ROBERT C. WALTERS

View Portrait of Mr. & Mrs. R. C. Walters

Robert C. Walters is a representative of one of the old and well known pioneer families of Cedar county. He was born three miles northeast of Tipton, in Fairfield township, in one of the typical log cabins of the early days. His birth occurred December 22, 1856, and in the intervening years, covering more than half a century, he has been a continuous resident of Cedar County. When he was only a year old his parents removed to what became the family homestead on section 34, Fairfield township. Extended mention of his father and mother is made in connection with the sketch of J. P. Walters on another page of this volume.

Robert C. Walters was early trained to the work of the home farm, becoming familiar with the tasks incident toits development and cultivation in his boyhood days. He divided his time between the work of the fields and the acquirement of an education in the public schools and remained upon the old homestead up to the time of his marriage, when he bought a farm adjoining his father’s place on the east. He thus came into possession ofeighty acres of land and later he added eighty acres more, thus becoming the owner of one hundred and sixty acres on section 33, Fairfield township. He occupied that place for ten years when he sold out with the intention of going to Kansas. Changing his plans, however, he cultivated a rented farm for three years, after which he purchased the Stone Mill property, two and one-half miles south and a half-mile west of Tipton in Center township. This comprised one hundred and sixty acres of land. Later he traded forty acres of this for a home in Mount Vernon, which he still owns. He sold the remainder of his farm in March, 1910. In the meantime he rented his land for ten years and made his home in Mount Vernon, that he might give his children the better educational advantages offered in a town. While residing there he occupied a position as traveling salesman.

Mr. Walters was married first to Miss Elizabeth Ocheltree, who was born near Tipton on the 19th of August, 1855, and was a daughter of Maurice Ocheltree. She died in Mount Vernon, September 15, 1900. After losing his wife Mr. Walters went to California, where he remained for two years. He then returned to Cedar county and on the 28th of October, 1905, was again married, his second union being with Mrs. Nannie (Wisener) Sheets, who was born in Ohio in 1857 and in 1865 came to Iowa with her parents, Amos and Marinda (Pitsenbarger) Wisener, who are now residents of Tipton. On removing to Iowa, however, they first settled in Mechanicsville, and later took up their abode in the county seat. Nannie Wisener was first married on the 9th of May, 1875, to Jacob Sheets, who died April 5, 1900. She had five children by her first marriage: Arthur, a resident of Omaha, Nebraska; Roy, living in West Liberty, Iowa; Frank, whose home is in Cedar Rapids; Myrtle, who is the wife of Roy Stewart of West Branch, Iowa; and Evelyn, the wife of O. L. Wright of Cedar Rapids. By his first marriage Mr. Walters had three children: Forest, who is living in Mount Vernon; Roy, at home; and Elsie, of Rock Island, Illinois.

After his second marriage Mr. Walters resided upon the farm for a year before taking up his abode in Tipton, where he now makes his home. He was one of the first members of the Modern Woodmen Camp in this county, having been identified with the organization for a quarter of a century. He has spent practically his entire life here and those who have known him from boyhood to the present are numbered among his stanchest friends, a fact which indicates that his has been an honorable record, winning for him the good will, confidence, trust and respect of his fellowmen.