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Rhoda Hoyle Parker (1806-1859)
Rhoda Hoyle was born in England on January of 1806. She was the daughter of Josiah Hoyle (1775-1818) and his wife Deborah Grisdale Hoyle (1776-1849), who were married in England.
On October 20, 1833, Rhoda Hoyle married John W. Parker, who was born in England in 1813. Their marriage took place in Eccles, Lancashire, England. The couple had one child, Margaret Hoyle Parker, who died in infancy.
By the mid-1850s, Rhoda and John Parker had arrived in South Dedham. Rhoda Hoyle Parker died on May 3, 1859 of consumption. She was 53 years old.
According to the 1860 U.S. Census, John Parker was still living in Dedham and was employed as a milkman. In 1861, John W. Parker of South Dedham married a second time to Mary Carty, an Irish immigrant living in Brookline. He later became a farmer in West Roxbury.
Standing near the crest of the hill, Rhoda Parker’s gravestone was uncovered by Old Parish Preservation Volunteers on October 12, 2019, and fragments of its base were found in May, 2022. Volunteers prepared the base site on May 7, 2022 and Parker’s stone was cleaned, repaired, and reset on that base on May 21, 2022.
