He was chairman of the Home Missionary Committee for Southern Illinois and one of the founders of Southern Collegiate Institute at Albion. In 1888 he stumped the entire state of Nebraska under the Republican state committee, accompanied by a double quartette of ladies, and later lectured extensively throughout many northern states. During the winter of 1902, Parrish resumed newspaper work in Chicago, being first connected with the Associated Press, and later engaged in commercial journalism. The following spring he published his first work of fiction, "When Wilderness Was King", through A. C. McClurg & Company, Chicago, also publishers of his subsequent books. This manuscript was submitted and accepted when but half completed and for a first book met with remarkable sale. All of his previous experience, the atmosphere of culture and refinement of his boyhood home, his literary and legal education, the hardships and privations which he endured upon the plains of the west, his campaign experiences and his labors in the ministry, all constituted a preparation and equipment for the work which he is now doing in the literary world, and which has made him one of the most successful of the modern writers. After the publication of his first book he devoted his entire time to literary work, having published the following books of fiction and history: "My Lady of the North" (1904); "A Sword of the Old Frontier" (1905); "Bob Hampton of Placer" (1906); "Historic Illinois" (1905); "Beth Norvell" (1907); "The Great Plains" (1907); "Prisoners of Chance" (1908); "The Last Voyage of the Donna Isabel" (1908); "My Lady of the South" (1909). Many of these have been credited among the "six best sellers," and received high praise both at home and abroad. Beginning in 1904, Parrish has made his home at Kewanee, in the old family house at 235 South Chestnut Street, which was built in 1859. He served as one of the directors of the Commercial Club, was leading knight of the local Elks Lodge, and was a frequent speaker at public meetings throughout Illinois. On August 9, 1923, he died at his home at Kewanee. In 1887, Parrish was married to Miss Mary A. Hammon, of Clarkson, Nebraska, and four children were born unto this union, two of whom survived to adulthood, namely: Robert Arthur, a cadet at St. John's Military Academy, Delafield, Wisconsin; and Philip Hammon, of Lynch, Nebraska.