John Palmer Parker

John Palmer Parker (May 1, 1790 – August 20, 1868) was the founder of the Parker Ranch on the island of Hawaii in Hawaii. In 2008, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Life John Palmer Parker was born May 1, 1790, in Newton, Massachusetts. His father was Samuel Parker (1742–1822) and mother was Ann Palmer Parker (1753–1841).

A year after he returned to Hawaii in 1815, he married Chiefess Kipikane (1800–1860), full name Keli'ikipikaneokaolohaka, the granddaughter of Kamehameha I and daughter of Kahiwa Kanekapolei. Kipikane took the Christian name Rachel. She bore John a daughter Mary Ann Kaulalani (1819–1859) and two sons Ebenezer (1829–1855) and John Palmer Kamaikaaloa Kalanioku (1827–1900). The Parker dynasty figured in the next two centuries of Hawaiian history. Mānā means "arid" in the Hawaiian language.

The first Parker homestead was a small cottage called Hale Mānā ('Dry House') at this site. After the Great Mahele allowed private land ownership, he purchased around Mānā in 1850 and another thousand acres in 1851. More land was leased from King Kamehameha III, and the ranch continued to grow.

His son John Palmer II married Hawaiian Hanai on October 6, 1845, and then after her death, Leiakaula on January 3, 1865. Ebenezer married Kilia June 7, 1849.

Parker also developed orchards and a dairy operation. Despite the death of his son Ebenezer in 1855 and a drought in 1856, he added yet more land in the area known as Paauhau by 1861. After his first wife Kipikane died, he married another Hawaiian woman named Leiakaula. His health began to fail in 1867. Parker died August 20, 1868, on Oahu and was buried back at the family cemetery near Hale Mānā. He was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 2008. The ranch would be inherited by John Palmer II and Ebenezer's son Samuel Parker (only 15 years old at the time). John Palmer II took over operation of the ranch, although he was appointed to the upper House of Nobles in the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1873. Grandson Samuel became more active in politics, so after John II's death Alfred Wellington Carter became ranch manager.

Family tree