Biography - GAITHER C. WALSER
Gaither
C. Walser, Civil war veteran, one-timed
carpenter, and for many years a prominent business man and financier of West
Salem, ranks high among the leading men of Edwards county. A native of the
county, he has since his boyhood been up and doing in the interests of
humanity and of the commonwealth and nation. Ever a citizen of the most
impregnable integrity, his life has added much to the well-being of the
community in which he has made his home for so many years, and many of the
leading industries and financial concerns of the county have felt his
influence and his help, and are in a great measure guided by his
acknowledged wisdom and business sagacity.
Mr. Walser was born on a farm near West Salem on January 22, 1843, and is
the son of Brittain and Jane N. (Hutchins) Walser. Brittain Walser was born
May 3, 1799. He was a native of North Carolina of German descent, who
migrated to Illinois in 1830. His father, Jacob Walser, was at one time made
a prisoner by the British and pressed into the training service, but he made
his escape. Brittain Walser was one of the early pioneers of Edwards county,
and he saw frontier life in Illinois when it was indeed worthy of the name.
He passed the remainder of his days on his farm near West Salem, and died
there on December 26, 1876, in his seventy-seventh year. His wife, Jane N.
Hutchins, was born April 3, 1805, at Salisbury, North Carolina, and she
passed away at the family home in West Salem on March 28, 1875. Nine
children were born to these parents, namely: James, deceased; Margaret,
deceased; Sarah, now seventy-nine years of age; Hiram H., a Civil war
veteran, was captain of Company E, Sixty-third Illinois, and died in June,
1885, at the age of forty-nine; Laura E.; Susan, deceased; Gaither C.; Frank
B., a Civil war veteran of Company 1, Sixty-sixth Illinois, also deceased;
and Mary Jane, married to S. A. Harris.
Gaither C. Walser received a somewhat limited education, such as the schools
of a half a century ago were apt to afford, and was reared on his father's
farm to the age of nineteen, at which time he took employment in a general
merchandise establishment. He remained there until the war broke out, or
until January 31, 1863, when he enlisted in Company I, Sixty-sixth Regiment
of Illinois Volunteers. He served until the close of the war, and during the
term of his enlistment saw a deal of active service. He went to the front
and participated in the Atlanta campaign of one hundred and twenty days; he
marched to Savannah with General Sherman, and through the Carolinas. He
fought at Bentonville and Goldsboro and was in the Raleigh campaign. With
the news of Lee's surrender, they continued their march to Washington, and
in May, 1865, took part in the Grand Review. From Washington the regiment
was sent to Parkersburg, thence down the Ohio river to Louisville, then to
Springfield, where he was finally mustered out on July 18, 1865.
Peace restored and civilian life being again resumed, Mr. Walser took up
carpentering, and followed that trade for several years. In 1882 Mr. Walser
entered the grain trade, and continued in it for many years, with great
success. In 1899 he was appointed postmaster of West Salem and has served
continuously in that office up to the present time. In 1909, he, with other
West Salemites, established the First National Bank, in which he is a
stockholder, a director and the vice-president. He is also vice president of
the Bone Gap Banking Company at Bone Gap, this county.
Mr. Walser is Republican in his political allegiance, and is staunch and
firm in his beliefs and opinions. He is a member of West Salem Post No. 222
Grand Army of the Republic, and holds membership in the Moravian church, of
which his first wife's father was the founder.
Mr. Walser has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Sarah A. Houser,
daughter of Rev. Martin Houser, who was the founder of the Moravian church
in West Salem, and who also is distinguished by being the founder of the
village of West Salem. She was born at Hope, Indiana, October 26, 1842, and
died on March 7, 1875, on the eleventh anniversary of her wedding. She left
four children, viz.: Gertrude L., married to John C. Stone, is the mother of
two children, Lucille and Sydney; her husband is professor of mathematics in
the State Normal at Mount Clair, New Jersey, where they reside. Conrad is an
attorney at Little Rock, Arkansas; he is married and has three children,
Maurice, Quincy and Mildred Agnes. Eva is married to Rev. Samuel Allen and
lives in Jamaica, West Indies; she has five children, Walser Allen, a
student in Nazareth, Pennsylvania; Dorothy; Constance; Russell and Miriam.
Emma, now Mrs. Allbright, lives in Bloomington, Illinois, and has four
children Bernice May, Norma Aline, Helen and Robert William.
On November 21, 1875, Mr. Walser married Mary J. Lopp, born July 24, 1843,
in this county, a daughter of George Lopp, a native of North Carolina, of
which state he was an early pioneer. Three children were born of this union,
two of whom are now living. They are: Ethel, wife of Prof. Howard Kingsbury
of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and they have two children, Charles Howard, and an
infant son: Stewart L. is assistant postmaster in West Salem, and Charles is
deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Walser are members of the English Moravian church.
Extracted 11 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 3, pages 1619-1621.
