On each side of his house descended from a long line of distinguished ancestors, S. Conant Parks the genial and companionable vise-president of the First National Bank of Lander, Wyoming, exemplifies in his daily life the characteristics of good citizenship which have given so many of his family prominence and public regard, He was born at Auburn, Illinois on May 15, 1859, the son of Thomas S. and Nancy C. (Polley) Parks, the father a native of Indiana born on May 22, 1822, and the mother of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky born on March 24, 1828. On the father’s side his forebears run back in an unbroken continuance to Sir Robert Parks of Preston, England whose son Samuel, emigrated to America and settled at Wethersfield, Conn. in 1640; and to Roger Conant of England who landed at Plymouth in 1623 and became the governor of the Dorchester Company and thereby the first governor of Massachusetts. In both lines the genealogy sparkles with the patronymics of men well esteemed in their several stations and localities as elevated and influential citizens, who both dignified and adorned every walk of life in which they were found and inspired with healthy and increased vitality every line of useful activity among men. Th father of Mr. Parks was the president of the leading bank at Auburn, Illinois and a prominent men in the public affairs of that section of the country. He died at the ripe age of sixty-nine years, on January 28, 1891, at Auburn, where most of his life of mercantile and public usefulness had passed, and where his widow still resides. His parents were Beaumont and Nancy (Conant) Parks, the former a native of Bethlehem, Conn., and the latter of Windsor, Vt. Beaumont Parks was a professor in the University of Indiana and a son of Elijah and Hannah (Beaumont) Parks, natives of Connecticut. Elijah was the son of Nathaniel Parks, Jr., and a grandson of Nathaniel, whose father was Edward Parks, then of Killingworth, Conn., Edward was a lineal descendant of Sir Robert Parks, native of Preston, England. Hannah Beaumont was a daughter of William and Sarah (Everett) Beaumont, of Windham, Conn., The former of whom became a celebrated physician of St. Louis, Mo. Nancy Conant’s father was Stephen Conant, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, born in June, 1762, a son of Ezra and Milicent (Newell) Conant. He enlisted as a youth in Capt. Enoch Chaplin’s company of Massachusetts volunteers early in the war of independence, and lived to see the triumph of the principles for which he fought and their crystallization in the complete establishment of the new republic among the nations of the earth. Ezra Conant died on December 7, 1804. He was a son of Benjamin and Martha (Davidson) Conant, and a leading man in both the Colonial and the Federal periods of New England history. His father was John Conant, born on December 15, 1652 at Beverly, Mass., and the husband of Bethiah Mansfield. He also took a prominent part in the public affairs of his day and section, aiding materially as a gallant soldier in Captain Samuel Appleton’s company in King Phillip’s War, in securing the peace and prosperity of New England and in many other ways contributing to the growth and development of the colonies after that bloody contest was over. He was a son of Lot Conant, who was born at Nantasket, Mass., in 1624, and married with Elizabeth Walton. For twelve years Lot Conant served as a selectman proving himself as wise in counsel as he was vigorous in action. His father, Roger Conant, was baptized at East Budleigh, England in 1592 and emigrated to America in 1623. Landing at Plymouth. He was later chosen governor of the Dorchester Company and thus became the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony. He was a son of Richard and Richard was a son of John Conant. Mr. Park’s mother was a daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Gossett) Poley, both belonging to Southern families, the Poley’s being long solidly established in Kentucky as were the Gossetts in Louisiana. Joseph Poley was born on February 1, 1802. He grew to manhood and was educated in his native state, and afterwards became one of the early settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois, where he accumulated a large estate and became prominent in its business and public life. His father Charles Poley was born in the province of Alsace, then a part of France, and was carefully educated in Paris for the Christian ministry. Changing his plans however after reaching man’s estate he came to this country and settled in Kentucky then a vast expense of largely unbroken wilderness, but making such rapid strides in progress and development that it was already clamoring for admission to the dignity of statehood and this it soon thereafter assumed. In the movement which secured this result and in the establishment and early administration of the state government. Mr. Poley was active prominent and serviceable. S. Conant Parks of Lander, the immediate subject of this review was the second of the five children born to his parents, three of whom are now living, one of his two sisters being Miriam, the wife of Silas S. Lewis, of St. Louis, Mo., and the other, Mary Parks, being a resident of Illinois. He received his preliminary scholastic training in the elementary and high schools of his native city, later being graduated from the University of Michigan in the class of ‘85’ with the degree of A. B. and still later receiving that of Ph. D. from the University at Halle, Germany. In 1888 after finishing his course of instruction at the noted German school, he came to Wyoming and locating at Lander, became the vice-president of a private bank n that city, which in 1892 was reorganized as the first National Bank of Lander. Of this institution he is still a director and the vice-president having in addition to the duties connected therewith a number of business connections of importance. He is one of the leading men in the control of the First National Bank of Thermopolis, and is also one of the directorate conducting the banking house of Amoretti Parks & Co., of Cody. To every enterprise in which he takes an interest he gives devoted attention making it feel the quickening impulse of his master hand. In fraternal relations he has ascended the Masonic ladder through the lodge chapter and commandery, and is an active worker in the various bodies. He was married on April 24, 1889, to Miss Clara Hills, of Chicago, a daughter of John N. and Caroline (Tuttle) Hill of that city, natives of Vermont. Mrs. Parks is a Daughter of the Revolution and a Colonial Dame; being also an active worker in the Episcopal Church. The have one child, Harold Hills Parks, whose sunny presence helps to brighten their pleasant home on Third Street in Lander. In the business and social circles of the community no man stands higher than Mr. Parks, and none has or is entitled to a higher place in the public regard as a citizen.
