Henry Walker

HENRY WALKER

In numerous places on the township map of Johnson county, Iowa, may be seen the name of Henry Walker. In all, according to the latest deeds of record, 1,100 acres are included in the ownership of this successful farmer. These represent, in part, the accumulations of fifty-eight years of industry and frugality as an agriculturist in eastern Iowa. If further proof is needed that an energetic American citizen, under the favorable conditions of rural life in the great west, may become wealthy, the reader is cited to the accomplishments of numbers of Mr. Walker's neighbors in that productive section of the Hawkeye state known as Johnson county. Scores of bronzed farmers in Fremont, Lincoln, and Pleasant Valley townships can write their wealth in six figures, and yet other scores can crowd five figures to the limit. The advocates of the "back-to-the-farm" movement need look no further than this region for arguments that are convincing of the profitable nature of agriculture at its best.

Henry Walker took his elementary education in farming in Indiana, to which state his father and mother removed from Portage county, Ohio, which was his birthplace, when he was four years of age. That was in 1833, and seven years later, in 1840, the family settled in Johnson county, Iowa. James Walker, the father (a native of Virginia), and his wife, Betsey Burnett, determined to have a home of their own in the new west, and so the head of the family visited the government land office at Dubuque and entered his application for a homeliKMiWAlMIK'AL stead in Johnson county. The couple spent the remainder of their days in this county.

Henry (born March 9, 1829, twenty miles east of Cleveland, Ohio) is the sole survivor of his father's family of nine children. The birth roster, which (pathetic indeed) is also a death-roll, is as follows: Robert, married and died years ago; Nancy, dead many years; Samuel, married, and a successful farmer near River Junction for years, dead; Eliza, died in Indiana; Amos Wortinger, dead; James, Joseph, Laura, and Fannie — all dead; Henry, alone of all his father's household.

survives at the age of eighty-three. There must inevitably be a last man in every family. Comforting the thought to the survivor (as in this case) that old age has brought peace and prosperity, with honor and a good conscience.

At twenty-four years of age Henry Walker bought his first farm, which is now his old homestead. His purchase consisted of 200 acres, and his deed bears date of 1853. Additions from time to time, as stated in the first paragraph of this article, have swelled his holdings to 1,100 acres in Fremont and Pleasant Valley townships. A rich man in the midst of his acres, there is no man in all the region of River Junction and vicinity who is more thoroughly respected and esteemed than Henry Walker. Hard by the village of River Junction stands the modest little Methodist chapel with its beautiful, welbkept "God's acre" adjoining. Henry Walker donated the land for both, and his active membership of many years in the church has added to his beneficence the benediction of his faith. Mrs. Walker was a member of the Unitarian church.

On Friday, June 30, 1911, the old settlers of Johnson county held their annual picnic in the beautiful grove adjoining the River Junction M. E. chapel, and the speakers on that occasion made reference in their encomiums to the geiierosity and thoughtfulness of Henry Walker in donating for the permanent use of the organization the picturesque three acres where, under the shade of the great oaks, maples, and hickories, the first fathers of Johnson county, with their wives and descendants, could fittingly celebrate the anniversaries of their yesterday and meet together in neighborly feasting and conversation. Henry Walker was present on that occasion, and he was one of the "young men" of the company — several pioneers being there who had passed their ninetieth year.

The marriage of Henry Walker to Miss Harriet McComas, a native of Indiana, who came to Johnson county with her parents, took place in 1854. The couple were Messed with two children: Laura, married to William Fairall, of Iowa City, died in 1909; Mary, now Mrs. Charles Shellady, of Fremont township. Harriet McComas Walker died in 1880. Mr. Walker was married again to Miss Martha Sweet, daughter of David and Lydia Sweet, who died April '2('\ 1!1 1, aged 7-1 years. Primitive democracy and fundamental honesty go hand in hand; it is therefore not surprising that Henry Walker is an old-fashioned democrat. He is one of the "undaunted minority" which holds the balance-wheel of the republic true.

It is a far look backward across the years when the children made merry at the fireside of James Walker. In that time the Rocky Mountain Limited has displaced the patient oxen; the traction thresher has crushed the flail to a pulp; the loyalblood of the north has washed the black stain of slavery from the nation's escutcheon; and everywhere that men once crept

HENRY WALKEB in arduous, footsore journeyings their descendants are chasing the eagle in his native air, looking down on the primitive paths of their fathers; electricity, speaking daily of a world's activities, has long-time flashed across the post-horse's grave, and the hastening feet of a great procession of Americans pestle the dust in the mortar where the forefathers sleep. Henry Walker lias lived in remnants of two great centuries, and his soul is big with memories; but who doubts that in the eventime of life his eyes feast in reverie on the faces of the l.others and sisters and the father and mother of the years ago, while mystic voices echo from the ingleside whose members have died and-Town cold? "At eventime it shall be light," and the torch of faith shall blaze the pathway of the surviving member of James Walker's family to reunion with his own.

As printed in Leading events in Johnson County, Iowa, history (1912). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.