Date of Death: November 17, 1896
Isaac Charles Parker (October 15, 1838 – November 17, 1896) Parker was the youngest son of Jane and Joseph Parker. He was born and raised outside Barnesville, in Belmont County, Ohio. Still on the edge of the frontier in the early 1840s, southeastern Ohio was primarily an agricultural area. He served as a U.S. District Judge presiding over the District Court for the Western District of Arkansas for 21 years. He served in that capacity during the most dangerous time for law enforcement during the western expansion. He is remembered today as the legitimate "Hanging Judge" of the American Old West.Due to his loyalty to the Republican party during his four years in Congress, Isaac Parker stood a good chance of receiving an appointment to a government office from the President. In early March, 1875, President Grant forwarded Parker's nomination as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Utah Territory. However, by this time, Parker had submitted a request for appointment as the judge of the federal district court for the Western District of Arkansas, in Fort Smith. On March 18, 1875, the President accordingly nominated Parker. His first task was to reestablish the court's reputation following the corrupt tenure of his predecessor, William Story.
The new judge arrived in Fort Smith on May 4, 1875, having traveled aboard the steamboat Ella Hughes. His family stayed behind in Missouri and joined him in Arkansas later. The judge held court for the first time on May 10, 1875. The court prosecutor was W.H.H. Clayton who President Grant had appointed United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas shortly before appointing Judge Parker. W.H.H. Clayton was the brother of Powell Clayton, who was one of the United States Senators from Arkansas at the time. In the first term of court, eighteen persons came before Judge Parker charged with murder and 15 were convicted. Eight of these men qualified for a mandatory death sentence according to federal law. On September 3, 1875, six men were executed at once on the Fort Smith gallows; an indication that the once corrupt court was functioning once again. One of those sentenced to death was killed trying to escape, and another was commuted to life in prison because of his youth.
The jurisdiction of the Western District of Arkansas included the Indian Territory, which today composes much of the present-day state of Oklahoma. While the legal systems and governments of the five tribes in the Indian Territory covered their own citizens, the federal court protected the rights of American citizens, those of non-Indian heritage, both white and black. Several famous lawmen served as deputy marshals during the Parker court, including Old West gunman Frank Canton, Zeke Proctor, Frank Eaton, Bass Reeves and Heck Thomas.
In 21 years on the bench, Judge Parker tried 13,490 cases, 344 of which were capital crimes. Guilty pleas or convictions were handed down in 9,454 cases. Of the 160 (156 men and 4 women) sentenced to death by hanging, 79 were actually hanged. The rest died in jail, appealed, or were pardoned.