Kentucky Barracuda: Parker H. French

About this event

Join us for a riveting lecture by Joe Goodbody, author of Kentucky Barracuda: Parker Hardin French. Parker H. French was an adventurer and entrepreneur who engaged in elaborate, bold, and ambitious exploits, but he was also a magnificent con-man—a barracuda. Some of his efforts may have begun as legitimate endeavors, but they inevitably resulted in double-crossed partners, betrayed allies, and swindled creditors. In the era of steam, sail, and horse, the rapidity of French’s movement and breadth of his adventures is almost mind-numbing. As a runaway kid, he fought in the British Navy in the first Opium War. When he was just 23 years old, he built the first ocean-going ship on the upper Mississippi. Before he was 30, he was the leader of an infamous gold rush expedition, implicated in an irregular invasion of Cuba, a jailed bandit and then a paramilitary hero in Mexico, a member of an American cabal that governed Nicaragua, and an appointed but rejected Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States. He did not slow down in his 30s; he was a real estate developer, part of a conspiracy to invade Mexico, a suspected seditionist agitator and Confederate agent, jailed as a political prisoner, and lawyer and purveyor for Union troops. Joe Goodbody, author of Kentucky Barracuda, is a retired United States Army Colonel and corporate leader with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska (Omaha) and a master’s in logistics management from the Florida Institute of Technology. He learned about Parker Hardin French while working on family genealogy and researching great-grandfather Francis (Frank) Alexander Goodbody (1828-1906). Frank was a member of the fraudster’s California-bound gold rush expedition in 1850. Joe became fascinated with French’s story. He hit the web, gathered references, researched digitized records and newspapers, and visited historical archives and government record centers to research this book. Seating is limited. Register at 1-800-613-3163.

Venue: Genealogy & Local History Library

401 State Street, Alton, IL 62002 (Driving Directions)