The odyssey that led the Parker clan to the edge of the Texas frontier started far to the east, in the state of Virginia. John Parker, leader of a fundamentalist Baptist church, married Sally White just after the revolutionary war. Their nomadic journey led them to Georgia, Tennessee, and finally Illinois, always looking for more and better land.
During these years, John and Sally had 14 children. Silas Mercer Parker, youngest of the Parker boys, was born in 1802 in Tennessee. He grew to

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows