Eliza Walls

Wife of Lawrence Walls In 1855, she was employed as a music teacher at the Wisconsin Institution for the Education of the Blind in Janesville, WI She is remembered in "The Autobiography of an American Woman: Glimpses of Fifty Years" by Frances Elizabeth Willard, Hannah Whitall Smith "We girls turned to the blind pupils at the Institute as our base of supplies. We had a music teacher from there, whom we dearly loved. This was Mrs. Eliza King Walls, a graduate of the New York Institute, a beautiful woman and an accomplished player. It was an event when she came to give the weekly lessons, for she entered heartily into our plans and was an enthusiast as to our musical abilities. Her elder sister, Miss King, often came with her, and her lovely little girl, Mamie— the first "wee toddler" that we had known. I thought she was "enough better than a stupid doll,"—indeed, except "Doll Anna," I had never cared for these "wooden effigies," as I called them, but gave my wax doll to my sister, with some show of generosity, but no inward sense of sacrifice. Mary (thier cousin) was fond of every breathing creature—except snakes, spiders and mosquitoes—and she liked dolls because " they reminded her of humans," but upon little Mamie Walls she lavished her rich young heart in a manner beautiful to see. She brought out all her small store of pretty things and placed them at her disposal; spread a playing place for her on a big shawl under her favorite tree; toyed with her soft curls, hugged her tenderly, and even counted the days till her next music lesson, chiefly because " Mamie would come again."

THE GROTON AVERY CLAN, Vol. I, by Elroy McKendree Avery and Catherine Hitchcock (Tilden) Avery, Cleveland, 1912. Page 301