James W. Parker

James William Parker (July 4, 1797 – 1864) was the uncle of Cynthia Ann Parker and the great-uncle of Quanah Parker, principal chief of the Comanche. A man of English American descent, he was a member of the large Parker frontier family that settled in east Texas in the 1830s.

Parker was present in 1836 during the raid of Fort Parker by Comanches and allied tribes near present-day Groesbeck, Texas. During that raid, his daughter Rachel Plummer, his grandson James Plummer, his niece Cynthia Ann Parker, and his nephew John Richard Parker were kidnapped by a Native American raiding party. Parker made the search for his family a lifetime obsession. For nine years he roamed the Comancheria searching for his lost relatives.

Birth and early years

James W. Parker was born July 4, 1797, in northeast Georgia, probably in Franklin County, Georgia1 or Elbert County, the son of Elder John Parker (1758-1836) and Sally (White) Parker. He had twelve siblings, including younger brothers Silas Mercer Parker, and Benjamin Parker. His older brother Daniel Parker became a famous country preacher. After living his first six years in Georgia, Parker moved with his family to Dickson County, Tennessee in the summer of 1803. His brother Silas had raised and become captain of a local Texas Ranger company, which James felt could attract the anger of Indians who felt abused by the Rangers.

Although he stopped his personal search for his niece and nephew, Parker never stopped giving money to those claiming they had seen Cynthia Ann, his niece.

Historians and film critics have speculated on the inspiration for the character of Ethan Edwards in the John Ford movie The Searchers, with many saying that the character was based on James Parker. Critics and historians noted that James W. Parker, Cynthia Ann's uncle, spent much of his life and fortune in what became an obsessive search for his niece, like Ethan Edwards in the film. In addition, the "rescue" of Cynthia Ann, during a Texas Ranger attack on the village where she lived, resembles the rescue of Debbie Edwards when the Texas Rangers attack Scar's village.

The Searchers movie inspired a number of American filmmakers and screenwriters, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Milius, Curtis Hanson, and Paul Schrader, all of whom grew up watching the film and have testified to its influence over their own filmmaking. Glenn Frankel suggests that Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver probably comes the closest to re-imagining The Searchers for the modern age. The Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) character is the obsessed and violent taxi driver whose twisted personal code and use of gun violence mirror those of Ethan Edwards/James Parker. So does the object of the search who refuses to acquiesce to her own rescue, played by Jodie Foster, who mirrors Cynthia Ann Parker.