Joel Parker was born on November 24, 1816 in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Charles and Sarah (Coward) Parker. His father was state treasurer, 1821 - 1832, 1833 - 1836, and state librarian, 1823 - 1836.
Joel Parker received his early education at Trenton and at Lawrenceville High School, after which he entered the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), graduating in 1839. He studied law under Henry Woodhull Green.
Joel Parker was called to the bar in 1842, establishing himself at Freehold. His practice became increasingly lucrative. From the first he played an active part in politics. In 1844 he campaigned for Polk and in 1847 he was elected as Democratic assemblyman for Monmouth County. For one term (1852 - 1857), he was Monmouth County prosecutor and conducted trials of state and semi-national interest. His activity in the local militia which he reorganized, and in which he attained the rank of major general (1861), helped to bring him to the front in state politics at the outbreak of the Civil War. Parker voted for Douglas in 1860 and was a Democratic presidential elector. In the autumn of 1862 he was elected governor and served for a three-year term, beginning in January 1863. The chief problems of his first administration arose out of the Civil War. He was a free and outspoken critic of the federal government for he believed that the seceding states had been driven to resistance by the agitation of misguided Northern abolitionists.
He was hostile to the Emancipation Proclamation, believing that it would make peace more difficult. But while approving the New Jersey legislature's proposal of a peace conference, he agreed with Lincoln that secession could not be permitted and that the Union must be preserved, with force if need be. He was careful not to surrender any of the state's rights and he regarded any encroachment by the federal government upon the state as intolerable, even when under cover of "war power" or "military necessity. " He opposed the move in Congress to secure the use of the roadway of the Raritan and Delaware Bay Railroad for the War Department, after the Department had been restrained from such use by an injunction, and for this he was praised in New Jersey but censured outside the state for supporting state rights against the general good. At the same time Parker gave prompt aid in supplying troops for military service. By propaganda and a system of bounties he was able to secure volunteers for the New Jersey quota for nearly a year after conscripts were being drafted in other states. His action in caring for the wounded, for soldiers' families, and for the military cemeteries made him very popular in the state. In the matter of state administration he advocated the change in the dates of the fiscal year in order to make it coincide with the sessions of the legislature.
He also sponsored the establishment of a sinking fund for the redemption of the war loans. Being ineligible for a second term immediately, he resumed his private law practice in 1866. His name was placed in nomination for president by the New Jersey delegations at the Democratic conventions of 1868 and 1876. In 1871 he was reelected governor for another three-year term. Although faced with a Republican legislature with which he occasionally clashed, he retained his popularity. In 1880 he was appointed to the state supreme court, which office he was holding by a second appointment at the time of his death. He died suddenly on January 2, 1888 in Philadelphia of an apoplectic stroke.
Joel Parker was a member of Democratic party. He was also highly critical of the Lincoln Administration's actions.
Joel Parker was an impressive man, very tall and dignified, and courteous in bearing, but he was neither quick of wit nor original of thought. As a judge his conduct was marked by caution.
Joel Parker was married in 1843 to Maria M. Gummere, the daughter of Samuel R. Gummere of Burlington. They had two sons and one daughter.
