James Watson Parkinson (September 10, 1829January 28, 1897) was an American farmer, Democratic politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He served two terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing Calumet County during the 1880 and 1893 terms. He also served 20 years as chairman of the Calumet County board of supervisors.
James W. Parkinson was born in Jefferson County, New York, in September 1829. He received a common school education and moved to Wisconsin in 1855. He stayed briefly in Shebyogan, before settling at Brothertown, in Calumet County, in 1856.
He served as town clerk and superintendent of the local schools, and was justice of the peace for 26 years. He served as chairman of the town board for 23 years, and was chairman of the Calumet County board of supervisors for the last 20 years of his life.
In 1892, he was elected to another term in the Assembly, and served in the 1893–1894 session.
He died at his home in Brothertown, in January 1897.
J. W. Parkinson was a son of Robert Parkinson, one of the founders of the settlement of Spragueville, or Sprague's Corners, in the town of Antwerp, New York. Robert Parkinson's mother was Elizabeth (' Sargent), who escaped the 1781 Indian raid on Bethel, Maine, in which her first husband, Peter Poor, was killed.
J. W. Parkinson was married four times. He had three children with his first wife, Adaline Wadsworth, who died in 1861. He subsequently married Mary Jane Knickerbocker, with whom he had a son, Jay. After Mary's death in 1866, he married her younger sister, Sarah Eliza Knickerbocker, and had three more children, though two died young. The Knickerbocker sisters were daughters of Philip Knickerbocker, the first postmaster at Chilton, Wisconsin. After Sarah Knickerbocker's death in 1877, Parkinson married Amelia Simpich—a German immigrant—with whom he had five more children, with one dying in childhood. His fourth wife survived him.
| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 4, 1879
| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 8, 1892