James Walker

Family Tradition

James Walker died in Ireland. His wife, Ellen with five of their children came to Montreal Canada, where her brother, John Hopely lived. They were many weeks on the sailing vessel. Ellen was very sick all the way, did not recover, and died soon after arriving at her brother's. Her children's names were William, Robert, John, George, James, Ann, and Samuel. William was married and did not come to America for several years after the rest of the family. Robert also remained in Ireland sometime, then wrote that he was going to start for America. He was never heard from after. After their mother died, the children went to St. Albans VT. and made their home with Dr. Jobez Fitches. He was an Episcopal minister, also an MD. The Fitches had adopted Ann Walker. She was quite young, being the youngest of the family. George went to Jersey City where he married. James, after years, was a rich merchant in Charleston, SC. When the civil war broke out he went back to St. Albans, where he died. His two sons, Johnson and Rett were soldiers of the confederacy at Charleston when the rebs fired on Fort Sumpter. George and William came to Jackson County Iowa and lived and died on farms there. John Walker withdrew from the Episcapal church at Sheldon VT(?) about 1831 and joined the Methodist Church. He was first licensed to preach at Spencertown, NY. He preached in Columbia County and the Berkshire Hills, Mass untill 1843 when he moved to Iowa. He established the ME Church at Springfield Mass, then a mining town where they quarried the marble for the Gerrard Institute, Philadelphia. Three years after his first wife, Gertrude died, He married her sister, Johanna. Soon after (they with Robert 7 years old) started to Iowa in a one horse buggy. They drove all the way to Dubuque where the conference met. The Bishop sent him to Maquoketa, Iowa. He preached for 9 years in eastern Iowa, Then located on a farm near Sabula Iowa where he died in 1857.

Sarah Hoffman with son Mervin Hoffman Walker came by boat to Milwaukee, Wisc. First up the Hudson River to Troy, then by Erie canal to Buffalo, then on the Lake to Milwaukee where John Walker (their father) met them (They brought their household goods with them on the boat)with a wagon drawn by horses. He took them to Maquoketa, a beautiful place where they lived among the oaks, sugar maple and other trees for there was a great belt of trees between them and the Mississippi River 20 miles away. From there they moved to then called Charleston near Sabula, Iowa in Jackson County. That was where (ancestor)Nellie Walker was born.

John Walker and Joanna Walker had five children, Sarah E, Gertrude A. James H. Ellen H and Grizzella. About the first of October 1869 Joanna Walker, with four children, Mervin Hoffman, Gertrude, Ellen and James came to Dakota by wagon drawn by horses. They settled near Gayville SD