| MRS. MARIETTA WALKER.
Among the most highly honored citizens of Lamoni, Decatur county, is Mrs. Marietta Walker, who has achieved much as an educator and editor. She was in her maidenhood Miss Marietta Hodges and was born in Willoughby, Ohio, on the 10th of April, [196] 1834, a daughter of Curtis and Lucy (Clark) Hodges, natives re spectively of New York and Vermont. The paternal ancestors were English and those in the maternal line were Scotch. Mr. and Mrs. Hodges were married in the Green Mountain state and were en route from that state to Missouri when our subject was born in Ohio. When she was about five years of age the family were forced to leave their home farm in western Missouri, some fifty miles from Independence, which comprised three hundred and twenty acres of good land, because of sentiment adverse to the Church of Latter Day Saints. The father was wounded but succeeded in escaping to Illinois and settled first in Perry, Pike county, but later cast in his lot with the colony at Nauvoo, where his family joined him. In !846, when Brigham Young came into the leadership of the church, Mr. Hodges and his family returned to Pennsylvania and there he passed away. Subsequently his widow and daughter Marietta went to St. Louis, Missouri, and later Mrs. Hodges removed to Indiana arid resided with a son-in-law there. Mrs. Walker was educated at the Oxford (Ohio) Female College, a famous school in that day, and was graduated therefrom in 1859. Subsequently her sister, Mrs. Lyons, died in San Antonio, Texas, leaving two daughters: Mrs. Lucy L. Resseguie, who has resided at Lamoni, Iowa, for several years past; and Mrs. Lida Atkinson, the widow of Colonel John Atkinson, of Detroit, Michigan. In order better to care for her sister’s daughters, Mrs. Walker removed to San Antonio, Texas, and was for a number of years principal of the San Antonio Female College. Her influence as a teacher of young women was deep and lasting. She was married in 1861 to Robert Faulconer, who served in the Confederate army and died in the second year of the war, giving his life to the cause which he believed to be just. To that union was born a daughter, who is now Mrs. Lucy Faulconer, of Los Angeles, California. In 1865 Mrs. Walker returned to the Prairie state and located at Sandwich and for some time made her home with her mother and brother-in-law, who had previously settled there. Later she was married to S. F. Walker and they eventually became residents of Lamoni, Decatur county, Iowa. Mrs. Walker’s wide knowledge, practical wisdom and literary ability were utilized by the church of which she is a devoted member and for many years she edited the magazine Autumn Leaves, published at the Herald office, and she was likewise the editor of Zion’s Hope, a Sunday-school paper. For more than twenty-five years she was connected with the publications of the church and only resigned the editorship of Zion’s Hope when [197] she had reached the advanced age of eighty years. She is also the author of several books, including “The Church in an Early Day;” “The Indian Maiden,” a temperance work; “Joan of Arc;” and “Fireside Talks with Our Girls.” Shortly after the close of the Civil war and before beginning her work as an editor she was offered the presidency of her alma mater, the Oxford Female College at Oxford, Ohio, but refused to consider the position, as she had decided to give up educational work. She is still residing in her home in Lamoni, which is quite near the church and which was built by Mr. Walker about 1880. By her second marriage Mrs. Walker had two children. Mrs. Frances H. Davis is a widow living in Lamoni and has three sons: Walker C., who is in a bank in Oskaloosa; Dwight, of Lamoni; and Gerald Bruce, who is attending school in Marion, Iowa. Lois Sarah is the wife of A. L. Ackerley and is mentioned elsewhere in this work. Through her connection with Autumn Leaves and Zion’s Hope Mrs. Walker has become widely known throughout the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints and under her editorship the two papers gained a high rank among religious periodicals. They became factors of importance in binding together congregations in various localities and in increasing interest in church activities, and moreover the high moral tone which characterized them made them powerful agencies in the upbuilding of character. They also had literary merit and Mrs. Walker gained much praise for her able conduct of the periodicals. She has given the church an important place in her life and has been one of the most active members in the work of the local congregation as well as an important factor in the publication interests of the denomination. During the many years that she has lived at Lamoni she has enjoyed the respect of her fellow citizens and has many friends who are bound to her by strong ties of affection. [198] |
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