Born in Westfield, Massachusetts, Parks attended the common schools and graduated from Harvard University in 1813, where he studied law.
He was a local leader of the Loco-foco or radical faction of the Democratic Party, which was anti-bank, anti-paper money, and anti-monopoly.
He was opposed locally by Bangor's "Bank Junto", or conservative Democrats, which included Samuel Veazie, William Emerson, John Hodgdon, and Thomas A.
The election was unusual in that Parks' opponent, Edward Kent of the Whig Party, lived in the same city (Bangor) and both were Harvard graduates.
He ended his political career as United States Consul at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, (1845–1849), a post later occupied by his former opponent Edward Kent Parks died in Bay Ridge, New York, November 23, 1877, and was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn.