Having brought back with him a new, state-of-the-art American musket, Parker was given the privilege of being the first man paid to shoot some of the thousands of feral cattle that roamed Hawaii’s remote plains and valleys.

[2]: 21 A year after he returned to Hawaii in 1815, he married Chiefess Kipikane (1800–1860), full name Keli'ikipikaneokaolohaka, the granddaughter of Kamehameha I[2]: 26  and daughter of Kahiwa Kanekapolei.

In 1835 he was hired by Honolulu merchant William French to start a commercial operation selling products of the wild cattle near the present town of Waimea.

[4] His son John Palmer II married Hawaiian Hanai on October 6, 1845, and then after her death, Leiakaula on January 3, 1865.

[9] The ranch would be inherited by John Palmer II and Ebenezer's son Samuel Parker (only 15 years old at the time).

John Palmer II took over operation of the ranch, although he was appointed to the upper House of Nobles in the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1873.

[10] Grandson Samuel became more active in politics, so after John II's death Alfred Wellington Carter became ranch manager.