Biographies
For
Muscatine County Iowa
1889



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 277

JOSIAH PROCTOR WALTON, President of the Muscatine County Old Settlers' Society, is a native of the Old Granite State. He was born at New Ipswich, Hillsboro Co., N. H., on the 26th of February, 1826, and is the eldest son of Amos and Eunice ( Oakes ) Walton, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Massachusetts.

The tradition respecting the genealogy of the Walton family is, that two brothers of that name emigrated from England about the year 1660, one of whom settled near Boston, and the other in New York. Our subject claims descent from the former.

Joshiah Walton, the great-grandfather of our subject, was born in Rindge, Mass., in 1734, and was a Colonial soldier, and was wounded in a battle with the French and Indians near Lake George, in the French and Indian War of 1755. He subsequently served in the Revolutionary Army, and in 1775 participated in the battle of Bunker Hill, where he was severely wounded. He died at New Ipswich, N. H., in June, 1828, in the ninety-fifth year of his age.

Amos Walton, son of Josiah and father of our subject, was born in Temple N.H., in 1800. and was liberally educated at the New Ipswich Academy, and was a classmate of Franklin Pierce. He married Miss Eunice Oakes, a native of Massachusetts, and a descendant of an old Puritan family. They were the parents of two sons: Josiah P., of this sketch and John W., who died on Muscatine Island in 1882. The Walton family, consisting of Amos Walton, his wife and two sons, became residents of Muscatine County in June, 1838, when Iowa was part of the Territory of Wisconsin. They first settled three miles above Muscatine, at a small hamlet, having four dwellings, then called Geneva. Soon after their arrival at that place Mr. Amos Walton was appointed Postmaster, which position he held until the time of his death, which occurred April 29, 1841. Mrs. Walton survived her husband many years, and died Jan. 25, 1880.

The youthful days of Josiah P. Walton, before coming to Iowa, were spent in the city of Lowell, Mass., and his educational advantages were very good, but he never attended school after he was elevn years of age. As the death of his father occurred when he was but fifteen years of age, he was thus early in life taught the valuable lessons of self-reliance, and he industriously set himself to work, not only to earn an honest subsistance for himself, but to assist in maintaining his widowed mother and younger brother. From 1842 to 1847 he was engaged in farming on Muscatine Island, after which he located in Muscatine, and has ever since been a resident of that city.

About this time Mr. Walton recognized the fact that what a new country most needed was carpenters, so he turned his attention to that trade,and, possessing as he did a large amount of Yankee ingenuity, and a fondness for the use of tools, which he inherited from his father, he soon developed into a first-class workman. In 1848 he worked at his trade for J.J. Hoopes for $13 per month, and took half his pay in store orders, and the other half in real estate, consisting of a lot on Eighth street. The lot cost him $50 or four monthss' service, and in 1851 he improved the lot, and built the house familiarly known as "Evergreen Nook," which with some additions has been his home for nearly forty years.

In 1849 Mr. Walton embarked in business for himself as an architect and builder, and has continued this business until the present time with marked success. The High School buildings of Muscatine and Wilton, the Episcopal Church, the large mansion of B. Hershey, Esq., besides many others were built by him from plans of his own designing, and stand today as monuments to his architectural genius and mechanical skill. He added to his business of architect and builder, that of moving and underbuilding large buildings of both brick and wood, and for this important branch of his business he has the most improved appliances in the State, and his operations in this line have extended to most of the towns and cities in Eastern and Central Iowa. In 1856 he gave to Muscatine the first conservatory in the city, to which many homes have owed their floral taste and beauty, and many public occasions their fairest ornaments and sweetest memorials.

At Clayville, Oneida Co., N.Y., on the 2d of June, 1857 Mr. Walton was united in marriage with Miss Mary Elizabeth Barrows, a native of that place, and a descendant of Revolutionary stock. She is a graduate of the Libual Institute of Clinton, N.Y., and a lady of culture, refinement and high literary attainments. Five dhildren have been born of this union, only three of whom are now living, viz: Alice B., the wife of James Q. Baatty, of Louisa County, Iowa; Lilla P., now Mrs. Amos C. Hopkinson, of Muscatine; and May O., the wife of J. E. Hoopes, also of Muscatine. These ladies are all graduates of the city High School, and all have given much attention to the study of entomology, botany and natural history, and have accumulated one of the finest collections of entomological specimans in the West. Mr. Walton himself has a fondness for the study of natural sciences, and has devoted much of his leisure time to that agreeable pursuit. For about thirty years he has taken the meteorological observations at Muscatine for the United States Signal Service Bureau. This weather record involves the most careful observations for the past fifty years, the first twenty-one of which were made and recorded by Hon. T. S. Parvin, since continued by Mr. Walton, and is the oldest and most extensive weather record in the Valley of the Mississippi. During his residence in this county of half a century Mr. Walton has much of the time been connected with the various enterprises of public importance. He may justly be regarded as the father of the levee on Muscatine Island, and was prominent in its construction; he helped to formulate the law under which the first one was built, and wrote the bill which afterward became a law, under which the present levee and all other levees in Iowa are constructed. In 1864 he was appointed by Gov. Kirkwood to receive the vote of the 37th I.V.I. for President and State offices. He was for a time a Director of the Muscatine Board of Trade. He was one of the charter members of the Muscatine Academy of Science, of which society he is an ex-President and the present Treasurer. He has filled nearly all the offices of the different Masonic bodies, of which he has been a member for thirty-eight years. He has been six times elected to the position he at present occupies, as President of the Muscatine County Old Settlers' Society, and is regarded as a living encyclopedia of Muscatine events from its earliest history. His word is sufficient to settle any dispute referring to events of the last fifty years, as it is well known that his memory is stored with necessary corroborative testimony. In early llife he was Whig, and on the disruption of that party he aided in the formation on the Republican party, and was one of the twelve men who signed the call for the first Republican Convention of the State of Iowa, and has ever since been an enthusiastic supporter of the principles of that party. He is a member if the Trinity Episcopal Church, and was for many years the Superintendent of its Sabbath-school, and is now one of its Vestrymen, and no member of the society has labored with more untiring zeal for its prosperity. Few citizens are more widely known or respected than this worthy pioneer. Coming generations will be pleased to see in this work the fine portrait of this worthy pioneer, which graces the pages of this book.


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