The Connelly family is related to the famous Parker family through the marriage of Elder John Parker’s youngest daughter, Abigail, to Levin Dixon of Dickson County, TN. Their daughter, Sally Dixon Robinson, was Josiah Connelly’s third wife.

The Robinson clan is recorded in History of Crawford and Clark Counties, Illinois, V. II, William Henry Perrin, ed.), as follows:

John Robinson

farmer, P. O. Martinsville, is a representative of the oldest families in the township.  His father, Levin Dixon Robinson, was born in Dixon County, Tenn., January 28, 1819, and was the second son of Richard, and a grandson of Michael Robinson.  The Robinson family came originally from Tennessee.  Here Richard was born, and left his native State in 1821, and settled in Edgar County, this State, and was one of the pioneers of that locality.  In 1836, he removed with his family to this county, and entered 720 acres of land in Parker Township, and remained here until his death, which was in 1843.  His wife's maiden name was Sallie Dixon, a daughter of Levin Dixon, who survived her husband several years.  The children born to them were Abigail, Levin D., James C., Isaac, Nancy R. C., Sereney and Emily.  But two sons are now living: Levin D. and Hon. James C., of Springfield.  Levin D. resides in this township, and is one of the largest land-holders in the township, and ranks among the wealthiest men in the county, as well as one of the most successful farmers.  He was thrice married.  His first wife was Elizabeth Connely, daughter of Josiah. She died leaving six children.  His second marriage was to Melinda Johnson, a daughter of Thomas Johnson.  She died leaving one child, Melinda J.  His last wife was Abarillia Jones, who was born May 9, 1821, in Dixon County, Tenn.  She was a daughter of John Jones and Jane James, both Tennesseeans   Four children by the last marriage, viz.: John, Emily, Priscilla and Levin D.  John, whose name heads this page, is the eldest of this set of children.  He was born July 13, 1849, in this township, and was married December 26, 1872, to Caroline Fish, who was born June 6, 1852, in Morrow County, Ohio, and is a daughter of Robert Fish and Mary Lumm.  Robert Fish was born March 29, 1804, in Loudoun County, Va.  Mary, his wife, was born in 1812.  They came from Virginia to Morrow County, Ohio, and in 1865 moved to this township.  Mrs. Fish died in February, 1880, having raised six children: Joshua, Nancy, Mary, Martha, Caroline and Ella.  Mr. Robinson, since his marriage, has been a resident of the township of which he has served as Supervisor and Collector, and in Democracy is one of the leading lights.  He is a member of the Masonic order, Martinsville, No. 603. He has two children, Jefferson, born May 11, 1879; Mary, September 7, 1882. [p. 153]

The Parkers are important to history in that Elder John Parker served in the Revolutionary War, had as his son the preacher/politician Daniel Parker, and was related to Cynthia Ann Parker, one of the most famous kidnapped children of the new frontier.

The following is about the Parkers’ famous descendant:

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Cynthia Ann Parker, or Nautdah, was an Anglo-Texas woman of Scotch-Irish (heritage) who suffered being kidnapped twice in her lifetime - once from her natural family at the age of nine by a Native American raiding party, and once from her Indian family at the age of 34 by Texas Rangers. Cynthia Ann was a member of the large Parker frontier family that settled in east Texas in the 1830s. She was captured in 1836 by Comanches during the raid of Fort Parker near present-day Groesbeck, Texas.

Cynthia Ann Parker was born 1826 in Crawford County, Illinois, the oldest child of Silas Mercer Parker (1802-1836) and Lucy (Duty) Parker. Her younger siblings were John Richard, Silas Mercer Jr., and Orlena. This family and allied families, led by Silas' father John and brother Daniel, moved from Illinois to Texas in 1833. A large group under the family patriarch, Elder John Parker, settled near the headwaters of the Navasota River in present-day Limestone County. In 1834 they completed Fort Parker for their protection on the frontier. On May 19, 1836, a large force of Comanche and allied warriors attacked the fort, killing five men and capturing two women and three children - Cynthia Ann, her brother John and James Pratt Plummer (son of her first cousin). Cynthia Ann spent almost 25 years among the Comanches. James W. Parker, brother of Silas and uncle of Cynthia Ann, spent much of his life and fortune in what became an obsession of searching for her.

Cynthia Ann was named Nautdah by the Comanches, which means "she carries herself with dignity and grace". She became an adopted member of the tribe and, as her unfortunate return to white society attests², completely embraced "Indian ways". Cynthia Ann married one of her captors, Puhtocnocony (called Peta Nocona by the whites), and they had two sons, Quanah (meaning "smell" or "fragrance") and Pecos (or Peanuts), and a daughter, Topsannah (or Prairie Flower). Peta Nocona became a leader of the Comanches.

