George
M. Walker

G. M. Walker, a physician and druggist of Soddy, was born in 1847, and
is a son of Harvey and Sarah Walker. He was born in
Lookout
Valley
, and in 1856 moved to the State of
Arkansas
. In 1858 his father moved to
Texas
and left our subject at Cane Hill to finish his
education. In 1861 the trouble between the States caused him to leave Cane Hill
and join his father in
Texas
. In 1863 he enlisted in the Confederate Army, in
the Fourth Missouri Cavalry. His company operated principally in
Missouri
and
Arkansas
.
He participated in the following battles: Arkansas Post, Jenkinson Ferry
and Poison Spring; went on a raid through north Arkansas and south Missouri;
thence through the Indian Territory, the Cherokee and Choctaw Nations, and went
into winter quarters on Red River. He was in all the severe skirmishes and minor
engagements in which his command took part. He was captured at Arkansas Post,
and three days afterward made his escape. In 1865 our subject was surrendered
with the army of E. Kirby Smith, in Texas, and went from there to Honduras, with
a company composed of some of the chief officers commanding in the
trans-Mississippi department, but returned in the fall of the same year, when he
again joined his father in northwest Texas, and left there for this State where
he arrived in 1866. In 1868 he attended a course of lectures at
Louisville
,
Ky.
In 1869 he was at McMinnville and went to
Beersheba Springs, where he completed his studies in the Latin language under a
private instructor; he then traveled one year. While engaged in the life
insurance business, in 1871, he married Margaret Hackwarth, daughter of Jasper
Hackwarth, of
Marion
County
, and in the fall of the same year, 1871, located
near Soddy. Margaret presented him with one child, Thomas Dick. Mrs. Walker died
in September, 1880, and in November, 1882, Dr. Walker married M. M. Clift, who
was born in 1861. She is a daughter of R. B. Clift, of
Hamilton
County
. This union resulted in the birth of two
children - both girls: Sallie (deceased) and Tinque Nay. Dr. Walker is a
Democrat, a Master Mason, and in 1880 was appointed notary public, which
position he now holds. Mrs. Walker is a member of the Presbyterian Church at
Soddy. Our subject's father was of English and his mother of Scotch descent. His
grandfather, Walker, came from
Virginia
, settled in
Warren
County
(now Grundy), and was one of the earliest
settlers in that region. His father and mother were Baptists.
Goodspeed's
"History of East Tennessee" 1887
1880 US Census, District 12, Hamilton Co., TN; Page 114.