Frank W. Parker

Frank Wilson Parker (October 16, 1860 – August 3, 1932) was an American judge who served on the New Mexico Supreme Court for 35 years, from its territorial period to after statehood.

Parker was born in Sturgis, Michigan, to James W. Parker and Maria Antoinette (Thompson). He earned a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Michigan Law School in 1880, and practiced law for a year in Sturgis before moving to Mesilla in New Mexico Territory in 1881. He moved in 1882 to Kingston, a mining town in Sierra County, and then to Hillsboro in 1883. He served as the Sierra County school superintendent from 1887 to 1889. He was reappointed to the Territorial Supreme Court by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 and 1905, and by William Howard Taft in 1909. While serving as a territorial district court judge, he presided over two trials that received national publicity. In 1899, ranchers Oliver Lee and Jim Gilliland were charged with the murder of lawyer and Republican politician Albert J. Fountain and his son, three years after their disappearance. In 1909, Parker presided over the trial of Jesse Wayne Brazel, this time for the murder of Garrett. Fall again represented the defendant, and again obtained an acquittal.

In 1923, the New Mexico State Tribune, a pro-Democratic newspaper, suggested that Parker had misused court funds. The paper's editor and publisher, Carl Magee, was subsequently tried and convicted of criminal libel.

Parker was married twice. He married Lillian L. Kinney on September 28, 1892; she died on August 11, 1893. They had one daughter, Rosamond Lillian. On October 26, 1904, he married Anna Davis, with whom he had a son, Frank Wilson, Jr. He was a freemason and a member of the Elks Lodge. Parker is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Santa Fe.