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G. B. Walker, who is one of the prosperous farmers of Jasper county, located on section 31, in Marion township,
was born on the farm which he now owns and occupies, on April 4, 1843. The father of our subject was James Walker,
who was born near Steubenville, Brooks county, West Virginia, about 1800, and located in Jasper county, Missouri,
on Spring river, in 1836. He was one of the first settlers of the county and he cleared and improved the farm upon
which his son was born and reared. Mr. Walker became one of the leading men of the county, for many years was justice
of the peace and was one of the best political speakers of his locality, the Scotch-Irish blood giving him an eloquent
tongue. Mr. Walker was killed on his farm during the unhappy days of the Civil war.
The mother of our subject was formerly Mary Robinson, and she was a native of Pennsylvania, and was married to
Mr. Walker in Virginia. Her death was in 1862 when about sixty years of age. Seven sons and five daughters were
born to Mr. and Mrs. Walker, and all but two of these grew to maturity, but at this time the only survivors are
our subject and his brother, William. The names of our subject's brothers and sisters were: Joseph, Eliza, Sarah,
John, Eleanor, Mary, James, William, Malinda, Robert and George.
G. B. Walker was the youngest of his parents' children and the only one to locate in Jasper county. Several brothers
died in California and the surviving one resides in Indiana. Mr. Walker was reared among pioneer surroundings,
his first schoolhouse being one of logs, in the forest. Hard work and plenty of it toughened the growing youth,
and, when he was nineteen years old and desired to enlist in Colonel Hunter's Ninth Missouri Cavalry for service
in the Confederate army, he was gladly accepted, and he served gallantly through the war. His experience was a
severe one, as he was twice wounded, once in the right arm and once in the left arm, the latter at the battle of
Marshall, Salem county, Missouri.
After the close of the war Mr. Walker made a cattle trip to Texas, driving them from Texas to a more northern state;
but in 1868 he returned to the old homestead, and on March 6, 1870, was united in marriage to Miss Eliza J. Stith,
who also was born in Jasper county, on March 21, 1852. She was a daughter of Edwin Stith,who was a native of Kentucky
and had located in Jasper county in 1844 and settled on Buck Ranch, in Preston township, where Mr. Stith improved
a farm, leaving there in the spring of 1870, to found a new home in the Cherokee nation. His death occurred the
next year in Washington county, Arkansas. The mother of Mrs. Walker was formerly Emerina Hardaway, who was born
in Kentucky, where she was also educated. She died when about fifty eight years old. Mr. and Mrs. Stith had eleven
children, and all but three of these grew to maturity. Mrs. Walker was the fifth member of the family and was reared
in Jasper county, where she had but few educational advantages in her early years. The log school house with its
primitive equipments was the place where she first learned the rudiments. After her marriage she accompanied her
husband to the old homestead, and where they have resided ever since and have reared two lovely daughters. Mr.
and Mrs. Walker retain many of the old custom of former days and delight to entertain their friends in a most hospitable
manner. The older daughter, Minnie, has passed to a home of her own, being the wife of James F. Ogden, of Colorado;
while the younger, Miss Bessie, is attending school.
The farm occupied by Mr. Walker contains one hundred and twenty five acres of the original homestead, and a general
line of farming has been carried on. Mr. Walker is one of the highly respected citizens of this locality, where
he has lived as boy and man, and for some twenty years has held the office of clerk of the school board. He has
lived an eventful life and has witnessed the growth and development of Jasper county from a wilderness of wild
animals into a community of great cultivated farms, flourishing towns and growing industries, becoming one of the
most important counties of the great state of Missouri.
From:
The Biographical History of Jasper County, Missouri
By Hon. Malcolm G. McGregor
The Lewis Publishing Co.
Chiago 1901
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