1836-1840, 1856 |
By 1856 when he decided to leave Milton, Indiana, it is certain that at least four of Francis Samuel's siblings who had joined in the move to Wayne County, Indiana, from Tennessee, had moved to Iowa and three of them had settled in Henry County in or near the town of New London (originally named Dover). These were Prudence [Walker] Hardin, Rebecca [Walker] Tryer, and Jane [Walker] Leas. The 1850 census of that Southeast Iowa county lists them all; Jane and two of her children were living with Rebecca and John Tryer. Brother James was living near a now defunct town of Hammondburg, Iowa, in Warren County, a county south of Polk (Des Moines) where Indianola is its principal city today. Not all of the family moved or left Indiana, however.
CHARLES - GEORGE - THOMAS
THOMAS WALKER
Francis S. Walker's elder brother, Thomas, was born December 19, 1802 while the family was living in Knox County, Tennessee. September 24, 1829 Thomas married Ann Covert, a native of Kentucky, in Johnson County, Indiana. They had at least six children: Julia Catherine Walker, Elizabeth Ann Walker, Rebecca Jane Walker, George Washington Walker, Mary Elenore Vandelina Walker, and John Thomas Walker (who died in infancy).
Thomas remained in Indiana for the the rest of his life, even as so many of his siblings moved west as new lands opened up. In 1861 he was living in Franklin Township of Johnson County, as in the letter on this site from James to Versey Rodgers he mentions Thomas' address, and the fact that all of Thomas' children were grown up and married by that date.
Not a lot is known about Francis S. Walker's sisters Elenor and Sarah nor his brother Charles.
CHARLES - GEORGE - ELENOR
ELENOR WALKER
Elenor, also known as "Elender," married a man named Thomas Allen December 28, 1820, in Wayne County, Indiana. The "Allens" were mentioned in an 1861 letter posted on this site by Francis Samuel's son, Leander, and by his brother, James, so they evidently were living until that year, their home still in Indiana rather than in Iowa.
CHARLES - GEORGE - SARAH
SARAH WALKER
Sarah Walker, born about 1798, married Joseph Campbell of Knox County, Tennessee in Wayne County, Indiana on April 7, 1821. They had four known children, John, Samuel, Malinda, and Samuel. The Campbells are never mentioned in any of the resource material available on this site, so there are no clues as to what might have become of them or their descendants.
CHARLES - GEORGE - CHARLES
CHARLES WALKER
Brother Charles was born in about 1796 in Knox County, Tennessee, and nothing much is known of him, but he may be one of the Walkers in the Wayne County census by 1830. It seems he also may have moved to Warren County, Iowa to live with his brother, James, by 1860, as a Charles Walker aged 64 (born in Tennessee) was listed on that particular census.
CHARLES - GEORGE - GEORGE
GEORGE WALKER
By 1862 Francis Samuel's brother George was living in Missouri and married to Sarah Lane (they wed July 28, 1827 in Hendricks, Indiana), and it seems that this family last saw Francis and his family some nineteen years earlier in 1843 (which would have been in Indiana). Sarah wrote a letter to Francis' family in 1862; it can be seen in the Paperwork Section either in a text version or with scanned images (large files - four total) of the letter. Pictures of Sarah and George Walker's descendants through their son William Nelson Walker, are courtesy of their descendant, Nona Jones.
CHARLES - GEORGE - PRUDENCE
PRUDENCE [WALKER] HARDIN
Francis' sister Prudence Hardin, age 42, born to George and Julian Walker in Tennessee, became the wife of William J. Hardin, a native of Kentucky. They were married in Wayne County, Indiana, too. The Hardins, farmers, were listed on the 1850 Henry County census along with their children: Thomas B. T. (21 years old and also a farmer but living at the same residence), Rebecca Ann, John W. [Wesley], and Sarah Catharine. [This] Prudence and William [Hardin] had also left Indiana for Iowa between 1836 and 1839, according to the census figures listing the states in which their children were born and the fact William registered land near New London in 1840. The couple eventually had another child. Two of their four children were born in Indiana and two in Iowa.
It seems the Hardin family was fairly prosperous farm folk, having land holdings valued at $3,200 as listed on the 1850 census; that was an impressively large sum compared to the assets many of the farmers of the day.
