WILLIAM WALTON
William W. Walton was born in Brandon, Rutland county, Vermont, February 25, 1818. Brandon was also the birthplace of Stephen A. Douglas with whom he was acquainted when a boy. He is a son of Jacob and Polly (Green) Walton, who both died when he was in his sixth year. He obtained his education in Vermont and Massachusetts. He removed to Gardner, Worcester county, in the latter State, in 1837, and engaged in chairmaking. William W. went to California in 1850, and worked in the mines till December, 1851, then engaged in farming one year, after which he returned to the east, locating in Portland, Maine, where he remained till February, 1856. He then went to Pike county, Illinois and there resided upon a farm, until he came to Cass county, Iowa, in 1865, and settled upon a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, just north of Lewis. In 1870 he sold this property and went east and spent one winter in visiting his friends, returning in the spring of 1871. At that time he purchased the interest of Dr. Findley, in the firm of Davis and Findley. In the fall of 1876 he sold his interest in the above concern. In 1875 he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, one mile east of Lewis. He still owns and rents this property. He is at present engaged in raising horses. Mr. Walton was united in marriage, in Massachusetts, October 17, 1844, with Susan Wright, a native of that State. They had one child, Sarah W., who died in 1846, aged nine months. Previous to the organization of the Republican party, Mr. Walton was an old line Whig, but since that time has been a Republican.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 554.
