeds to build Harmanus Bleecker Library. The association deeded the library building to the city in 1924. It was the first library building in the city, and the beginning of Albany's current public library system. The library later relocated to other facilities, and the Bleecker library building was eventually redeveloped as commercial office space.

Death and burial

Parker continued to practice law into his old age, and argued a case before the state Court of Appeals the week before his death. He died in Albany on May 13, 1890. He was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery, Section 54, Lot 8.

Honors

In 1846, Parker received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Geneva College.

Family

On August 27, 1834 Parker married Harriet Langdon Roberts, a daughter of Edmund Roberts and granddaughter of Woodbury Langdon. Among their children were: Amasa J. Parker Jr.; Mary Parker, who married Erastus Corning (1827–1897) and was the mother of Edwin Corning and Parker Corning and grandmother of Erastus Corning 2nd and Edwin Corning Jr.; Anna Fenn Parker (1840–1909), the second wife of John V. L. Pruyn; and Katharine Langdon Parker, the wife of New York Militia General Selden E. Marvin.

Works

References

  1. ^ Bi-centennial History of Albany, p. 157.
  2. ^ Appleton's Encyclopedia.
  3. ^ Bi-centennial History of Albany, p. 158.
  4. Delaware County, New York, p. 77.
  5. Delaware County, New York, p. 185.
  6. Bi-centennial History of Albany, p. 159.
  7. ^ Bi-centennial History of Albany, p. 160.
  8. ^ Bi-centennial History of Albany, p. 161.
  9. ^ "Obituary, Amasa J. Parker", p. 7.
  10. Bi-centennial History of Albany, pp. 160–161.
  11. Bleecker Fund, pp. 13–14.
  12. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  13. Bleecker Fund, pp. 19–21.
  14. ^ National Register of Historic Places Registration.
  15. "Albany Rural Cemetery Burial Cards".

Sources

Books

Newspapers

Internet

External links

Party political offices
Preceded byHoratio Seymour Democratic nominee for Governor of New York
1856, 1858
Succeeded byWilliam Kelly
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded byWilliam Seymour Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 20th congressional district

1837-1839
Succeeded byJudson Allen

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

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