by Edouard A. Stackpole

6

Fred Parker — "The Hermit of Quidnet"

by Edouard A. Stackpole

ALTHOUGH HE HAS been dead for more than a century, the man who was familiarly known as "The Hermit of Quidnet," Frederick F. Parker, is still recalled by writers who like to review unusual figures of the past. We know some of the stories of those other individuals who chose to segregate themselves from society and exist in a solitary way, but we know as little now as we did in 1880 of Fred Parker who established himself at his hermitage in the hamlet of Quidnet on the eastern shore of Nantucket.

A few facts remain concerning his early life in Nantucket. As a young man he came here to live with relatives. In the prosperous years of our whaling prosperity in the 19th century, he became an apprentice to a carpenter and later opened his own shop on South Water Street. He met a Nantucket girl, became engaged and they were married when he was 29 years old and she was seventeen. His shop was burned by the Great Fire of 1846, and it is not known that he had it rebuilt, but probably resumed his trade as a carpenter.

Little is known about the Parkers during the next decade, but it has been recorded that the couple separated just before the outbreak of the Civil War. At this time he made the decision to take up residence at Quidnet, where he built a small, one-room dwelling, under the brow of the hillside sloping gently to the pond, close to where the sand hills served as wind-breaks against the northeasterly gales.

Here he lived the rest of his life, a solitary individual, with only a few friends or rather acquaintances. There were a number of families living at Quidnet and Peedee, on the other side of the pond, at this time, and Parker may have been hired to do some carpenter work for them, but little is known.

When Nantucket emerged from the Civil War era, and the Islanders were discovering the new economy known as the "summer business", it became a custom for the visitors to explore the Island, riding behind a pair of horses to 'Sconset, Madaket, Quaise, Polpis and Quidnet. The Nantucketers' build-up of 'Sconset as a favored summer place was a feature of this period. The town's farm at Quaise was undergoing changes, after the old Asylum was moved into town. At Quidnet the Hermit, Fred Parker, was an object of much curiosity and also a subject for journalistic essays.

Fred Parker The Hermit of Quidnet

8

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Among these interesting essays was a long article written for the New York Sun. It gave a somewhat fanciful account of Parker's life, but its leaning on the romantic took away from what could have been more attention to the salient points of his experiences of Nantucket. These facts would have added much to the real story of his life.

Parker, now a true eccentric, with his long white beard and hair, seated in a rocking chair in front of his little Quidnet home, captured the imagination of writers and artists. But the opportunity to learn more about him was lost as few of the writers asked the pertinent questions concerning such matters as his early life on Nantucket, his marriage, and other facts. Though a recluse, he was found to be a pleasing conversationalist, well read, and willing to discuss subjects related to philosophy or religion, if such came up.

The little house he had built revealed signs of his physical decline in his last years at Quidnet, but the roof was still tight, and the iron stove provided warmth as well as cooking for his simple needs. A feature of his domicile was the number of ship's quarterboards from wrecked vessels which adorned the walls of the one room, while a number of casks and barrels were arranged around the front of the structure.

As one of the best known "characters" of the 1870's, Fred Parker shared the public eye with "Billy" Clark, the Town Crier, who lived a longer life, probably because he was more active. As a hermit, Parker was a more mysterious figure, whose reputation increased as the visiting journalists found his life more a part of a little known Nantucket. Despite his wishes to live his life out at Quidnet, his failing health made it necessary that he be removed to the Asylum on Orange Street, and here he died in his 80th year.

It was stated that he had left a collection of writings, which he sometimes spoke of publishing in book form, but the material has unfortunately been lost or destroyed. He had expressed a desire to be buried in Quidnet, but if this was carried out it was not recorded.

Frederick F. Parker's reasons for isolating himself from his home and friends in town to take up an abode in a rude hut and become a recluse was never fully explained by his contemporaries. It was something more than an ecccentric whim, although from the circumstances it would seem that he enjoyed the conversations and questions of his visitors, and appeared to have adopted the role of an old philosopher. If his writings could have been preserved it is probable we could have learned a great deal from the mysterious figure chiefly known as the "Hermit of Quidnet".