The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1878-05-22
No. 81.
WONDERFUL WALKER.

OF a poor statesman, and was the
youngest Of twelve. At the age
OF seventeen he became q village
schoolmaster, and a little later
both minister and schoolmaster.
Before and after school, oI-hours
be laborcd at manual occupation,
rising between three and four
in the summer, and working
in the fields with the scythc
or sickle. He ploughed, he plant.
ed, tended sheep, or clipped and
salved, all for hire wrote his own
sermons, and did his duty at
chapel twice on Sundays. In all
these labors he cxcelled. In win
ter-time be occupied himself in
reading, writing his own SER
mons, spinning, and making his
own clothes and those Of his fam
/ lily, knitting and mcnding his own
stockings, and making his own
[ shoes, the leather Of which was OF
his own tanning. Iu' his walks
he never neglected to gather and
bring home the wool from the
hedges. He was also the ply
siciau and lawyer Of his parish
ioners; drew up their wills, con-
veyances, bonds, &C., wrote all
their letters, and settled their ac-
counts, and often went to market
with sheep or wool for the far.
mers.
He married a respectable maid
servant, who brought him forty
pounds; and shortly afterwards
he became curate of Seath waite,
where be lived and oficiated for
sixty-se7en years. We are told that
when his family wanted cloth, be
often took the spinning-wbeel
into the school-room; whero he
also kept cradle-of course Of
his own making. Not unfre.
| quently the wheel, the cradle, and
the scholars all claiming his atten-
ton at the same moment, taxed
the ingenuity of this wonderful
man to keep them all going. To
all these attainments Mr.. Walker
tor Wonderful Walker" as he
was called-also added a knowledge
of fossils and plants, and a "babit"
Of observing the stars and winds.
In summer be also collected va
rious insects. and by his enter
tanning descriptions of them
amused aud instructed his chill
dren. After a long and extremely
useful,-may we might say heroic
life, which extended over nearly
the whole of the last century (he
having been born in 1909 this
remarkable Dalesman died on the
25th Of June 1882, in the ninety
third year Of his age. In the
course Of life he had, besides
bringing up and settling in life
family of twelve children, amassed
the sum Of two thousand pounds,
the result Of marvellous industry
and selfdenial.
The chapel where this celebrated
man entered upon his sacred
duties was the smallest in the
Dales, the poet Wordsworth, Mr..
Walkers biographer,, describing it
as scarcely larger than many Of
the fragments of rock lying near
it. Most Of these small chapelrics
were presided over by "readers,"
men who generally exercised the
trades OF clogger, tailor, and but
ter-print maker, in order to exc
out their small stipend. The liv-
ings were not worth more than
two or three pounds a year, and
the ministers were dependent up
on the voluntary contributions of
their parishioners. Their stipends,
besides the small money-pay-
ment mentioned above, comprised
"clothes yearly and whittlegate."
The former meant one suit Of
clothes, two pair ofshoes, and one
pair CT clogs; and the latter, two
or three weeks victuals at each
house according to the ability OF
the inhabitants, which was settled
among themselves; so that the
minister could "go his course" as
regularly as the sun, and COM
plete it annually. Few houses
having more than one or two
knives, he was obliged to carry
his own knife or "whitled." He
marched from house to house, and
as master of the flock, had the ell;
bow-chair at the table-head. Some