Walker, Marietta Faulconer (Hodges)

WALKER, HODGES, CLARK, RESSEGUIE, ATKINSON, DAVIS, ACKERLEY

Posted By: Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer
Date: 7/11/2019 at 20:42:04

Biography ~ Mrs. Marietta (Hodges) Faulconer Walker
April 10, 1834 ~ April 12, 1930

Among the most highly honored citizens of Lamoni, Decatur county, is Mrs. Marietta Walker, who has achieved much as an educator and editor. She was in her maidenhood Miss Marietta Hodges and was born in Willoughby, Ohio, on the 10th of April, 1834, a daughter of Curtis and Lucy (Clark) Hodges, natives respectively of New York and Vermont. The paternal ancestors were English and those in the maternal line were Scotch. Mr. and Mrs. Hodges were married in the Green Mountain state and were en route from that state to Missouri when our subject was born in Ohio. When she was about five years of age the family were forced to leave their home farm in western Missouri, some fifty miles from Independence, which comprised three hundred and twenty acres of good land, because of sentiment adverse to the Church of Latter Day Saints. The father was wounded but succeeded in escaping to Illinois and settled first in Perry, Pike county, but later cast in his lot with the colony at Nauvoo, where his family joined him. In 1846, when Brigham Young came into the leadership of the church, Mr. Hodges and his family returned to Pennsylvania and there he passed away. Subsequently his widow and daughter Marietta went to St. Louis, Missouri, and later Mrs. Hodges removed to Indiana and resided with a son-in-law there.

Mrs. Walker was educated at the Oxford (Ohio) Female College, a famous school in that day, and was graduated there from in 1859. Subsequently her sister, Mrs. Lyons, died in San Antonio, Texas, leaving two daughters: Mrs. Lucy L. Resseguie, who has resided at Lamoni, Iowa, for several years past: and Mrs. Lida Atkinson, the widow of Colonel John Atkinson, of Detroit, Michigan. In order to better care for her sister’s daughters, Mrs. Walker removed to San Antonio, Texas, and was for a number of years principal of the San Antonio Female College. Her influence as a teacher of young women was deep and lasting. She was married in 1861 to Robert Faulconer, who served in the Confederate army and died in the second year of the war, giving his life to the cause which he believed to be just. To that union was born a daughter, who is now Mrs. Lucy Faulconer, of Los Angeles, California.

In 1865 Mrs. Walker returned to the Prairie state and located at Sandwich and for some time made her home with her mother and brother-in-law, who had previously settled there. Later she was married to S. F. [Samuel Frye (1831 - 1889)] Walker and they eventually became residents of Lamoni, Decatur county, Iowa. Mrs. Walker’s wide knowledge, practical wisdom and literary ability were utilized by the church of which she is a devoted member and for many years she edited the magazine Autumn Leaves, published at the Herald office, and she was likewise the editor of Zion’s Hope, a Sunday-school paper. For more than twenty-five years she was connected with the publications of the church and only resigned the editorship of Zion’s Hope when she had reached the advanced age of eighty years. She is also the author of several books, including “The Church in an Early Day;” “The Indian Maiden,” a temperance work; “Joan of Arc,” and “Fireside Talks with Our Girls.” Shortly after the close of the Civil war and before beginning her work as an editor she was offered the presidency of her alma mater, the Oxford Female College at Oxford, Ohio, but refused to consider the position as she had decided to give up educational work. She is still residing in her home in Lamoni, which is quite near the church and which was built by Mr. Walker about 1880. By her second marriage Mrs. Walker had two children. Mrs. Frances H. Davis is a widow living in Lamoni and has three sons: Walker C., who is in a bank in Oskaloosa; Dwight, of Lamoni; and Gerald Bruce, who is attending school in Marion, Iowa. Lois Sarah is the wife of A.L. Ackerley and is mentioned elsewhere in this work.

Through here connection with Autumn Leaves and Zion’s Hope Mrs. Walker has become widely known throughout the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints and under her editorship the two papers gained a high rank among religious periodicals. They became factors of importance in binding together congregations in various localities and in increasing interest in church activities, and moreover the high moral tone which characterized them made them powerful agencies in the up building of character. They also had literary merit and Mrs. Walker gained much praise for her able conduct of the periodicals. She has given the church an important place in her life and has been one of the most active members in the work of the local congregation as well as an important factor in the publication interests of the denomination. During the many years that she has lived at Lamoni she has enjoyed the respect of her fellow citizens and has many friends who are bound to her by strong ties of affection.

NOTE: S.F. Walker was the editor of The Lamoni Gazette newspaper. Marietta donated land for the purpose of establishing Graceland College. In 1907 a girls' dormitory was constructed on Graceland College's campus and named in Marrietta Walker's honor. Both Marietta and S. F. Walker were interred at Rose Hill Cemetery, Lamoni, Iowa.

