Frank W. Parker

Who was Frank W. Parker?

Frank Wilson Parker 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. 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.

A Republican, Parker was appointed to serve on the Territorial Supreme Court on January 10, 1898 by President William McKinley, on the recommendation of territorial governor Miguel Antonio Otero. 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.