Mr. Ross has always affiliated with the Republicans, and is a stanch upholder of the doctrines of that party. He was a member of the territorial council, serving during the sessions of 1864-5 and 6, and has also held numerous of the township offices, being the present chairman of the board of supervisors. He is also a strong temperance man, and makes use of his influence wherever he can in the cause.

INKNEY T. WALKER,  for many years one of the prominent and leading farmers of Turner county who resided in section 22, Germantown township, is a native of Adair county, Ky., and first saw

the light April 28, 1822. His father Cyrus Walker, was a native of Virginia and came to Kentucky when a young man. He arrived in Illinois in 1832 and located at Macomb, now the county seat of McDonough county, where he engaged in the practice of law. He also followed his profession in Burlington, Iowa, and various other places in that state and was one of the great criminal lawyers and prominent men of his day. He was the first man to recognize Abraham Lincoln's ability and advised that young man to study law. He and Stephen A. Douglas were great friends and at one time during their early careers shared a room together. He was of Scotch descent and lived to be eighty-seven years old. His father, Alexander Walker, was also a native of Virginia and a farmer by occupation. Flora (Montgomery) Walker, the mother of our subject, was born in Kentucky and passed her girlhood near the city of Frankfort. She was of Irish descent and died at the age of sixty-four years. Mr. and Mrs. Walker were the parents of six children, four sons and two daughters, viz.: Cynthia A., John M., Pinkney T., Alexander, Mary and Cyrus . All but Cyrus and the subject of this sketch are now deceased.

Pinkney T. was the third child and second son in order of birth and was ten years old when he accompanied his parents to McDonough county, Ill., from his native state. In the common schools of Macomb he received his early education, and graduated from the Macomb college when he was twenty-five years of age, having made a special study of the Latin and Greek languages. While a resident of Illinois he was united in wedlock in 1854 to Miss Sarah Wagner, who died in 1856, and subsequently in 1858 he married Miss Maria Beaty, by whom he had four children, viz.: Mary, deceased; William; Alice, now the wife of A. B. King, of Newton, Iowa; and Sarah, wife of A. Chadderdon, who resides in McDonough county, Ill. May 24, 1865, Mrs. Walker died and the same year our subject went to what was called Young America, Warren Co., Ill., where he engaged in the grocery business. He stayed there until the spring of 1866 when he sold out and removed to Monroe, Jasper Co., Iowa, and established another grocery store which he conducted till the spring of 1868, when he disposed of that also.

Mr. Walker was married to Clarissa M. Alexander, September 26, 1867. She is a native of Parke county, Ind., and was born January 11, 1839. Her early life was passed in her native county, and when eleven years of age she accompanied her parents to Oskaloosa, Iowa. In 1878 Mr. Walker and his wife came to Turner county, Dak. Ter., and homesteaded 160 acres, upon which they lived for many years. Mr. Walker originally filed on two