Walker, Henry

WALKER, RHYNEBECK, BENSON, DARLING, BENSEN, SHADDUCK

Posted By: Volunteer Subscribers
Date: 4/15/2003 at 22:22:13

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

HENRY WALKER.

Henry Walker, who is a retired farmer and one of the pioneer settlers of Elk River township, was born on February 5, 1832, in Vermont, and he was a son of William and Eliza (Rhynebeck) Walker, both of whom were born in Ireland, although the mother was of Scotch descent. They were married in 1825, coming immediately to the United States and purchasing a farm in Vermont. For some years they remained there and then sold that property and moved to Columbia county, New York, in 1836, where for ten years Mr. Walker followed farming.

At that date many ambitious farmers, anxious to provide land for their growing sons, began to look to the West, and Mr. Walker finally decided to make the journey thither also. By the Erie canal from Albany, the family reached Buffalo, crossing the lake to Chicago, which at that time was but a trading post, with no promise of the magnificent city into which it has developed, and here they secured an ox team, and two weeks later reached Sabula, Jackson county, Iowa. During this long trip, our subject walked the greater part of the way, hunting game, providing plenty for the maintenance of the family. After six weeks passed in Sabula, the family came to section 3, in 1846, where Mr. Walker rented a farm. The next year he bought forty acres of raw, wild land, the same our subject now owns and is justly proud of, and here a house was built, which now serves as a stable, but is still in a good state of preservation. The shingles, which still make a good strong roof, are the same ones put there in 1847, and they were fashioned by our subject by hand. So expert did he become in this business that he was engaged to make shingles for his neighbors.

William Walker resided on this farm and expended upon it his time and strength until the time of his death with the exception of seven years, during which time he resided in Lyons. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Walker, and six of these grew to maturity only, one of these being a daughter. George Walker died in 1872, and was buried in Feed’s Grove, Iowa; Robert lives in California, having gone there during the gold fever days of 1849; Bryn died and was buried in Miles, Iowa; Henry, the subject of this sketch; Wesley was a member of Company A, Twenty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war, and is now a farmer in Nebraska; Jason died in the state of New York; Dedrick died in the state of New York; and Jane, who married J. S. Walker, lives in Preston, Iowa. After a long and useful life our subject’s father died in 1877 at the age of seventy-four years, the mother having passed away in 1858, at the age of fifty-two, and both lie buried at Feed’s Grove, Iowa. During life Mr. Walker had first been active in the Whig party and later was identified with the Republican party. For many years he was township trustee and also served in many minor offices.

Henry Walker, of this biography, attended school in New York before the family moved to Iowa, after which he assisted his father in breaking up the prairie farm, using for this purpose a six-yoke ox team. In 1858 he was married to Miss Sarah C. Bensen, who was a native of the state of New York and who had come West with her brothers and sisters and engaged in school teaching. To this union one child was born which died in infancy, the mother also dying on February 7, 1869, and both were buried at Feed’s Grove, Iowa. In October, 1869, Mr. Walker was united in marriage to Miss Belle B. Darling, who was a daughter of Charles and Amanda (Bensen) Darling, both of whom were natives of Dutchess county, New York, who came to Wisconsin in 1846 and to Elk River township, Clinton county, Iowa, in 1852, purchasing a one-quarter section of land where they spent the remainder of their days, he dying in 1891 at the age of seventy-three years and she in 1894 at the age of sixty-eight years. The four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Darling were: Belle B., the wife of our subject; Frank J., an engineer on the North Western Railroad, who resides in Clinton; Charles L., who died in 1901, and George H., who lives on his father’s place in Elk River township. To our subject and wife was born one daughter,--Grace B., who married Willis J. Shadduck, and they reside at Miles, Iowa, their four children being,--Mabel, Homer, Gladys and Wayne.

Mr. Walker is one of the prominent men of this county and has spent a long and industrious life upon the farm, for which he owns the original paper which was signed by President Jackson when his father entered this land. During all these years he has added to the original tract, but for some time he has not been actively employed in its cultivation. The family are worthy and consistent members of the Methodist church at Feed’s Grove, to which he is a liberal contributor.