Walker, John M. (of McDonough Co, IL)

Born: 1800-07-02 Virginia

Died: 1876-07-09 Fulton County, Illinois

Flourished: McDonough County, Illinois

John M. Walker, land dealer and farmer, moved with his family from his native Virginia to Tennessee as a child. He removed to McDonough County, Illinois in 1834, where he resided for the remainder of his life. Walker was named as a trustee of McDonough College in 1836 and later that same year he purchased nearly two hundred acres of land in McDonough County. He served as postmaster of his namesake post office of Walker’s Grove, 1836 to 1837, and again from 1850 to 1852 when the name was shortened to Walker’s. At the time of the 1850 census, he was a farmer living in McDonough County and owned real estate valued at $9,000. By 1860, he had amassed $13,000 in real property, with a personal estate valued at $2,798. In 1836, he married Angelina Pickrell with whom he had around six children and, following her 1852 death, he married teacher Martha G. Campbell in 1855. Politically, Walker was first a Whig and then a Democrat.

Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McDonough County, ed. by Alexander McLean (Chicago: Munsell, 1907), 655; History of McDonough County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Continental Historical, 1885), 381, 1056; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, McDonough County, 698:45, 92, 94, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; An Act to Incorporate McDonough College; Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), 26 November 1836, 3:3; 5 October 1852, 1:6; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1832-1844, 12B:544; 1845-1855, 18:114, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Gordana Rezab, Place Names of McDonough County, Illinois: Past and Present (Macomb, IL: Western Illinois University, 2008), 117; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), McDonough County, IL, 211; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), McDonough County, IL, 278; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, McDonough County, 5 April 1855, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), McDonough County, IL, 433; The Macomb Journal (IL), 20 July 1876, 2:5.