Edward William Parker was born in Galveston, Texas on January 8, 1842 to Nathan Barnes and Elizabeth Langford Parker. Two years later Edward’s brother, Henry Dogett Parker, was born. The Parker family continued to live in Galveston while Edward’s father served as the Weights, Master Measurer, Inspector & Gauger for the city until the family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1849. Edward graduated high school in 1854 and that same year Nathan, who was given to the New Hampshire Shakers when he was a young child, relocated his family to the Shaker town in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.

In February 1856, Edward left the Shaker community and went to live and work for his mother’s cousin, Edward Morton, who along with his wife, Mary Cummins Norton, owned an enslaved labor plantation at Cummins on the Arkansas River just below Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, Arkansas. In 1857, Edward began his career as a riverboat clerk working for both planters and the Arkansas government carrying Arkansas Mail Packets. For five years he worked on at least six different boats including the Arkansas, Quapaw, Irene, Red Wing, South Bend, and Frederick Notrebe.

In January 1862, Edward married his first wife, Annie Reynolds, and between the two they had three children, Chauncey, Richard, and Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth was the only child to survive to adulthood. During the Civil War, Edward served as a clerk under Captain Adams in the Quarter Master Confederate States of America and later became Captain Quarter Master working out of Arkansas’s confederate state capital in Washington, Hempstead County, Arkansas. In addition to his wartime military duties, Edward cared for his brother, Henry, who was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh on April 7, 1862.

After the Civil War in 1866, Edward worked for S.H. Tucker’s Exchange Banking & Collecting Office in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas as a cashier until he resigned in 1870. In the latter part of 1872, Edward opened a banking and brokerage business in the name of Edward W. Parker & Co. and continued business under that name until January 1, 1877 when Edward became equal partners with William Booker Worthen in the firm Parker & Worthen, Bankers, Brokers, and Real Estate Agents. After several years of business success, the partnership was dissolved on June 1, 1888 when Worthen purchased Parker's interest in the business for $24,000.

In the fall of 1888, Edward opened a banking and brokerage firm under the name of E.W. Parker & Co. Soon after taking into partnership William F. Cates, the firm became Parker & Cates and remained so until Cates' death. Edward then became associated with P.C. Ewing and opened Parker, Ewing & Co. After Ewing retired, Edward formed a firm with his son-in-law J.L. Reid named Parker, Reid & Co.

In 1902, Edward retired to Boston, Massachusetts, leaving the operation of his bank to his son-in-law and his brother. He died May 28, 1908, in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he was buried. Edward was survived by his brother, his second wife, his daughter, and son-in-law.