THE EDWARD WEST PARKER PAGES

STATEMENT REGARDING 1870 CALIFORNIA VOTER REGISTRATION OF EDWARD WEST PARKER SR.

1977 Letter from San Francisco historian James Abajian in response to query by Ivy T. Lewis, daughter of Charles Reid Sr., granddaughter of Thomas Reid Sr. and Virginia Parker Reid, great-granddaughter of Edward Parker Sr. and Annie Galt Johnson Parker Moody. Ivy Lewis has served for many years as one of the historians of the Reid family.

Dear Ms. Lewis:

By law, each California county has issued a biennial publication , the Great Register of Voters. You may be interested to know that Edward West Parker is listed in the 1872 Great Register of San Francisco County Voters as having registered to vote on April 15, 1870, the very first day of registration under the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He listed his occupation as bootmaker; his birthplace as Virginia; and his residence as 786 Harrison St. He gave his age as 54 on the date of registration.

You may be interested to know that my card catalog was published a few months ago in three volumes. Copies have been presented both to the East Bay Negro Historical Society, Oakland, and the African American Historical Society, San Francisco, in case you may wish to see it.

Some years ago, Mr. William L. Patterson told me that he had seen several copies of the San Francisco Elevator (1860's-1880's) which were then held by local relatives of his. It occurs to me that these copies should be carefully indexed for historical information contained in them. If you learn of the whereabouts of these papers and can secure permission to index them, I certainly would be most interested in so doing.

With best wishes.

Sincerely yours, James Abajian