Edwin Pond Packer was born on January 13, 1836 in Castine, Hancock County, Maine, United States. He was a descendant in the seventh generation of William Parker who came to Hartford from England in 1636 and in 1649 settled in Saybrook. In entering the ministry he followed the family tradition, he was the son of the Reverend Wooster Parker whose father, born in Saybrook, was Reverend James Parker, and whose wife, Wealthy Ann, was the daughter of Reverend Enoch Pond.
Edwin Pond Packer prepared for college in the academy at Foxcroft, Maine, graduated from Bowdoin in 1856, and from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1859.
While in college Edwin Pond Parker supported himself in part by teaching winters, giving instruction in music in various Maine towns, and in 1856 - 1857 teaching the classics in Auburn Academy. Called to the Second Church, Hartford, about this time, he was ordained and installed on January 11, 1860. Circumstances connected with this event occasioned a rather acrimonious controversy. The council had ordained him in spite of the fact that his statement of theological belief was not quite satisfactory to a few of the conservative members. In the New York Observer for February 23, 1860, appeared an editorial, inspired by a letter to the editor from a Presbyterian minister present at the council, entitled: "New Gospel in New England. False doctrines taught: boldly encouraged: the reformation demanded. " A refutation of the charges, by Reverend Joel Hawes and Rev. Samuel Spring, was printed in the issue of March 8, and another by the same clergymen in the Independent of March 22.
The Congregationalist and the Recorder also entered the fray. The whole affair was simply a skirmish in the bitter theological warfare which had long been going on in Connecticut, for which Parker had innocently furnished the occasion, but it gave to the opening of his career an unpleasant notoriety. During his ministry covering more than half a century, Parker became one of the most distinguished citizens of Hartford and one of the leading Protestant clergymen of the state.
A friend of Reverend Nathaniel J. Burton, Reverend Joseph H. Twichell, and Samuel L. Clemens, he was associated with the coterie which gave to the Hartford of this period its literary reputation. Parker himself frequently lectured on literary subjects. His general influence, quietly exerted, was varied and substantial. He took little active part in political affairs but his sagacious counsel was a positive, if unobtrusive, factor in matters of civic importance. His ministry, while maintaining the best traditions of New England Congregationalism, had a liberating and broadening effect both locally and outside his own city and state. Theologically he was tolerant and reasonable but not radical. Having an inclination for ritual and a considerable knowledge of music, he contributed to the enrichment of worship in Congregational churches. His own church was perhaps the first of its order in New England to celebrate the Christmas season with a religious service. Many other similar innovations followed. With N. J. Burton and J. H. Twichell he prepared The Christian Hymnal (1877).
In 1912 he became pastor emeritus. The following year the Hartford Courant began to issue a Sunday edition, to which Parker contributed regularly under the title "Optimus. " He died on May 28, 1920.
Edwin Pond Parker married Lucy M. Harris, the adopted daughter of one of his professors, Rev. Samuel Harris. His first wife died in 1894 and on July 19, 1895, he married Mrs. Lucy A. Gilbert.
