WALKER, Mary J. (NEWELL), 1843-1924

NEWELL, WALKER, PLEASANTS, NEELY

Posted By: Betty Hootman-Volunteer
Date: 2/23/2013 at 15:02:21

Fairfield (IA) Daily Ledger
Monday, 30 June 1924

MARY J. WALKER DIED SUNDAY AT 4
Had Been Ill For The Past Two Years And Was An Old Resident Here

Mary J. Walker, mother of C. S. Walker passed away at the Jefferson county hospital Sunday afternoon at 4 o’clock, after an illness of two years. Funeral services will be held at the home, 103 West Washington street Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock in charge of Dr. H. Sears Thomson, interment will be in Evergreen cemetery.

Mary J. Walker was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Newell and was born February 4, 1843 in Warren county, Indiana. On August 16, 1866 she was married to Peter H. Walker who preceded her in death 14 years ago. Mrs. Walker has made her home in Fairfield 30 years.
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Mary J. Newell was born Feb. 4th, 1843, in Warren County, Ind., and departed this life in Fairfield, Iowa, June 29th, at 4 p.m. at the age of 81 years, 4 months and 29 days.

She was the sixth of a family of eleven children; two of her brothers died before the age of three years. All other members of her family, except Percy A. Newell, who was killed in the Civil War, lived out the three score and ten span of life.

She came to Iowa with her parents when four years of age and settled in the village of Birmingham, and experienced the hardships and joys of early pioneer days. She taught school for a number of years in the schools of Van Buren County. She was married to Peter H. Walker Aug. 16th, 1866 and lived on a farm two miles north of Birmingham, from that time until the spring of 1890, when the family moved to a farm four miles north of Fairfield. Later with her husband she moved into Fairfield, where her husband, known to his many friends as Major Walker, died in March, 1910. Since that time she has made her home with her son and only child Chas. S. Walker.

She united with the Presbyterian church in Birmingham in her early girlhood days, and later in life she transferred her membership to the first Presbyterian church of Fairfield. Of a patient and loving disposition, a great lover of home, modest and unassuming, she endeared herself to all her acquaintances. Though unable in her declining years to take an active part in religious services she was ever concerned about the welfare of friends and relatives, desiring that they should ever follow the paths of righteousness, ever against the snares and temptations of this world.

Besides a number of old friends and neighbors she leaves to mourn her loss, two brothers, Dr. S. C. Newell of Helena, Mont.; John N. Newell of Mountain Grove, Mo., and one sister, Mrs. Josie Pleasants of Birmingham, Iowa; one son, C. S. Walker of Fairfield; three grandchildren, C. E. Walker of Burlington, Mrs. Bernice Neely of Corydon, Iowa, Margaret Walker of Fairfield; four great grandchildren, Pearl, Ila May, Ruth and Robert Walker of Burlington.

The funeral service was held at the home of her son Charles in Fairfield, on Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock, in charge of Rev. Sears Thompson, her pastor, and interment in the Evergreen cemetery.

**Evergreen Cemetery listing: “February 4, 1843 – June 29, 1924”

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book B, page 294, Keosauqua Public Library; Keosauqua, IA