My Genealogy Hound

George Walker. As might naturally be expected, mention is made in the present work of many citizens of Mississippi County, Ark., now prominent in their different callings, who were born in the county, and whose homes have always been here. Mr. Walker is one of these, and his experience refers to the agricultural interests of the county. He was born in 1850, and was the fourth in a family of seven children born to John and Sarah Walker, nee Chadwick, both of whom, with their parents, were early pioneers of this portion of Arkansas. The father was engaged in fur-trading with the Indians during the primitive period of the county’s history, but later embarked in cutting and selling cord-wood, which enterprise he continued to make his chief calling until the breaking out of the Rebellion. From that period until 1862 he settled on a farm in Chickasawba Township, which place continued to be his home until his death, in 1875. George Walker has given farming his time and attention from early boyhood, and in this work has met with substantial results. His first purchase of land was made when twenty-one years of age, and comprised a tract of thirty-four acres, one mile west of Blythesville; but in 1881 he made a purchase of forty acres, about the same distance east of the town. His home property is well improved with excellent buildings (his residence being erected in 1885), orchards, etc., and during all these years, in addition to managing his land, he has been in the timber business, rafting this product down the river, which business he is now engaged in. Helen, a daughter of William Buckner, an old pioneer of the county, became the wife of Mr. Walker when he was about twenty-one years of age, but only lived about one year after marriage, giving birth to a son, James B., now aged sixteen. His second marriage took place in 1876, and was to Miss Emma Thompson, of Mississippi County, Ark., a daughter of William Thompson, also a pioneer of the county, who was killed during the late war, in the battle of Shiloh. Mr. Walker is a member of Chickasawba Lodge No. 134, of the F. & A. M., and he and his wife are the parents of an interesting little family of three children, whose names are as follows: Cora, Charles and Sarah.