Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-03-16

Indian wars, and was a member both Of
the Ancient and Honorable Artillery COM
pany of London and OF its Boston name
axe His great-grandfather, Phineas, of
Woodstock, Conn, was a soldier in the Old
French and Revolutionary wars. His grand
father, Leonard, like many another son of
Connecticut, emigrated to Vermont Just as
the eighteenth century came TO a close,
and settled at Strafford. His father,
Charles, born before the emigrant left the
Woodstock home, graduated at Andover
Theological seminary in 1921, and married
Lucretia Ambrose, daughter Of Stephen
Ambrose of Concord, n. H., woman of
unusual talents whom the subject of this
sketch was markedly TO resemble in char
acter and features.
The Rev. Charles Walker was settled al
Rutland in the first pastorate Of a min
istry conspicuous for more than half a cen
tury in Vermont when his second son,
George Leon, was born on April 80, 1880.
The changes frequently incident TO min
isterial service took the father TO Brattle
boro when George was four years old, and
that town in which he was TO live till his
seventeenth year was always dear to him
as his boyhood home. The early educa-
ton of the boy was in the schools of Brat
tleboro, and he was accustomed in later
life to recall with pleasure the inspiration
he drew from the teaching of young head
of the village High school, afterward emf
nent as librarian of the Boston Public
library, the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain.
But the boys home, with its intellectual
aud earnest parents and its four keen
minded children-three brothers and q sis
| ter-wAs the most fruitful early influence
that came to him. A pastorate Of II years
| duration at Brattleboro vas followed by
the removal of the father to Pittsford,
which thenceforth became the family resi-
dence.
1t was the boys ambition to go to col
| lege but, even before leaving Brattleboro
a spinal curvature from which he was to
suffer all his days had developed, and his
prospect of life seemed so precarious that
the college course had to be forborne. To
one of Mr. Walkers energy and strength
of will, however, such deprivation was a
challenge rather than a deterrent; and the
studies which he would have pursued had
| he been able TO obtain the coveted college
training were followed out alone, that
he acquired not merely a knowledge OF
Greek and Latin, but very thorough ac-
quaintance with philosophy, mathematics
and especially with English literature
toward which his mind was always strongly
drawn. The classic English poets, most
of all, were the companionship and delight
of his youth and early manhood.
In 1850 an appointment as clerk in the
Massachusetts, state house, procured by al
uncle, the Hon. Amasa Walker, brought
the young man a change of scene; and
the next three years were spent in Boston
in the duties of his Office and in the Wig
orous study of law during all leisure mo
ments, for Mr.. Walker was then determin
ed to make the legal profession his own
These plans were rudely interrupted. A
change in the political control of the STATE
cost him his clerkship,an a subsequent at
tack of typhoid fever deprived him for som'
months of the use of his eyes and left a
more permanent witness of its inroads OF
his feeble frame in a lameness that neces
STATED the use of crutches for severa
years. The young student of law wen
back to the Pittsford home in broken
health, his prospects frustrated, and hi
friends discouraged. But he had attained
TO one certainty in his own mind. HI
was determined, if possible, to become
minister; and to this end, as soon a
strength permitted, he began to study the
ology with the help of his fathers library
This heightened period of feebleness ant
disappointment, though it failed to breal
Mr.. Walkers courage, left its impress IL
a sense of the seriousness and the struggl
Of life, and of the nearness of its sorrow
to its joys, upon him always.
In August 1857 Mr.. Walker was Ii
censed to preach by the Rutland, Vt, assc
citation, and, soon after, entered Andove
Theological seminary as resident licen
tiate," studying in that institution for
year. A chance opportunity to take tn
place as pulpit supply of a professor inca
pacitated by illness led to call to the pa:
torate of the State street church in Por
land, one of the most important in III
! commonwealth of Maine. On Sept. II