The family of Ralph Delaney Parker, Sr. came to the Oak Grove Community, then known as Woodland Hall, from Lumberton, North Carolina, in about the year 1858. He had five sons and two daughters. Their names were Frank H., John Nelson, Ralph Delaney, Jr., Simeon Theodore, and William, who was killed when a tree fell on him while he was splitting rails on the Parker estate in the Oak Grove community. He was among the first to be buried in the Parker Cemetery, a five acre tract of land donated for a cemetery by Ralph Delaney Parker, Sr. the two daughters names were Ann (Baxley), her husband was killed in the war between the state, and Emma (Chasten). Frank Parker, eldest son of Ralph Delaney Parker, had come to Texas two years before the family moved fromNorth Carolina to the Oak Grove community. He wrote a letter to the folks back home, telling them how well he liked this part ofTexas and that he wanted them to move here. They came to the Mississippi River in 2 covered wagons. When they had come toVicksburg, their teams were tuckered out.

They traded their wagons and teams for two slaves, a man and a woman and some money. They then took a boat to Galveston and came up the Trinity River to White Rock Shoals where Frank Parker met his family and brought them to what is now the Oak Grove community to a homestead of a few hundred acres of land. P. H. (Herod) Parker was the distributor for Gulf Oil Corporation in the Grapeland area for forty years from June 1931 to June, 1971. Herod Parker was married to Mattie Ruth Bridges on November 27, 1910 at the Methodist parsonage in Grapeland. Four children were born to them. Alta Lee, wife of Seaborne Teems of Palestine,  Lois Madeline, wife of J. Barton Wilder, Houston, Oleta Maurine, wife of Shelor Edmiston, Crockett, and Milton Herod of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Milton married Frances Page Ryland, of Richmond, Virginia. The grandchildren of Herod Parker are; Don E. Teems, Dallas; Terry Lynn Teems, Dallas; J. Barry Wilder, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Ronald Parker Wilder, professor at Columbia University, South Carolina; Lois Beth Wilder Null, Waco; Barton Gregg Wilder, Wichita Falls, Texas; Anne Bridges Parker, John Ryland Parker, Julia Page Parker, Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Howard Pickney Edmiston of Crockett. Herod Parker’s great grandchildren are as follows: Don had Tracy and Kelly Teems; Terry Lynn Teems had Carol and Cindy; J. Barry Wilder had Lori Alison and Scott; Ronald Wilder had Erica, Rachael, and David; Beth Null had Gerry and Matthew; Gregg Wilder had two sons; and Sue and Howard Edmiston had Parker and Lorin Elizabeth. Mrs. Mattie Ruth Parker died July 15, 1965. P. H. Parker and Ruby Herrington Blake were married March 12, 1969 in the Methodist parsonage in Grapeland. P. H. Parker died on March 25, 1982.