Early Life
Parker was born in Beaver, Utah, to Maximillian Parker and Ann Campbell Gillies, English and Scottish immigrants, respectively, who came to the Utah Territory in the late 1850s. Ann Gillies, the mother of Butch Cassidy was born and lived on Tyneside, Newcastle, North East England, before moving to America with her parents in the 1850s, where she married Butch’s father, Maximilian Parker, in Utah. Parker's parents had lived in Victoria Road in Preston, Lancashire, England, and emigrated to escape religious persecution of their Mormon faith.
He was the first of their 13 children. He grew up on their ranch near Circleville, Utah, 346 km (215 mi) south of Salt Lake City, Utah. He left home during his early teens, and while working at a dairy farm, looked up to, and was mentored by Mike Cassidy, a horse thief and cattle rustler. He subsequently worked at several ranches, in addition to a brief stint as a butcher in Rock Springs, Wyoming, when he acquired the nickname "Butch", to which he soon appended the surname Cassidy in honor of his old friend and mentor.
Read more about this topic: Butch Cassidy
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