• Rifle Regiment arriving at Belle Point, 1817. Artwork by Michael Haynes

    Fort Smith

    National Historic Site AR,OK

Biography of Judge Parker

I am the most misunderstood and misrepresented of men. Misrepresented because misunderstood. '"
-Judge Isaac C. Parker, 1896

Remembered today simply as 'the Hanging Judge,' Isaac Parker grew up on an Ohio farm, became a frontier attorney, and had a thirty-five year career in public service. He served as a city attorney, state judge, two-term representative to Congress, and for twenty-one years was a federal district judge in Fort Smith.

The following links provide a brief glimpse into the details of the life of this "most misunderstood of men."

Click here to start with Parker's early years in Ohio.

  • A Loss to City, State, and Nation A Loss to City, State, and Nation

    Local Obituary of Judge Parker Read More

  • Letters of Judge Isaac C. Parker Letters of Judge Isaac C. Parker

    letters and other documents written by Parker Read More

  • Law Enforcement at Fort Smith Law Enforcement at Fort Smith

    Unpublished manuscript by former NPS Historian Edwin C. Bearss on federal court period.

  • U.S. Deputy Marshals U.S. Deputy Marshals

    The federal court employed deputy marshals, baliffs, jailers, and other court personnel. Read More

Did You Know?

deputy marshals pose with their rifles for a formal portrait

Fort Smith National Historic Site has records of over 1,770 people employed by the Federal Court for the Western District of Arkansas from 1872-1896.  The majority of these employees were U.S. Deputy Marshals.