My Genealogy Hound

G. L. Walker, ex-county clerk and collector of Cedar County, Mo., was born in Dade County, Mo., in 1841, his parents being Col. Benjamin F. and Nancy (Leeper) Walker, and his grandfather Thomas Walker. The latter was a native of Bucks County, Penn., and by profession was a physician, graduating under Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia. He afterward located in Washington County, Va., and at the age of sixty years was married and had a family of four children, all of whom he lived to see grown and married. He lived in Claiborne County, Tenn., for several years, and in 1837 came to Dade County, Mo., and located one mile south of Arcola, where he died in 1845, at the age of ninety-seven years. He was a remarkably well preserved man for his years, and at the time of his death had not a decayed tooth in his head. He served in the Black Hawk War in 1832, and owing to this he was disinherited by his parents, who were Quakers. He practiced his profession through many years, and, although totally blind the last fifteen years of his life, still continued his practice, his wife taking him to his patients and preparing the medicine at his direction. He was in many respects a remarkable man. Col. Benjamin F. Walker was born in Claiborne County, Tenn., in 1820, and in 1836 came to Greene County, Mo., where he married and lived two years, going then to Dade County, in which he afterward became surveyor and represented it in the State Legislature. In 1848 he located in Cedar County, which he also represented in the State Legislature several terms, and of which he was public administrator and surveyor. During the late war he raised the first company in Cedar County for the Confederate States Army, and at the organization of the regiment was elected lieutenant-colonel, and at the death of Colonel Cawthon was promoted to the rank of colonel. In 1868 he located in Washington County, Ark., which he represented in the State Legislature, and was also a member of the Senate. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention which framed the present constitution for the State of Arkansas. Like his father, he was a man of marked characteristics, a deep thinker, and in private, as well as public life, has won the confidence and respect of all. His wife was born in Maury County, Tenn., in 1823, and died in 1846, after which he married again. Guian L. Walker was the eldest child by the first marriage, and grew to manhood on a farm. In March, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Eighteenth Missouri Infantry, Confederate States Army, and served until the close of the war, participating in the battles of Newtonia, Humansville, Prairie Grove and Helena, being captured in the latter battle, and was retained a prisoner at Alton, Ill., eight months, and at Fort Delaware twelve months. He was ordnance sergeant of his regiment, and in 1863 was transferred from Company G to Pindel’s First Battery of Sharp Shooters. In September, 1865, he was married to Miss Mary A. Roberts, in Fannin County, Texas. She was born in Roane County, Tenn., in 1843, and by Mr. Walker became the mother of five children: Virgil L., Cora E., Susan E., Mary L. and John F. In 1866 Mr. Walker returned to Cedar County, Mo., and for one year was engaged in farming and teaching school, when he turned his attention solely to farming. In 1874 he was elected collector of Cedar County, serving two years, and in 1878 was elected county clerk, being re-elected in 1882. He is a Democrat, a member of the A. F. & A. M., the Knights of Pythias, and he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.