Walters Family Page
Click here to go to the Baca-Walters web site hosted by Ulas George Kirby.
Click here for information and photos from our April 2000 trip to New Mexico.
DO YOU RECOGNIZE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE?
The following is page 63 from the book Pisacah, A Place of Plenty by Lillian H. Bidal.
CREOLA B. WALTERS
b. 10 March 1905 - d. July 1983
This picture was taken in 1936 at the Texas Centennial but she was evidently from Louisiana which makes me wonder if she was somehow connected to Stanford E. Walters, brother of James Volney Walters.
This photo was found among my dad's belongings and we were unable to identify the people in the picture until it was also found in Lillian Bidal's book (see above).
This is John Walters. This photo was obtained from one of John's ancestors. John Walters and James V. Walters were both in California and joined the Army on the same day at the same place (12 Sept. 1861 at Yreka California). They were mustered out on the same day at the same place (30 Nov. 1864 at La Mesilla, New Mexico). They both married "Baca" women. They both lived in southern New Mexico for the rest of their lives. We have no evidence that they were related to each other, but find the similarities almost too much to be coincidence.
This is Alvina Baca Walters, John's wife.
This is suspected to be a photo of John Walters and family. Please compare this to the earlier photo of John Walters and his wife Alvina and let me know what you think.
This is a picture of Jake Walters, but we don't know who he is. To me, he resembles one of the people in the previous photo. See what you think and let me know... or if you know who he is and can place him in a certain Walters family, please let me know that as well.
GENERATION ONE
THOMAS WALTERS, SR.
born 1732 - Scotland
According to information obtained from the Kindred Konnections web site on 10/26/99, Thomas Walters Sr. was born 14 April 1732 in Scotland. The date of his arrival in America is unknown at this time. He was said to have married Lucy Clement Walker in 1752 in Halifax County, Virginia, and the following children were born to them:
John Walters, b. abt. 1753
Robert Walters, b. 1750-1760
Thomas Walters, Jr., b. 1753-1757
Clement Walters, b. 1755
Wilmoth Walters, b. 1758
Agatha Walters, b. 1759
Archibald/Archer Walters, b. 1761
Lucy Walters, b. 1763
Obadiah Walters, b. Aug. 1765
Margaret Walters, b. 1769
William Walters (Sr.), b. 1775
Abraham Walters, b. 1777
GENERATION TWO
ROBERT WALTERS
1750/1760 -
Robert Walters may have been the second son of Thomas Walters and his wife Lucy. Robert was born in Halifax County, Virginia somewhere between 1750 and 1760. He married Selethia/Leithia ("Selebe")McBee (Magby) in the early or mid 1770s in Halifax County, Virginia, and the following children were born to them:
Archibald Walters, b. abt. 1768
Elizabeth (Betsy) Walters, b. abt. 1771
Jackson Walters, b. 7 Oct. 1772
Violet Lettice (Letty) Walters, b. before 1775
Robert Clement Walters, b. 7 Dec. 1775
Labon/Laban Walters, b. 1779
Thomas Walters, b. ?
Lemuel Walters, b. 30 July 1786
Lovania Walters b. abt. 1794
William H. Walters, b. 1800
Selethia Walters, b. ?
GENERATION THREE
JACKSON WALTERS
1772 - 1843
The second child of Robert Walters and his wife Selethia was Jackson Walters. Born on 7 Oct. 1772 in Virginia (probably Pittsylvania Co.), Jackson Walters was married three times with children being born to each union.
