He was also a leading political figure at a critical time of the history of the Kingdom of Hawaii, serving in its last cabinet.

He founded the Hawaiian branch of the family when he married Chiefess Kipikane (1800–1860), who was related to the high-ranking chiefs of the Big Island.

There he made lasting friendships with his contemporaries among the Hawaiian nobility, a social connection that would prove very helpful in adulthood.

In 1879, they moved from the Ranch to a much larger and more accessible estate, more suited to their status as a wealthy and prominent couple who liked to entertain: Puʻu o Pelu.

She was the daughter of Jonathan Napela who was an early convert to Mormonism,[3] She was also three-quarters Hawaiian, and also known as Harriet Richardson, after her mother's maiden name.

However, in the second half of the century, the sugar-industry was developing rapidly in Hawaii, and Parker saw a profitable business opportunity and a chance to diversify from reliance on livestock.

In 1878, he started the Paʻauhau Plantation with Rufus Anderson Lyman, about 50 miles north of Hilo at coordinates 20°5′9″N 155°26′6″W / 20.08583°N 155.43500°W / 20.08583; -155.43500 ("Paauhau").

[12] Lyman was advisor to island governor, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani, the only land owner with holdings greater than those of the Parker Ranch.

Parker enjoyed being at the heart of Hawaiian business and social life and developing a new and powerful circle of friends and associates.

[14] Parker was becoming involved in too many projects to concentrate on addressing any particular problems that developed in his growing personal and professional empire.

In November 1884, he traveled abroad on official business, with the commission to the World Cotton Centennial in New Orleans, Louisiana.

On February 25, 1891, Parker was appointed to his first cabinet post, Minister of Foreign Affairs, when John Adams Cummins was told to resign by the queen.

[15] He was generally considered the most powerful member of the cabinet; sometimes called Prime Minister, or Premier, but there was no such official office.

The choice of Parker satisfied the people who wanted more native Hawaiians in the government, and he generally had favorable relations with the American interests at the time.

[16]: 476 The first sign of trouble came a week later when Parker also became acting Minister of Finance, temporarily replacing Hermann A. Widemann who was also serving on the Supreme Court.

The McKinley Tariff act had devastated the Hawaiian economy by making exports to the US much more expensive, undoing the effects of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875.

[17] A time of unprecedented instability in the government began in 1892, with the previously biennial part-time legislature having its longest session.

[16]: 528–530 Reports began circulating that Hawaii was negotiating to be annexed by the United States, but Parker issued denials.

In reality, Lorrin A. Thurston (a newspaper publisher whose only government position was as a legislator) had been in Washington lobbying for annexation, but Mott-Smith did nothing to communicate this to Parker.

Liliʻuokalani made a deal with the cabinet: if they supported a lottery to help raise funds, she would appoint Paul Neumann as the new attorney general, who agreed to keep Wilson as marshal.

Parker and the other ministers were also warned by Thurston and other prominent citizens not to approve the new constitution, which they saw as returning to a more powerful autocratic rule.

Parker met with both Liberals who demanded wider voting rights, and the American minister John L. Stevens, who said he would not support the queen if there was an uprising.

Only a small police force led by Charles Burnett Wilson was protecting Liliʻuokalani, so Parker helped negotiate a surrender of to avoid bloodshed.

[38] Although the court battles dragged on for years, eventually Parker accepted $600,000 and a few small parcels in exchange for his share in the ranch, finalized on September 20, 1906.

After his wife Abigail's death in 1908, the Campbell Estate, one of the largest private landholdings in Hawaii, was left in trust to her children from her first marriage.

[40] His health started to fail, and he headed back to Hawaii in November 1913 on a new steamship of the Matson Navigation Company line.

The Parker Ranch, estimated worth about $6 million at the time, was left in trust to his six-year-old great-grandson Richard Smart.