MRS. RACHEL T. PARKER
Mrs. Mamie Hawley Jones, descendant.
In the Daily Caller of July 16, 1906, there appeared the following obituary:
“Mrs. Rachel T. Parker was born in Green County, Ill., on April 24, 1822, and was 84 years of age at the time of her death in Corpus Christi, Texas, Sunday morning July 15, 1906.
“In 1843 she married Mr. Tom S. Parker of Fort Gibson, I. T., from which place they moved to Corpus Christi in the early part of 1845. While Taylor’s army was encamped in Corpus Christi, Mr. Parker was given the contract to supply beef for the soldiers, and he and his wife accompanied the troops to Camargo, Mexico, where they remained until the cessation of hostilities. Mr. Parker made the flag for Taylor’s Army which was used at the battle of Buena Vista.
“After the Mexican War Mr. and Mrs. Parker returned to Corpus Christi and, like the other pioneers of the Bluff City, went through the troublous times of the early days. Mrs. Parker knew the early history of Corpus Christi well and many were the interesting reminiscences told by her to the generations of our day. During the War Between the States she remained in Corpus Christi, her husband being employed in Mexico. During the yellow fever epidemic in 1867 Mrs. Parker lost one of her sons from the dread malady but did all in her power to alleviate the sufferings of other stricken citizens. Her husband died in 1887 but she continued to make her home in Corpus Christi where she had resided at the time of her death 61 years.
“Mrs. Parker was the mother of 12 children, 10 boys and two girls.â€
Mrs. Parker is buried in the Old Bay View Mexican War Military Cemetery. Here lies buried the dust of those brave soldier lads who came at the call of their country and the Republic of Texas to defend the boundary line of Texas. Here then came Mr. and Mrs. Parker to give their services to their country also. Seventeen of Zachary Taylor’s army caused establishment of the first U. S. military cemetery in the state of Texas by giving their young lives in a terrific explosion of an old steamboat used to convey Taylor’s army through the flats to the mainland.
No doubt Mrs. Parker, like all other American and Texas patriots, grieved to see so many potential great citizens lost to their country and their families before they had landed to defend Texas-claimed soil.
Speaking of loss to their families, faraway in many Northern homes mothers were looking for letters from their boys telling of safe arrival in the land of the Texans. One boy wrote home while en route to Texas: “We have had a very pleasant passage on the whole 14 days. Ice was scarce when we reached Texas waters, and we looked forward to a change of diet from mush, which seemed to be the favorite food for men at sea.†This New York soldier reached land, while others perished. Here they lie who died for Texas and “none so poor to do them reverence†with a monument or a beautiful park to mark their last resting place.
Mrs. Parker returned to Corpus Christi, having followed the fortunes of the soldiers in Taylor’s army throughout its career in Mexico. Here she lived and here she died, and it was fitting to place her body in the tomb near the spot made hallowed by the Mexican War soldiers. — Ref. Times, Feb. 19, 1936.
Source:
De Garmo, Mrs. Frank. Pathfinders of Texas, 1836-1846. Austin: Press of Von Boeckmann-Jones, Co., 1951.
Transcription by: Rosa G. Gonzales