Jackson Walters was first married to Elizabeth Harrid (who died 16 May 1803). Children born to Jackson Walters and his first wife Elizabeth:
Robert H. Walters, b. 1793
William Walters, b. 1794 - d. 1794
Thornton Walters, b. 12 Nov. 1795
Frances Walters, b. 26 Sep 1797
Selebe/Selete Walters, b. 16 June 1799
Abner Walters, b. 7 May 1801 - d. 1825
The second wife of Jackson Walters was Polly West Herring who bore him the following children (and died 11 Dec. 1808):
William W. Walters, b. 17 Jan. 1805
Coleman Walters - b. 21 May 1807 - d. 6 Aug. 1807 - (TWIN)
Washington H. Walters, b. 21 May 1807 - (TWIN)
Children born to Jackson Walters and his third wife, Tabitha Thomas, were:
Louiza Walters, b. 26 Jan. 1810
James H. Walters, b. 12 March 1812
George J. Walters, b. 13 July 1813 - d. 18 Nov. 1876
Judith Walters, b. 23 Jan. 1816
GENERATION FOUR
WILLIAM W. WALTERS
born 17 January 1805 in Virginia
William Walters was the second child of Jackson Walters and his second wife, Polly. Born in Virginia, William W. Walters was evidently not content to stay in that part of the country. At the age of 22, on 9 January 1827 in Virginia, he married Penelope Fields/Fealds (Healds - sic) and they began their journey west.
The first child of William Walters and his wife Penelope, James Volney Walters, was born on 25 November 1827, in Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky less than a year after their marriage. Their second child, Nancy Jean Walters, was also born in Kentucky, but the family then again continued on their journey. In 1835 twins, a boy (Voltaire) and a girl (Mary), were born to William and Penelope Walters, in the state of Tennessee in 1835. Another son, Stanford Walters, was born in Tennessee in 1839 (1843?), and then the family began their westward trek once more. The last two children were born in Missouri. These children were Sarah Louisa Walters, born on 1 January 1843, and William Lewis Walters, born in 1845.
In summary, the children of William W. Walters and his wife Penelope were:
James Volney Walters, b. 25 Nov. 1827 in Bowling Green, Kentucky
Nancy Jean Walters, b. 9 April 1833 in Kentucky
Mary Walters (Voltaire's twin), b. 1835 in Tennessee
Voltaire Quintel Walters (Mary's twin), b. 1835 in Tennessee
Stanford Walters, b. 1839/1843 in Tennessee
Sarah Louisa Walters, b. 1 Jan. 1843 in Missouri
William Lewis Walters, b. 1845 in Missouri
William and Penelope apparently had decided to settle in Missouri where they were found in the 1850 St. Clair County census with their children as noted above. William received a land grant from the U.S. government in 1845 in Saline County and then in 1853 in St. Clair County.
According to a letter written to Frances Baca Walters on 4 Oct. 1904 by Dr. J. Wade Gardner from St. Clair Co. Missouri, sometime between 1850 and 1860, William W. Walters apparently hanged himself. I have no definite information about his wife Penelope but believe she had died prior to this. Copies of court records concerning the guardianship of the minor children of William W. Walters upon their father's death were obtained from the St. Clair County, Missouri courthouse.
GENERATION FIVE
JAMES VOLNEY WALTERS
James Volney Walters
born 25 Nov. 1827 in Bowling Green, Kentucky
died 26 June 1904 in Lower Penasco, New Mexico
The childhood of James Walters remains a mystery to me, but he apparently had an adventuresome streak. My dad often laughed when telling a story about James Volney Walters once having married a preacher's daughter on a dare. I know nothing else about this and wasn't sure if it was true or not. However, recently I obtained copies of old court documents from St. Clair Co. MO which included a document naming "Mary Ann Walters, wife of James V. Walters" an heir of William W. Walters (James' father)after his death. This has to be James' first wife.
At the age of 18, on 15 August 1846, James joined the Army at Bolivar, Missouri, becoming a part of Company E, 3rd Missouri Volunteer Regiment during the Mexican War. He apparently served at Fort Leavenworth Kansas from 5 September until 29 September. According to his Mexican War pension application in 1887, he was credited with having served from 12 September 1846 to 12 November 1846 when he was honorably discharged. No reason was given for his early discharge. The Mexican War was not over in 1846 and his enlistment was originally to have been for one year. Nevertheless, apparently he went back home to live with his parents as he was listed in the 1850 St. Clair Co. MO census in the household of his father, William Walters.
