Bio: Parkinson, Robert Emmett (1914)

Contact: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org.

Surnames: Parkinson, Foster, Sullivan, McGillis, Emerson

----Source: History of Eau Claire County, Wisconsin (1914) pages 812-813

Robert Emmett Parkinson, the genial proprietor of the Eau Claire House, and probably the dean of hotel men in Wisconsin, was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, January 24, 1859, a son of William and Anna (Sullivan) Parkinson, and comes of English and Scotch-Irish ancestry. His father, a native of England, and son of John Parkinson, came to the United States in 1842, settling in St. Lawrence county, New York, where he was engaged in farming. There our subject was reared until seventeen years of age, receiving a limited education in the common schools. In 1876 he came to Eau Claire county, first locating in Augusta, where he spent two years in the employ of a grain firm. In 1878 he came to the city of Eau Claire and engaged with the Eau Claire Street Car Company for two years, after which he entered the employ of the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company, where he remained three years. Since 1883 he has been connected with the Eau Claire House, then as now the leading hotel of Eau Claire. His first employment in this hotel was that of bellboy, being advanced later to clerk and in 1887 he became one of the proprietors, the firm being Foster & Parkinson. In 1888 Daniel McGillis purchased Mr. Foster's interest and the hotel was conducted under the firm name of Parkinson & McGillis until 1895, since which period Mr. Parkinson has been sole proprietor of the hotel, which he has conducted on up-to-date principles in every respect and made it one of the most popular hostelries in Wisconsin and it is only just lo say of Mr. Parkinson that under his careful, attentive and successful management, he was enabled in 1911 to come into possession of the hotel property in its entirety. His success has been achieved by his own persistent efforts, always on hand to greet his guests on arrival, and he is most favorably known by the traveling public from coast to coast and familiarly known by the commercial men as "Bob," his affable and genial manner having made him one of the most prominent men in the business.

Politically Mr. Parkinson affiliates with the Republican party, while fraternally he is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a leading member of the Eau Claire County Old Settlers' Association. He married May 4, 1899. Anna, daughter of William Emerson, of Milwaukee, and they are the parents of one daughter, Ione May Parkinson.