The Park/Parks Family

I'm going to take a break from my Yates family research and concentrate on my materal Grandmother's family the Park or Parks.  It is written and documented both ways, but Mammy, as I called her was a Park, Belvia Park.  She was born in June 1880 and died in December 1968.  Her husband, my Grandfather C.G. "Lige" Robinson was a Methodist minister and died 4 July 1954.  After Pappy's death Mammy stayed with my family and Mama's sister and her husband, two weeks at a time.  I was eight days shy of being three years old when Pappy died, so I got to spend alot of my life with Mammy.  I learned from her, but now I truly wish I had paid closer attention and asked more questions.  I plan to devote an entire piece to Mammy, but for now this is basically a preview of things to come.

As anyone who has read my blog is aware, my Yates ancestors were charged, tried and two of them were convicted of killing a man, James Harvey Cleghorn.  Well, my Park ancestors are on the other side of the legal end of such a trial.  Mammy's oldest brother, Alonzo Park was the victim, murdered or as the Family Bible has written, assassinated.  I believe the definition of assassinate is to murder a "prominent" person and I am not sure a mail carrier would be considered a "prominent" person, but to his family Alonzo Park was surely a "prominent" person.  So, I suppose using the word "assassinated" in a family bible is not so far fetched.
I am awaiting information on how to obtain court records, but for now this is what I know.  Alonzo Park was born 10 April 1873, the eldest child of Robert Wilson Park and Martha Jane Cole Park.  He married Martha Ellie Brinkley 7 January 1899, in Carroll County, TN and to this union was born one child, Ethel Venera Park, October 1900.  Alonzo was a rural mail carrier and it has been said was the first in the area to ride a bicycle to deliver mail rather than by horseback.  I'm guessing the morning of 23 May 1906 was no different than any other morning, yet when Alonzo left on his bicycle that morning he would not return.  While delivering the mail that day Alonzo would come upon a 15-16 year old boy, Alvin Conder.  The facts a I know them are few, but simple.  Conder had a gun, he believed mail carriers carried great sums of money and he shot and killed Alonzo Park.  Hopefully, I will secure court documents and will have better, more factual information, but for now I will close with two bits of information.  First, after Alvin Conder was found guilty family lore has it that the family did not want Alvin Conder put to deah.  Second, in looking through both the 1910 & 1920 U.S. Census, Alvin Conder is an inmate at the Tennessee State Prison in Nashville, Davidson County, TN.

My apologies to anyone who came to this blog expecting Bell genealogy content.  I will jump back and forth from Bell to Rushing to Robinson to Park, Yates, Farrar, Frazier, etc.  If you have ties to Benton County, TN it is my guess at some point I will be writing about your ancestor so please visit again.

T Bell