At a young age, Parker's family moved from Maryland to Virginia, where they took part in scouting the frontier in present-day Kentucky and Tennessee alongside Daniel Boone and other American pioneers.

After the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1776, frontier conflicts between Patriot settlers and British-allied Indians erupted, which led to the deaths of several of Parker's family members and friends.

Parker was also rewarded with additional land grants for his services in the Northwest Indian War in the Ohio Country, moving again to Crawford County, Illinois, where he became a minister in the Predestinarian church.

Parker was eventually recruited by Stephen F. Austin, on the behalf of the Mexican government, to settle in Texas as one of a group of settlers (referred to as "Texians") known as the "Old Three Hundred".

[1][2] Parker unsuccessfully attempted to rally local settlers into resisting the raiders before ordering as many women and children as possible to be escorted away from the area, guarded by several hand-picked men.