Robert Stone Parks
ROBERT STONE PARKS has been an Ohio attorney for thirty years, and most of his practice has been done in the county seat of Geauga County, at Chardon. He is the present prosecuting attorney of that county and all his relations as a lawyer and public official have brought him a high degree of esteem in that section of Ohio.
Mr. Parks was born at Chardon, Geauga County, December 10, 1872. His father, Orrin R. Parks, who was born at Chardon, December 31, 1845, as a young man entered business as a tinner and hardware merchant, and subsequently organized and became senior member of Parks Brothers and later Parks & Warriner, a hardware firm that for many years has stood in the front rank of Chardon business enterprises. He was a republican, served on the City Council a number of terms, and while on the council was also a member of the board that established a village light plant. In the Civil war he was a Union soldier, a member of Battery C of the First Ohio Light Artillery, and served through the last two years of the war. He was affiliated with Chardon Lodge No. 93, Free and Accepted Masons. Orrin R. Parks, who died at Chardon in January, 1918, married Virginia Stone, a native of Newbury, Geuaga County, who died at birth of her only child, Robert Stone Parks. The second wife of Orrin R. Parks was Chloe A. Barker, who was also a native of Newbury, and now lives at Chardon. Her only child is Mildred, who married E. E. Clark, of Cleveland, Ohio, now deceased.
Robert Stone Parks as a boy attended the public schools of Chardon, graduating from high school in 1891. He then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, and finished the course and received the Bachelor of Laws degree with the class of 1894. Admitted to the Ohio bar June 6 of that year, he immediately engaged in practice at Chardon, and his active membership in the bar of that city has been continuous except for two years while he was engaged in practice at Lorain, Ohio, and a year and a half at Willoughby. his law offices are in the First National Bank Building.
For twenty years Mr. Parks has been village clerk of Chardon, his present term expiring January 1, 1924. He has had charge of the official records of the village through an era marked by many important improvements, including the installation of a water plant, building of sewers, street paving. On March 1, 1921, Mr. Parks was appointed attorney of Geauga County to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of R.H. Patchin. In November, 1921, he was elected for the regular two-year term, which began January 21, 1922.
Mr. Parks is a republican, has served as secretary of Chardon Lodge No. 93, Free and Accepted Masons, as secretary of Chardon Chapter No. 106, Royal Arch Masons, is noble grand of Chardon Lodge No. 213, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is past chancellor commander of Lodge No. 731, Knights of Pythias. He organized and is a charter member of Chardon Kiwanis Club. Mr. Parks is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Chardon, and among other real estate owns a modern home at 141 North Main Street. He married in his native town, September 10, 1899, Miss Nina Ames, daughter of Bernard D. and Victoria Ames, now deceased. Her father for sixteen years held the office of clerk of courts of Geauga County. Mr. and Mrs. Parks have three children: Virginia Victoria, at home; David R., a student in Syracuse University in New York; and Edward Ames, attending the Chardon High School.
From History of Ohio, vol. IV, By Charles B. Galbreath, American Historical Society Publishers, 1925