Dr. Arthur Phillip Walton (1877-1945)

WALTON, WALKER, HAY

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:13

From Nevada Evening Journal March 12, 1945 (page 4)

Funeral Rites for Dr. A. P. Walton Held Saturday

Maxwell, Mar. 12 -- Funeral rites for A. P. Walton, a former Pastor of the local Presbyterian church who passed away Thursday, March 1st, in a nursing home in Des Moines following a series of strokes, were held Saturday morning March 3rd, in Maxwell at Cooper's Funeral Chapel. Six Presbyterian Ministers officiated, three of the Presbytery and Rev. Williams of Colfax, Rev. Silas A. Wadding of Dexter and Rev. David S. DeBest of Maxwell. Each spoke during the rites in remembrance of their friend and brother, a eulogy of the deceased. Mrs. Ray Gooden, soloist sang three hymns "Face To Face", "I Love To Tell The Story" and "Rock of Ages."

Pallbearers were O. F. Strombeck, Sid G. Sherman, Willis Rupp, Earl Bowen, K. C. Porter and Donald Hoyt.

Rev. Silas A. Wadding read the following obituary during the service.

Arthur Phillip Walton was born in Augusta county, Virginia, near the village of Mt. Solon, August 17th, 1875. He passed away in Des Moines on March 1st, 1945, at the age of 69 following an eight month's illness. Dr. Walton's parents were hard working people who were active in both secular and sacred phases of the community life. Here in the country store, the blacksmith shop and the community store, Doctor Walton came to know people and to realize their spiritual needs.

The Southern Presbyterian Church exercised such an influence on the lives of that little community, that he and many other young men entered the ministry. During his early years in the ministry and prior to completing his training, Dr. Walton served as a Circuit Rider in West Virginia and Virginia. Here through the long months he rode his horse from church to church, receiving as material compensation his meals, a place to sleep and care for his horse.

After completing his college and seminary training, he moved to Seymour, Iowa, and became pastor of the United Brethren church. Here he married Myrtle Elsie Walker and here their first child, a son, was born. Moving from Seymour to Sumner in the northern part of the state, Dr. Walton became ill and was advised to return to Virginia. While in Virginia, he not only gained in health but served his adopted home community of Elkton as pastor of Southern Presbyterian church. In Elkton, a daughter was born.

During these three years, Dr. Walton acquired a love of the out-of-doors, which was not only influence him in the development of the hobbies of fishing and hunting, but was also to inspire him in the preparation of sermons and in his work with young people.

During the rest of his ministry Dr. Walton forced his hobby to serve the church as he organized various outing groups and became a sponsor of Boy Scout, Camp Fire and other similar activities.

Returning to the mid-west, Dr. Walton served churches at Sharpsburg, Brooklyn, Maxwell, Monticello, Waukon and Villisca in Iowa, Hopkins in Missouri, Lexington in Nebraska and Fulda in Minnesota For a time he served in the Presbytery of Des Moines, doing some special work at Osceola under the direction of the Board of National Missions. His last pastorate before retiring was at Cleghorn in the Presbytery of Sioux City.

At Monticello, during the influenza epidemic following World War I, Dr. Walton's wife passed away. While at Waukon he married Mildred Hay sho later was to assist him so notably in his young people's work. This work reached a peak at Lexington where he was responsible for developing the Young People's Summer Conference in the Presbytery of Kearney, Nebr. Visiting some eighty churches, he raised the money for building and grounds and later supervised the organization of the conference program.

Throughout the years, he always felt the greatest price in the part which he had in building the Maxwell Presbyterian church which, today, as thirty years ago, stands as a beautiful monument to the successful efforts of a united congregation.

Dr. Walton's life was a happy one, he played as hard as he worked.

There are many stories still told around the town of Sharpsburg about him where as a young pastor he played practical joke on the elders and member of the congregation. He never lost his sense of humor nor his enjoyment of a joke on someone or on himself. He met people easily and made friends among all classes. And as he made friends, he remembered the life purpose adopted in young manhood to "tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love."

He leaves to mourn his passing many friends and relatives, among the latter, his wife, Mildred Hay Walton, his sons, William Edward Walton and George William Hay and his daughter, Margareta Virginia Walton. He will be interred in the cemetery of Seymour, Ia., beside his first wife, in the community where he held his first mid-western pastorate.