Pvt. Samuel N. Parker (1897-1918)

Tyee, 1919, pg. 41.

By September, 1918, the overwork was beginning to show on the men, and this, along with bad drinking water, put a large number of our own men in the hospital. … It was at this time that the unit lost its first man, Sam Parker, who died the evening of September 7, just as taps was sounded. He was run down from overwork and contracted diphtheria.”¹

Private Samuel N. Parker was just twenty-one when he succumbed to exhaustion and diphtheria while serving with Base Hospital 50 in France. 

The only child of John William Parker and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Nichols, Sam's parents were married in Chicago on June 23, 1896.² Sam's exact date and place of birth are unknown, but the 1900 census indicates he was born in August of 1896, although 1897 is more likely.³ At the time of the 1900 federal census, Sam, his parents and maternal grandmother Edna Johnson Nichols Mitchell were living in Hampton Township, located in Rock Island County, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from Davenport, Iowa. By the 1910 census the family had relocated to West Seattle and were living on Alki Avenue.⁴ Their move had likely been a recent one as a biographical sketch of Sam's father was published in a Rock Island County history in 1908.⁵

News story written by Sam Parker.
Thursday, June 28, 1917, Morning Olympian
(Olympia, WA), pg 1. 

Sam graduated with honors from West Seattle School – later West Seattle High School – in 1915 and enrolled at the University of Washington with the class of 1919. While at the UW, Sam was a member of Pi Tau Upsilon Fraternity. He worked as a writer and editor for The Daily, the UW's student newspaper, and was a member of Sigma Delta Chi, a national honorary journalism fraternity.

A few months before he enlisted, Sam left college to take a position on the news staff of Seattle's Post-Intelligencer, where his work was highly esteemed. After having "tried in vain to enlist in a dozen different fighting units", Sam "did the next best thing and applied for a place in Base Hospital Unit No. 50."⁶

"He was not a man of robust health and for months he made futile efforts to enlist in the service of his country. Finally Dr. Eagleson, impressed with the young man's lofty patriotism and persistent attempts to serve, accepted him for the hospital corps, and on the day of his induction into service Parker bade his associates on the staff of the Post-Intelligencer goodbye."⁷

Original grave of Sam Parker.
The History of Base Hospital Fifty, 1922.

Sam enlisted early in the summer of 1918, traveling to Camp Merritt, New Jersey, for training and then deployed on July 14, 1918, for service overseas under the command of Major Eagleson. His death was a blow to the optimism and morale of the staff of Base Hospital 50 who lost two additional men not long after. Originally buried at the cemetery located outside the hospital complex, Sam was later reinterred at nearby St. Mihiel American Cemetery.⁸

His mother, Sarah, who lost her only child, participated in the Gold Star pilgrimages sponsored by the U.S. government and visited her son's final resting place in July of 1930.⁹

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References:

1. United States. Army. Base Hospital No. 50. The history of Base Hospital Fifty : a portrayal of the work done by this unit while serving in the United States and with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Seattle, Wash. : The Committee, 1922. Page 69.
2. Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920. John W. Parker and Sarah E. Nichols. 23 Jun 1896. Chicago, Cook, Illinois.
3. 1900 U.S. census, population schedule, Hampton, Rock Island, Illinois. Enumeration District 93, sheet 16A, John Parker household; National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 338; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (Accessed 20 January 2017).
4. 1910 U.S. census, population schedule, Seattle Ward 14, King, Washington. Enumeration district 218, sheet 10A, J.W. Parker household; National Archives microfilm publication T624, roll 1661; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (Accessed 20 January 2017).
5. Historic Rock Island County: History of the Settlement of Rock Island County from the Earliest Known Period to the Present Time... . Kramer & Company, 1908. Volume 2, pg. 153.
6. University of Washington. Tyee, 1919, Sam Parker, War Memorial, page 41.
7. Sam Parker Dies in Country's Service. The Washington Newspaper. 4(1) Oct 1918, pg 12.
8. Pilgrimage for the mothers and widows of soldiers, sailors, and marines of the American forces now interred in the cemeteries of Europe as provided by the Act of Congress of March 2, 1929... Washington, U.S. G.P.O., 1930. Sarah Parker, Pacific Palisades, California, page 23.
9. Pvt. Samuel N. Parker. Find a Grave, http://findagrave.com, Memorial #56341596. (Accessed 23 January 2017.)