One of Prudence and William's sons, John Wesley Hardin, wrote several letters to his cousins Leander Walker and Mary Jane Leas during the Civil War which can be viewed in the Paperwork section of this web site.
CHARLES - GEORGE - REBECCA
REBECCA [WALKER] TRYER
The youngest of George and Julia's ten children, Rebecca Walker, was born in 1815 in Knox County, Tennessee. On September 20, 1838 in Marion County, Indiana, she married John Francis Tryer, a native son of Miamisburg, Ohio, born there on August 28, 1819. The couple had six children, several of whom died in infancy or childbirth. One of their daughters who did survive was Minerva Jane Tryer, known as "Jennie." Rebecca, John and Minerva are listed on the 1850 Henry County Census, he as a "farmer/merchant" with land valued at $300. Pictures of all three of these members of the Tryer family are posted on pages of the "Walker Tour."
CHARLES - GEORGE - JANE
JANE [WALKER] LEAS
Jane Walker was born September 7, 1804, while the family was in Knox County, Tennessee. She was likely named after her aunt Jane Walker of Ireland. Jane moved with the part of her family the moved from Tennessee to Indiana, for she was there by 1826 according to online records of the L. D. S. church. She was married in Wayne County on February 9, 1826 to Thomas Chapman Leas (born in 1802 in the state of Pennsylvania). The surname of his family is spelled "Leas," "Lease," and even "Leese." The family apparently settled in Covington, Fountain County, Indiana, where at least the following children were born:
- George Washington Leas, July 4, 1827,
- Mary Jane, born June 22, 1829, who was given the nickname "Versey." She received a letter from her cousin, John Weseley Hardin, sent during the Civil War, the text of which is reprinted in the paperwork section of the site). Additionally Versey's uncle James sent a letter to Versey from Warren County, Iowa; this letter was written in 1861 before the Civil War started and also contained parts written for her mother and two brothers, George and James. The text of this letter is reproduced in this site.
- James, born April 1, 1832
- Thomas E. Leas, born October 4, 1835
The 1850 Henry County Census lists only Jane, James, and Mary Jane living with Jane Leas' sister's family, Rebecca and John Tryer. Perhaps Thomas E. died as a child and her husband Thomas Chapman Leas was also deceased. George was in New London by 1856, the year of James' letter to this family. In about 1852 daughter Mary Jane Leas married Hugh Rodgers; sometime after 1861 she married Samuel Lee. Sam Lee was the brother of William Lee, who married Sarah Catherine Hardin, the daughter of William and Prudence [Walker] Hardin. According to their uncle, James, George and James Leas had made a trip to California some time before 1861.
In a letter written in 1862 from Jane's sister-in-law Sarah [Lane] Walker to Francis Samuel Walker, Sarah mentions that Francis should give her regards to Jane, but in the letter Sarah didn't seem too certain about where it was exactly that Jane was living, although it seems to be inferred she was still in Henry County. This would have been eight years after Jane and Sarah's sister, Rebecca Tryer, had died, and a about six after Mary Jane's first marriage.
1856
To Iowa
In 1856 at the age of 47, Francis Samuel, his wife, Catherine, and all of their brood except for daughter Vashti left Milton, Indiana, and moved to New London township in Henry County, Iowa, to join the family members that were already there. It seems there was some uncertainty about where they planned to put down roots when they left Milton, for the 1856 letter from James in Warren County, Iowa sounds as if Francis might be planning on venturing that far west before late autumn in 1856, perhaps on their way to sites even further west. Warren County in South Central Iowa is about 140 miles west of Henry County, which is in Southeast Iowa. Additionally, an 1856 letter from an unknown correspondent in Winona County, Minnesota seems to be trying to lure Francis to move there, promising it was possible to withstand the winters and not freeze to death.
However Francis stopped in Henry County where so many of his siblings' families lived, and at least by 1860 had settled down to became a farmer. It seems like a daunting step for those times, changing careers at this point in what appears to have been a very comfortable life for Francis, but pioneer spirit seems just to have been part of the early Walker experience during those days of America's love affair with Manifest Destiny.