General Notes

PARKER, DANIEL (1781-1844). Daniel Parker, antimissionary Baptist leade
r, was born on April 6, 1781, in Culpeper County, Virginia, to Rev. John a
nd Sarah (White) Parker. The family moved to Georgia when he was a chil
d. His education seems to have been extremely limited. He and Patsy Dicker
son were married on March 11, 1802; they eventually had eleven children. T
hey moved to Dickson County, Tennessee, in 1803. In 1806 Parker was ordain
ed to preach by the Turnbull Baptist Church. He was an advocate of "Two Se
edism," the doctrine that since the time of Adam mankind has been the bear
er of two seeds, divine and diabolical. Parker supported this doctri
ne in two pamphlets in 1826: Views on the Two Seeds and The Second Do
se of Doctrine on the Two Seeds. Though his Two Seedism separated him fr
om most Primitive Baptists, he retained their opposition to the Missiona
ry Baptists, with whom his conflict started about 1815. (Primitive Baptis
ts do not support missionary, tract, or Bible societies, Sunday school
s, or theological seminaries.) In 1820 Parker, then living in Illinois, pu
blished a pamphlet, A Public Address to the Baptist Society, and Frien
ds of Religion in General, on the Principle and Practice of the Baptist Bo
ard of Foreign Missions, for the United States of America, attacking missi
onary practices. He published the Church Advocate, a newspaper, from 18
29 to 1831. He served as a state senator in Illinois in 1822. In 1833, aft
er a trip to Texas, he organized the Pilgrim Predestinarian Regular Bapti
st Church at Lamotte, Illinois, with seven members; the church was later m
oved to Texas. In 1986 the Pilgrim Church, which continued to meet near El
khart, Texas, was the oldest Primitive Baptist church in the state. Park
er was elected to represent Nacogdoches County at the General Council
qv of the Provisional Governmentqv of Texas. He was elected a member of t
he Fourth Congress of Texas in 1839. He was barred from taking his seat, h
owever, because ordained ministers were constitutionally ineligible; Presi
dent Mirabeau B. Lamarqv declared the seat vacant on November 18, 183
9. On October 17, 1840, at Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church near Dougla
s, Texas, Parker led in the organization of the Union Primitive Baptist As
sociation, the second Baptist association organized in Texas. He died at h
is home in Anderson County on December 3, 1844, and was buried in the Pilg
rim Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery.
DANIEL PARKER & MARTHA "PATSY" DIXION/DICKERSON are both buried at Pilgr
im Church in Illinois.
DANIEL moved with his parents from VA to TN, still later to Illinois. He w
as ordained as a Baptist Minister in 1806. He was elected Senator from Cla
rk and Crawford Counties to the third General Assembly of Illinois on t
he 7th day of August, 1826. With the intention of organizing a church, h
e, his brother JAMES, and perhaps his father, went to TX in 1832. Texas, u
nder the Mexican rule, would not allow any church to form in TX except t
he Catholic Church. Daniel would not give up and went to see Stephen F. Au
stin who told Daniel that he could not start up a church in TX but if he A
LREADY had a church when he got there, he would be allowed freedom of wors
hip. The Parkers headed back to Illinois and the PILGRIM CHURCH was forme
d. On the rolls of that Primitive Baptist Church were the following: Eld
er Daniel Parker; Patsy Parker; John Parker; Julian Crist; Rachel Crist; S
allie Brown; and Phoebe Parker, then following the enumeration of the Elde
rs of the four Illinois Churches, Gladys Parks, Mt. Zion, Grand Prairie a
nd Lamont, who represented the Presbytery organizing the church. It was ag
reed that they were to have their first meeting in the home of Elder Dani
el Parker. They met on the 11th day of Aug 1833, and at that time, four mo
re members were received. This made the little church eleven members. By t
he time this little church headed to TX, it w