On his 1887 Mexican War pension application, which James V. Walters signed himself, he lists the places of his residence from the time of his discharge from the Army in 1846 until the time he applied for the pension as follows:
From 1846 to 1853 - St. Clair County, Missouri
From 1853 to 1856 - Oregon
From 1856 to 1861 - Siskiyou, California
From 1861 to 1864 - served in the Army again*
From 1864 to present (1887) - Lincoln County, New Mexico
My dad related the story that James went West during the gold rush days and never again returned to Missouri. According to his 1887 pension application, he lived in Oregon from 1853 to 1856 and in Siskiyou, California from 1856 to 1861, so it seems very likely that he did just that. According to information found in a book of the history of St. Clair County, a number of men from that county made the trip West, including "William Walters."
In the 1860 Siskiyou census a J.W. Walters is listed as a teamster who was born in Kentucky. The age is wrong for this to be our James V. Walters, but he WAS born in Kentucky and he DID serve as a teamster during his second stint in the Army, so the middle initial and age could well have been the census taker's error and this very likely was James.
Nothing is known of the eight years he spent out west, perhaps trying to strike it rich. When that failed, he may have decided to join the Army where he would at least have regular meals. I don't believe James was alone during these years in Oregon and California, but think he may have been accompanied by a couple of men who may have been his cousins (John Walters and Wesley Fields).
All three of these men enlisted in the Army on 12 September 1861 at Yreka, California, and all three men mustered out on 30 November 1864 at La Mesilla, New Mexico. Interestingly enough, James V. Walters married Frances Baca in 1869, John Walters married Alvina Baca in about 1871, and Wesley Fields married Alvina's sister Dolores Baca in 1873, all in the same area of New Mexico.
At the time of James' marriage to Frances Baca in 1869, he was 42 years old and she was a young woman of 13. James and Frances lived in at least three different places in New Mexico - on the Ruidoso River south of Lincoln, near Glencoe, and then at Lower Penasco where James had obtained a 160 acre land grant from the U.S. government and lived the rest of his life until his death in 1904.
The marriage of James Volney Walters and Frances Baca Walters produced 12 children.
Felicita (Elizabeth?/Lizzie) Walters, b. 25 Nov. 1869.
Click here for information about Lizzie and her husband Sid Boykin.
Mary Ann Walters, b. 31 Nov. 1871.
William (Billy) Walters, b. 29 Feb. 1874.
Nancy Ellen Walters, b. 22 Jan. 1876.
(Nancy on left - Metta on right)
Lucy Walters, b. 24 July 1878.
Click here for the letter Lucy wrote to a nephew in 1957.
Edwin Walters, b. 10 May 1880.
Anomia (Nomie) Walters, b. 14 July 1882.
Basilia (Bess) Walters, b. 19 Sept. 1884.
Vivian Ella Caroline Walters, b. 2 Sept. 1887.
Metta Louise Walters, b. 26 Jan. 1890.
Bertha M. Walters, b. 17 Oct. 1892.
James Volney Walters, Jr., b. 24 Dec. 1895.
GENERATION SIX
VIVIAN ELLA CAROLINE WALTERS
My grandmother, Vivian, was the ninth child of James and Frances Walters.
Vivian Ella Caroline Walters
born 2 Sept. 1887 at Lower Penasco, New Mexico
died 28 March 1952 at Beloit, Kansas
Vivian became a nurse and met Ellis David Anderson while working as a nurse in the Glen Elder, Kansas area. They were married on 1 January 1914 at the home of Vivian's married sister, Nancy Walters Brown, in Canadian, Oklahoma.
Ellis and Vivian Anderson - 1 January 1914
After their marriage, Vivian and Ellis lived in Mitchell County, Kansas, for the rest of their lives except for a brief time when they attempted to homestead in Montana where their second child, Veronica, was born. Their other three children were all born in Mitchell County, Kansas, near Glen Elder.
Children of Vivian Walters Anderson and Ellis David Anderson:
Ora Elta Anderson - b. 19 Oct. 1914
Veronica (Vera) Anderson - b. 6 Oct. 1916
Ellis David Anderson, Jr. - b. 21 April 1921
Bertha Marie Anderson - b. 28 May 1925
Their third child and only son, was my dad Ellis David Anderson Jr.
GENERATION SEVEN
ELLIS DAVID ANDERSON, Jr.
