IAGenWeb Project - Clayton co.

John G. Walters

John G. Walters purchased, shortly after the death of his honored father, the fine old homestead farm on which he now resides and which he maintains at the best modern standard of agricultural productiveness and as headquarters for the raising of the best types of Durham cattle, registered Poland China swine, and excellent draft horses. To the original homestead, which comprised one hundred and fifty-five acres, he added by the purchase of an adjacent tract of one hundred and twenty acres, and he is thus favored in being the owner of one of the specially well improved landed estates of Mallory township, the while his civic loyalty and progressiveness are reinforced by the definite appreciation which is his for his native county and its manifold attractions and advantages. On his present farm, in section 5, Mallory township, John Gordon Walters was born on the 22d of November, 1863, and he is of remote Scottish ancestry, though both his paternal and maternal forebears came to America in the colonial days. He is a son of Andrew Jackson Walters and Malinda (Cooper) Walters, the former of whom was born in the town of Mason, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on the 22d of February, 1822, and the latter of whom was born in Virginia, on the 7th of December, 1824. The parents were pioneers of Mallory township, Clayton county, and here the father was a sturdy and honored exponent of agricultural industry until his death, on the 10th of January, 1908, about one month prior to the eighty-sixth anniversary of his birth, he having been born on the birthdate of George Washington, the first president of the United States, and having been named in honor of another president, the doughty and firey soldier, General Andrew Jackson. Mrs. Walters preceded her husband to the life eternal by about a decade and passed away February 22, 1898 - the seventy-sixth anniversary of the birth of her husband. Of their children the eldest is Henrietta, who resides at Garber, this county, and who is the widow of William McSperrin; Isaac N. maintains his home at Updegraff, this county; Lusetta is the wife of Jacob Schweikert, of Elkport, this county; Alexander C. likewise remains in his native county, his home being at Strawberry Point; James M. is deceased; Jefferson resides at Guttenberg, this county; Martha J. is the widow of Silas Bowman and resides at Guttenberg, and the subject of this sketch was the eighth and last child. John G. Walters is indebted to the schools of Mallory township for his early educational advantages and from his youth to the present time he has continued to be actively identified with farm enterprise on the old homestead which was the place of his birth and which he purchased in 1909, the year succeeding that of the death of his father. Mr. Walters is a loyal supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, is serving as school director of the district in which he gained his early education, and he is affiliated with the lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Elkport. As a young man Mr. Walters wedded Miss Eva Hyde, who was likewise born and reared in Mallory township, and they have eight children, all of whom remain members of the ideal home circle, their names being here entered in respective order of birth: Earl, Marie, August, Lulu, Gordon, Clifford, Garland and Russell. Mrs. Walters is a daughter of the late James and Hannah (Brownfield) Hyde, who were natives of Pennsylvania, and who came to Clayton county in the pioneer days, the remainder of their lives having been passed on their farm in Mallory township, though he died in Seattle, Washington, while on a visit to his daughter, Mrs. Iva Hunt, while his wife died in Clayton county. Mr. Hyde was also a skilled workman at the coopers' trade.

source: History of Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg 423-424
-submitted by S. Ferrall

 

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