In December of 1860, Cynthia Ann and her daughter were among a Native American party captured by Texas Rangers led by “Sul” Ross. At this point she was separated from her husband, who was killed, and her two sons. Though some of the Rangers urged Ross to set her free to return to the Comanches, he considered it best to try to return her to her white family. Ross knew many settlers had lost children to the Indians, and many of them might feel this was their child or relative. Cynthia Ann and her daughter were sent to Camp Cooper, and there she was identified by her uncle, Colonel Isaac Parker. He took her to his home near Birdville. In 1861. the Texas legislature granted her a league of land, a pension of $100 per year for the next five years, and made her cousins, Isaac Duke Parker and Benjamin F. Parker, her legal guardians. Cynthia was unhappy, never adapted to her new life among the whites, and attempted to escape on several occasions. Her brother, Silas Jr., was appointed her guardian in 1862, and took her to his home in Van Zandt County. When Silas was mustered into the Confederate Army, Cynthia Ann went to live with her sister, Orlena. According to some accounts, the Parker family was negotiating to return her to west Texas and her adopted people when the War Between the States broke out. The chief cause of Cynthia Ann's unhappiness was that she missed her sons and never knew what had happened to them. But in 1864, her sorrow was increased, for her daughter, Prairie Flower, caught influenza and died from pneumonia. Cynthia Ann grieved continuously, did not eat well, became sick and died in 1870. She was buried in Fosterville Cemetery in Anderson County near Frankston. Her son, Quanah, moved her body in 1910 to the Post Oak Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma. He was buried there in 1911. She and her son were moved in 1957 to the Fort Sill military cemetery in Oklahoma.

It is undisputed that Cynthia Ann was never happy among her birth family after her forced return to them. It was extremely difficult for whites of that time period to understand that she regarded herself as Commanche, and wanted to go "home." As the decades passed, gradually society began to be able to grasp the sadness of her life, and death, in exile.

• The city of Crowell, Texas, holds the Cynthia Ann Parker Festival annually - a two day celebration to honor the memory of Cynthia Ann Parker. They advertise the event as "a fun and educational weekend showcasing both Native American and European settlers history of the region."

References

• Cynthia Ann Parker: The Life and the Legend, by Margaret S. Hacker

• Frontier Blood: the Saga of the Parker Family, by Jo Ann Powell Exley

Footnotes

• 1. There is much available information or misinformation about Cynthia Ann Parker, placing her birth from 1825 to 1827 in Coles, Clarke or Crawford counties of Illinois, and her death from 1864 to 1871 in Anderson County, Texas. Her presence in the 1870 Anderson County census makes an earlier death date unlikely!

• 2. Writing in the Crowell Index in October 8, 1909, Tom Champion opined, "...I am convinced that the white people did more harm by keeping her away from them than the Indians did by taking her at first."

(This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors.)

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Elder John Parker’s life and times, and his family’s, is detailed by Jo Ella Powell Exley, writing in Frontier Blood: The Saga of the Parker Family:

In 1777, nineteen-year-old John Parker, like many other Baptists, went to fight in the American Revolution. He volunteered in October and served twelve months under Captain Fields in Colonel Slaughter’s Virginia Regiment in General Nathanael Greene’s Brigade. Two years later he returned to find his sweetheart, Sarah (Sallie) White, waiting. She was the daughter of Benjamin White who, according to family legend, was the first county judge of Culpeper County. Sallie and John were married in November of 1779 in his parents’ home. Shortly after the wedding, John was drafted for another twelve months of service, this time under Captain Collier in Colonel William Alexander’s Virginia Regiment. John later stated that during his second year of service he “marched through Winchester Virginia, thence through Benton town, Pennsylvania & was stationed on a peak called ‘Ten Mile,’” and that he was in no “engagement with the enemy.” After the war John returned home, and on April 6, 1781, the Parkers’ first child was born. John and Sallie gave him the name of Daniel.

The Parkers were probably subsistence farmers . . . Daniel grew up in a highly charged religious atmosphere since . . . his father was a Predestinarian minister. (The Parkers moved to Georgia in about 1785.)

Before moving to Illinois, (Daniel) had bought land in Robertson, Dickson, and Sumner counties in Tennessee and in Logan County, Kentucky . . . During the time Daniel spent in Illinois, he continued to buy and sell land, accumulating a considerable amount in Crawford, Clark, and Coles counties.

Dan B. Wimberly notes in his “Frontier Religion: Elder Daniel Parker, His Religious and Political Life,” that “In 1817 Parker, his father, and brothers James W. and Isaac had settled approximately twelve miles north of Palestine in present-day Clark County.”

The other members of the prolific Parker clan also prospered. They built their log cabins and settled in and around Crawford County. In about 1824, Elder John, Sallie, and other members of the family moved to present-day Coles County, where they were the first white settlers. According to family legend, Elder John preached the first sermon in Coles County in a small log cabin. The entire adult white population of the county was there – all eleven of them, all Parkers. Elder John called himself a “Two-seed Baptist traveling preacher” . . . (he) preached all over Illinois.

For many years the lives of the Lincolns and the Parkers were parallel, and they were surely acquainted. The two families had lived in adjacent counties in Virginia during the time of the Revolutionary War. Later, Crawford County, Illinois, which was the home of most of Elder John Parker’s clan from 1817 to 1833, was only sixty miles from Spencer County, Indiana, where Abraham Lincoln and his family lived from 1816 to 1830. (The Lincolns’ final cabin was near Charleston, IL., in Coles County.) Both families were Predestinarian Baptists.

According to “Coles County History,” John Parker and his sons, Daniel, Benjamin, Silas, George and James, and their families, settled in 1824 in what is now Hutton Township.

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