Parke Godwin

Parke Godwin (February 28, 1816 – January 7, 1904) was an American journalist associated with New York. Biography Godwin was born on February 28, 1816, in Paterson, New Jersey. His father Abraham Godwin was a Lieutenant in the War of 1812, and his grandfather Abraham Godwin a Fife Major in the American Revolution. He graduated from Princeton University in 1834, studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Kentucky, but did not practice. He married the eldest daughter of William Cullen Bryant, and moved to New York City in 1837. He became interested in journalism and by the 1830s was writing for the Evening Post and The United States Magazine and Democratic Review under John L. O'Sullivan. The reforms he advocated in the Democratic Review were subsequently introduced into the constitution and code of New York. Except for one year, he was connected with the Evening Post from 1837 to 1853. In 1843 he ran a weekly called Pathfinder, but it only lasted three months. He was deputy collector in the New York Custom House under President James K. Polk, an early member of the Republican Party, and a consistent advocate of free trade. He supported the Republicans with speeches and writing.