S.F. Walker biography
SOURCES:
Howell, Prof. J.M. & Smith, Heman C. "History of Decatur County And Its People." S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Chicago IL. 1915.

Transcribed for IAGenWeb/Decatur County

Note by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2015

~ ~ ~ ~
Marietta (Hodges) Faulconer Walker
One of the defining founders of Graceland College (present-day Graceland University), Marietta Walker was born on April 10, 1834, in Willoughby, Ohio, the daughter of Curtis and Lucy (Clark) Hodges. She was educated [1859] at Oxford College for Women in Ohio and as an assistant school teacher. Marietta's sister, Elizabeth (Hodges) Lyons, died and left behind two small daughters. Marietta moved to Texas to care for her nieces. Here, she also served as president of San Antonio Female College.

On August 2, 1860, Marietta married Robert Faulconer, who was killed in 1862 at the Battle of the Yellow River during the U.S. Civil War. Following her husband's death, Marietta and her daughter Lucy moved to Sandwich, Illinois, where Marietta was baptized into the RLDS faith by Father Z. H. Gurley on July 30, 1865. Marietta helped transcribe the manuscript of Inspired Version of the Holy Scriptures [1867] for publication. Mark Forscutt, later president of Graceland, worked on the transcription with Marietta.

Marietta moved to Nevada where she married Samuel Frye Walker, a self-educated rancher and philosopher, on November 7, 1869, and in 1877 the family moved to a Lamoni farmhouse located just east of the present campus. Marietta had two more daughters, Frances and Lois, before she was widowed again in [April 1] 1889.

By the end of the 1880's, talk of an RLDS Church college became active, and Marietta began envisioning a college on the knoll between the Walker farm and the town. At the 1893 RLDS General Conference, Joseph Smith III announced that the college committee would begin receiving donations of land and money, although it was still undecided whether the college should be located in Lamoni or in Independence, Missouri. Marietta was the first to respond, offering to donate 20 acres of her farmland for the campus. Minnie A. Wickes and the town banker, W. A. Hopkins, contributed additional acreage, and Lamoni became officially designated as the college's site by the end of the year.

In addition to her service to Graceland, Marietta served her church as the Sunday school superintendent. She began editing "the Home Column" for the Saints' Herald in 1885. In 1888, she founded the RLDS children's publication Autumn Leaves which she edited until 1904. She helped develop the church's Zion's Hope magazine for young children. [NOTE: Sometimes Marietta wrote under the pen name of "Frances Walker."]

Marietta helped found Lamoni's Childrens Home for Orphans and children whose parents could not care for them. She arranged for the former home of Bishop Elijah Banta to be used for that purpose.

Marietta started the Student's Society, which expanded into the Religo-Literary Society, founded the Daughters of Zion for young women and the Women's Auxiliary for Social Service. Through the "Home Column" of the Saints' Herald, she raised funds to purchase theEvanelia, a gospel boat that was used for missionary travel to the South Seas Islands.

Marietta is the only person to ever have two Graceland campus buildings named after her - Marietta Hall [1907] and Walker Hall.

In 1923, shortly after her 89th birthday, the students and faculty unanimously gave her the title "Mother of Graceland." She died [April 11, 1930] just four months after the opening of Walker Hall, which informally bore her name before the building was dedicated in June of 1930.

Marietta was 96 years old at the time of her death. She was interred beside her second husband in Rose Hill Cemetery, Lamoni, Iowa.

Marietta wrote the following:

Questions of the Holy Scriptures, (1869)
A Compendium of the Faith with H. Stebbins, (1888)
Questions, answers and brief stories on and from the Holy Scriptures, (1889)
With the Church in the Early Day, (1891)
The Indian Maiden, (1907)
Our Boys, (unknown)
Fireside Chats With Our Girls, (1901)
Brief Sketch of the Life and Death of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, (unknown)
Gospel Story and Footsteps of Jesus, (1904)
Object-Lessons on Temperance, (1907).
Afterglow, (unknown).
Samuel Frye Walker biography
SOURCES:
geocitiessites.com/scott_norwood/WalkerM.html
Price, Pamela. "Marietta Walker - A Devoted laborer for the Lord."
Edwards, Paul M. "The Hilltop Where . . . An Informal History of Graceland College." Venture Foundation. Pp. 27, 46, 64, 75, 160. Lamoni, IA. 1972.
Goehner, David. “The Graceland College Book of Knowledge: From A To Z.” Pp. 444-45. Herald House. Independence MO. 1997.

Transcription and notes by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2016