Chance Discovery of Parker Diaries Is Fascinating Find

Lorraine and Louise Putnam, descendants of Ebenezer Putnam, and (at right) Hilary Mullins, the re-discoverer of the Parker diaries. (Herald / Chris Costanzo)

Forty-four years of everyday history crammed into 18 volumes of journals—that’s what has been discovered on a bottom shelf in the basement of the Bethel Library.

It was quite by chance that Hilary Mullins came upon the daily journals kept by Sylvester and Mary Parker from 1876-1920. The stunning find provided the basis of a fascinating and well-attended Bethel Historical Society presentation last Monday.

Mullins, the daughter of Bethel’s Janet Burnham, got her first indication of the existence of the diaries while she was poring over vital records in the Bethel Town Clerk’s office as part of research for a novel she is writing. After some detective work, she located the un-catalogued journals on a bottom shelf in the basement of the Bethel Library. 

Sylvester Parker was a Universalist minister who married Mary Hunton of Hyde Park, the daughter of a physician. They came to Bethel in 1862, where Mary’s brother, the attorney Augustus Hunton, was living with his wife Caroline Paige. The couple lived on North Main Street, in the house on the north side of the Methodist church, which was later known as the Campbell house.

The Parkers both contributed to their journal, in the distinctive, clearly identifiable handwriting that was characteristic of that era. Their justification for keeping the journal is given in an early entry by Sylvester, which reads in part, "Memory is treacherous but needs aid…a record is necessary of things that have passed out of mind."

Priceless Gems

The volumes are replete with priceless gems regarding Bethel in years past. There are not only comments and thoughts regarding Sylvester Parker’s sermons, but numerous mundane yet interesting vignettes containing such matters as Mary’s cooking, Sylvester’s need for a new coat, an incident when he was run over by a horse, his travels, a record of the daily weather, Mary’s purchase of poorly-fitting false teeth, and many daily events in the town.

Much is told with humor and grace. Mary, who was also a published poet, often embellished her entries with comments and observations, much of it with humor, as when she noted that life sometimes "seems full of trouble and a vale of tears, the last literally when you put in your teeth."

She also deftly depicted some of the personalities in town such as in her witty description of a certain "Maxham" who had a grandiose marketing scheme to bring about "diffusion throughout the Earth of his happy home medicines." This is undoubtedly Edgar Maxham, a merchant and Bethel town druggist in the late 1800s, and also, at one point, Bethel’s representative in the state legislature.

There is also much poignancy in the entries. Sylvester died in 1900, but Mary kept the journal to keep her husband’s memory alive in her mind, and wrote that she would often reread earlier entries to feel closer to him.

"I wonder what I am writing this for," one entry read. "It is of no consequence and of no use, but I suppose it is because Sylvester did it so long, and I feel I must carry on his work. I wonder if it is wise, or foolish, or neither!"

They had no children, and she indeed clung to her husband’s memory. When President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, Mary reflected on her sorrow at so many of the national tragedies that she had observed in her life, but noted that, for her, the worst was the loss of her husband, who was "more to me than all the world beside."

Mary Parker continued the journals until her death in 1920. Her last entries are in a trembling hand, and in the end, her nurse wrote the entries for her, finally ending the journal with an entry of her own, "Mary Parker died today."

The extensive journals are a priceless patrimony from old Bethel. Mullins has begun to transcribe them.

"I love these people," she said, "and while working on the journal I feel I’m entering their lives."

Mullins’ labor of love might take a few years, and eventually a permanent place will be found to hold these volumes for future Bethel generations.

By Chris Costanzo