Ellis David Anderson, Jr.
born 21 April 1921 at Glen Elder, Kansas
Dave was the only boy in the family and, from the sound of some of the stories he has told, was "all boy", playing football in high school for which he was awarded a college football scholarship. However, he did not use the scholarship or attend college, but instead moved to Wichita, Kansas, where he worked for a time in an aircraft factory and then joined the Army to fight in World War II.
He was working at the Beech Aircraft factory in Wichita when he met a co-worker, Pauline Miller. When he got up the nerve to ask her for a date, she told him she would only go out with him if he shaved his sideburns. The next day he showed up at work without the sideburns and received a lot of good-natured teasing... but he did get the date.
Dave joined the Army in April of 1943 and while stationed in Denver, Colorado, he wrote to Pauline and told her if she'd go to Denver, he wouldn't let her go home a "miss." She took the train to Denver, and they were married on November 3, 1943.
Dave and Pauline Anderson - 3 Nov. 1943
Dave then was shipped overseas where he was a tail gunner in the Army Air Corps (89th Bomb. Squadron. The operations he took part in were as follows: Air Offensive Japan, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Southern Phillippines, Western Pacific and Luzon. He was awarded the Air Medal, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with One Bronze Star, and the Good Conduct Medal.
When Dave arrived home again after being discharged on November 26, 1945, he met his beautiful baby daughter who had been born while he was overseas. She was named for his mother and for Pauline's mother - Vivian Clairlee Anderson, but has always been known to her family as Vicky.
The family lived in Wichita for a time and then moved back to Dave's hometown of Beloit, Kansas. Upon completion of his education as an electronics engineer, Dave and Pauline moved their family to Indiana where they continue to reside to the present, though all of their children were born in Kansas.
Dave worked for many years as an engineer for an independent television station in Indianapolis - WTTV Channel 4 - retiring in 1986.
Dave had a 4-vessel cardiac bypass surgery and then aneurysm repair surgery in the abdominal area and later to his legs. Tragically, after complications developed after his right leg surgery, that leg had to be amputated. Dave made a remarkable adjustment and eventually would joke that that was "a heck of a way to lose 30 pounds."
Even though he was an amputee and in a wheelchair, when his wife Pauline had a massive stroke in November of 1992, Dave was at the hospital every day and then at the nursing home where she was sent for rehab every day. When she was well enough to go home, Dave was her primary caregiver for over three years. Pauline's stroke left her unable to use her right arm or leg and unable to speak understandably. Dave worked with her and was able to teach her to say a number of words.
Eventually though, Dave himself was the victim of stroke, suffering an intracranial hemorrhage in July of 1996. Though he worked hard in rehab, he has continued to have TIAs and strokes and at the time of this writing, is totally bedfast, with the use of only his left arm, and unable to speak or read or write.
Dave and Pauline now live in a cozy handicap-accessible room addition at their daughter Kathy's house where family members and other paid helpers enable them to live together as independently as they can under the circumstances. They recently celebrated their 56th anniversary quietly at home.
UPDATE: Dave passed away on 20 December 1999 in Indianapolis, Indiana and was buried on 23 December 1999 in Greenwood, Indiana.
GENERATION EIGHT
KATHERINE LOUISE ANDERSON
Dave and Pauline Anderson's children are as follows:
Vivian Clairlee Anderson
Judith Pauline Anderson
Katherine Louise Anderson
Pamela Ann Anderson - stillborn.
Nancy Elizabeth Anderson
Sandra Sue Anderson
David Eugene Anderson
Gerald Michael Anderson
Kathy, the third child of Dave and Pauline Anderson, married William Kenneth Goins.
GENERATION NINE
WILLIAM KENNETH GOINS (JR)
The children of Ken and Kathy Goins are:
William Kenneth Goins (Jr.)
Paulina Jane Goins
James David Goins
John Jerel Goins
The oldest son, Bill, married Melissa Ann Smith.
GENERATION TEN
JENNIFER DAWN GOINS & JAMES BENJAMIN GOINS
Bill and Missy have given Ken and Kathy two beautiful grandchildren:
Jennifer Dawn Goins
James Benjamin Goins
Jenny and Ben Goins - Christmas 1997