I bumped into Pleasant Township pioneer Samuel Scott Walker in U.S. Postal Service records the other day while looking for the founding date of Belinda, a tiny Lucas County village along Highway 14 between Chariton and the Columbia turnoff that has for the most part vanished.
As it turns out, Mr. Walker was the founding postmaster of Belinda, on Sept. 10, 1858, and that's as good as any startup date we're likely to find. He continued as postmaster until 1875.
Mr. Walker and his wife, Sarah, brought their family from Jefferson County to what became the Belinda neighborhood soon after 1850 and they were honored residents until 1882, but have been largely forgotten by now because of time and circumstance.
In 1882, the couple set out to visit a son in Cowley County, Kansas, hoping that a change of climate would benefit Mrs. Walker's health. She died there during November of 1882 and Samuel made his home with his children after that.
He died on Jan. 21, 1892, in his 85th year at Bartow, Florida.
I'm not sure where the Walker farm was located in relationship to Belinda landmarks, but the Virgil N. Foote family were living there when the house on it burned during 1915, as reported upon in The Leader of April 22: "Mr. and Mrs. V. N. Foote lost their home by fire Sunday afternoon. Most of the contents were saved but badly damaged. The house was one of the old landmarks of Pleasant. It was on the farm that was the Scott Walker farm and had stood for 50 or 60 years."
After Mr. Walker's death, George D. Temple, a prominent resident of Fairfield, published a few memories of him in The Fairfield Ledger of March 23, 1892. Temple was a brother of Chariton's Edward Ames Temple, founder of what now is the Principal Financial Group, and had spent considerable time in Lucas County. So he knew Mr. Walker in both Jefferson and Lucas counties. Here are his memories:
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A recent announcement brings the sad tidings of the death of Samuel Scott Walker, one of the early pioneers of Iowa, formerly of Jefferson County and more recently of Lucas County. He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Smith, in Bartow, Florida.
Scott Walker, by which name he was familiarly known to his old friends and neighbors, was a Kentuckian by birth, and the possessor, in an eminent degree, of all those generous impulses which the name Kentuckian implies. In early manhood he emigrated to central Illinois. Imbued with the spirit of adventure possessed by the hardy pioneers of those days, he saw beyond the "Father of Waters" and a little nearer the setting sun, a virgin soil awaiting the efforts of the husbandman. In obedience to this impulse, in the early forties in company with the Hardins and the Butlers, themselves of the best blood of the Blue Grass State, he pushed westward to the "Black Hawk Purchase," settling on what has long been known as Round Prairie, in Jefferson County. Here, like his fellow pioneers, his efforts were directed to the securing of a home, the proper care and support of his family, and to the development of a new country.
He was a man of intelligence. He carefully watched the growth and wants of the community in which he cast his lot, and by wise counsel assisted in giving direction to proper conduct of its affairs.
Politically Walker was a Whig. In the early days referred to and for many years after, Jefferson County rarely failed to give a Democratic majority for the whole ticket. This record was badly disfigured by the nomination of Walker as the Whig candidate for sheriff. To fitness for the position he added well deserved popularity. He was elected by a handsome majority and discharged the duties of the office to the satisfaction of all.
At the disruption of the Whig party he (with a numerous and honorable company) was left in the predicament of the Indian, who wandering aimlessly about, was asked if he was lost, and proudly re- plied, "No ! Me not lost. Wigwam lost."
It is believed that he never thereafter acted in full accord with either of the other parties.
About 1852 he removed to Lucas County, where he opened a farm on the highway from Chariton to Knoxville and midway between these points. Through Scott Walker the old saying that "the latch string is always out," was literally and practically verified. No wayfarer ever halted at his home without a cordial welcome from all, and the best the place afforded was freely furnished for his comfort.
The writer remembers with pleasure a visit to Walker's Lucas County home. Like the man, the house was of rude exterior but radiant and joyous within. Music, books and conversation furnished the pabulum while the inner man was regaled and fortified for the journey before him.
Scott Walker was a pronounced type of the Western pioneer. His class laid broad and deep the foundations of the empire we enjoy. Of them, let us honor the living and revere the dead. Walker died full of years and in the "Land of Flowers." May the bloom over his grave be perennial. His memory will be held in pleasant recollection by all who knew him.
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