Hon. Smith Parks was born in Sumner County, March 5, 1816, and was one of five children who were raised to be grown, but only two are living now. He is a prominent citizen and enterprising farmer of the Ninth District. His parents were Jacob and Anna (Hamilton) Parks. His father was born in Guilford County, N. C., in 1777, and came to Sumner County, Tenn., in 1796 with his parents, and remained there until he married; he moved to Dyer County in 1838 and died in 1841. His wife was also a native of Guilford County, N. C., born in 1783 and died in 1848. She moved to what is now Sumner County in 1788. Smith Parks, our subject, was raised and educated in Sumner County. October, 1841, he married Miss Adaline, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William H. H. Miller, who were among the early settlers of Gibson County. Mrs. Parks was born in Robertson County, Tenn., in 1821, and died in 1876. They had six children, all living now: Thomas, George, Hamilton, Mary I. (wife of W. S. Draper, of Dyersburg), Charlie and Annie. When eighteen years old Mr. Parks had the misfortune to get his leg cut badly and has since been crippled, though a very active man. He taught school two years, has been in the mercantile business and was postmaster at Yorkville from 1839 to 1844, when he was elected clerk of the circuit court and was twice re-elected to that office, and held it until August, 1855, when he was sent to represent his county in the Legislature. In 1856 he moved to Newbern and engaged in the mercantile business, until the war, in addition to farming; he now owns a farm of 156 acres, a mile and a quarter east of Newbern. He has given his children collegiate educations. In politics he still claims to be an old line Whig, and was greatly opposed to the principles of secession. He has been a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for over fifty years, and deacon for over forty years.