Individual Details

Married Leonard W. Walker about 1842, Cannon Co, TN


Biography of her son:

Past and Present of Greene County, Missouri
Early and Recent History and Genealogical Records of Many of the Representative Citizens
by Jonathan Fairbanks and Clyde Edwin Tuck

LEONARD WALKER. The name of Leonard Walker is entitled to a high position
in the list of Springfield's successful attorneys-at-law, as those
conversant with his record will readily attest, for he possesses the
personal characteristics that should always enter the make-up of the man
who essays a legal career. In addressing the jury or the court he is
interesting, forcible and decisively natural-natural in his native
conceptions of the law—forcible in his scrutinizing of it, direct, lucid
and concentrative in his presentations, employing and using in a
remarkable measure the language of the law, if not by actual quotation, in
a vocabulary of his own, highly comparative with its best standards of
legal and literary expression He easily obtains the understanding of the
court, and uniformly places himself in such relations to it that he will
not be misunderstood. His powers with a jury is well known. His arguments
come from the sources upon which decisions are based, radiate the light of
his judgment and investigation, and his words are but the echo of the law
with which courts are disposed to co-ordinate themselves.

Mr. Walker was born near Ozark, Christian county, Missouri, on March 1,
1866. He is a son of Leonard and Nancy M. (Adamson) Walker. The father was
born in Wilson county, Tennessee, on July 12, 1812, and was a son of
William J. and Polly (Adams) Walker. William J. Walker was born near
Dublin, Ireland, and he emigrated to America when a boy, just after the
close of the Revolutionary war. He first located in North Carolina, later
lived in Virginia and Tennessee, and was a resident of the latter state
during the war of 1812 and joined Gen. Andrew Jackson's force and fought
with the famous Tennessee Riflemen at the memorable battle of New Orleans.
After the war he returned to Tennessee and accumulated a handsome fortune,
owning six hundred and forty acres of rich bottom land, also a large
whisky distillery. He owned many slaves, but sold them after the death of
his wife, and began trading in live stock, buying up large herds and
driving them to the far South and selling them, and while on one of these
trips he contracted a fever in northern Alabama and died there about 1827.
Politically he was a Whig, and was a great personal friend of both Henry
Clay and Andrew Jackson. Religiously he was a Baptist. Leonard Walker,
Sr., was reared on the home plantation in Tennessee, and received a
limited education in the schools of his native locality. His mother died
when he was ten years of age and he was reared by an old negro mammy, who
did not accord him very tender treatment. He was fifteen years of age when
his father died. The estate was all squandered and he was left practically
pennyless. When young in years he began his career as a general farmers
also engaged in the tinware business, remaining in Tennessee until 1842,
when he made the tedious overland journey to Missouri, stopping first near
Bolivar, Polk county, and farmed there for three years, then moved to the
Finley Creek bottoms near Ozark, Christian county, where he purchased a
farm of two hundred and five acres, which he developed and operated in a
fairly successful manner until his death, which occurred on January 18,
1896. He was regarded as one of the substantial, useful and worthy
citizens of that county and was more or less influential in public
matters. Politically he was first a Whig, later a Republican and was a
stanch Union man during the Civil war period. He belonged to the Baptist
church. He and Nancy M. Adamson were married in September, 1842. She was
born in DeKalb county, Tennessee, on July 24, 1826, and was a daughter of
Wells Adamson and wife, pioneers of that state and there Mrs. Walker grew
to womanhood and was educated in the old-time log cabin schools. Her death
occurred on October 15, 1901. Twelve children were born to the parents of
the subject of this sketch, ten of whom are still living at this writing.
One son, W. J. Walker, was a soldier in the Civil war.

Leonard Walker, of this review, grew to manhood on his father's farm and
assisted with the general work during the crop seasons, and he had the
advantages of a good education, attending the district schools in his home
community, and later was a student in Drury College, Springfield, but was
compelled to leave his studies on account of failing health. When only
sixteen years of age he was deputy assessor of Christian county. He has
remained a close student and has become a well educated man, not only
keeping fully abreast of the times in his chosen profession, but is
familiar with the world's best literature and well informed on current
topics. He began studying law when quite young and made rapid progress in
the same. However, ill health interrupted his studies and he underwent an
operation in a hospital in St. Louis in 1890. He studied in the law
offices of Harrington & Pepperdine, a well-known firm in Springfield, in
1891, and was admitted to the bar in February, 1892, and ever since he has
been successfully engaged in the practice of his profession in
Springfield, enjoying a constantly growing and satisfactory business and
ranking among the leading lawyers of Greene county.

Mr. Walker was married in August, 1892, to Lucy Jania Robertson, of Ozark,
Missouri, where her birth occurred on December 25, 1866, and there she
grew to womanhood and was educated. She is a daughter of J. W. and Martha
Robertson, a well-known and highly respected family of Christian county.
To Mr. and Mrs. Walker two children have been born, namely: Harold M.,
born on November 2, 1895, is at this writing a junior in Drury College;
Helen A., born on October 26, 1896, is now a sophomore in Drury College;
they are both making excellent records in scholarship.

Fraternally Mr. Walker is a member of the Masonic Order and the Knights of
Pythias, being past chancellor of the latter lodge in Springfield and a
member of the Grand Lodge of Missouri. He is a member of the
Congregational church.

His Americanism and Republicanism, neither give nor take quarter from any
faction, junta or party. Practically self-educated, self-qualified for the
exercise of his civic duties, fortified in his political views by the
confirming theories and opinions of the most brilliant and powerful
leaders of the Republican party, Mr. Walker stands nobly erect in the
ranks of the gigantic national political organization to which he belongs.
The principles that gave birth to it, that vitalized it in infancy
nurtured its growing years, and in its maturity impart to it, its dominant
and beneficent character, are those that he advocated in the days of
Grant, Garfield and Blaine, for even when a boy he had pronounced views on
national questions, and he has ever been in straight and uniform alignment
with the Republican party and its policies, and he has been one of the
local leaders in the same for many years. He was elected city attorney of
Springfield in 1896 and re-nominated in 1898, but went down in defeat with
the entire ticket in Greene county. Again in 1912 he was elected city
attorney. As a public servant his record was eminently satisfactory to his
constituents and all concerned, being marked with fidelity to duty,
honesty and ability of a high order.

Birth	24 Jul 1826	Tennessee
Death	15 Oct 1901	Christian County, Missouri

Father	Wells ADAMSON (1793 - 1838)
Mother	Sarah Ann Williams ( - 1850)
Sibling	Edward Adamson (1824 - 1901)
Sibling	Lemuel Jefferson Adamson (1829 - 1871)
Sibling	Joseph Morrison Adamson (1831 - 1853)
Sibling	Sarah Ann Adamson (1833 - 1853)
Sibling	Olivia "Ollie" Adamson (1835 - 1876)
Sibling	Thomas Bethel Adamson (1837 - )