Nancy L Walker

/by

Nancy L Walker

Date of Birth: 

Born In: San Mateo, California

Age: 29

Occupation: 

Marital Status: Widow

Died: 13 Nov 1886

Cause of Death: 

Death Location: Woodside, California

Burial Plot: 16

FindaGrave ID: 6542746

Nancy L Walker

Obituary

The San Mateo County Times and Gazette
11/20/1886
A Tragedy's Sad Sequel
REDWOOD CITY - November 13.
Mrs. Eugene Walker died this morning at Woodside, near this town, at the home of her brother-in-law, Thomas Shine. The death of Mrs. Walker is the final ending of the awful tragedy which took place in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County, last month, the details of which are still fresh in the minds of the people. Young Eugene Walker was shot down at his doorstep by the Hemmeys, neighboring farmers, and his wife severely wounded. On seeing her husband dead, Mrs. Walker, mangled and bleeding, with her child in her arms, dragged herself to the nearest residence, a mile away. The murderers were afterward lynched. Mrs. Walker and the dead body of her husband were brought to this town, their old home, where the heroine of that awful experience lingered in great pain till her death.

All that the outside world will know of the tragedy and its sequel so fresh in the memories of most readers of this paper, is epitomized in the curt dispatch above. But the neighbors and other friends of the household where Nancy Walker breathed her last know much that is there untold. As Charles Reade truly tells us, "Not a day passes over the world but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words, and suffer noble sorrows." Not all of us may do great deeds or speak great words. It is not given to all of us to suffer noble sorrows. But to poor Eugene Walker's brave little wife was given the suffering of the noblest type of sorrow, to which was added physical pain so poignant that one winces even to think of it. And she bore it all with unshaken fortitude, patient, unselfish, brave to the last. Seven long months, two hundred and twenty seven days of pain and dread and doubt! Yet not one complaining, fretful, self indulgent murmur lingers in the thoughts of those who so carefully and tenderly watched and waited on her. Her sister, Mrs. Thomas Shine, and her brother, Mr. Malcolm Boyd, her father-in-law, Mr. Silvester Walker, and all the members of the Shine family devoted themselves unweariedly to the care and comfort which was all they might do for her. Surgical and medical skill did what might be done to supplement the strong vital force of her delicate yet strangely enduring physique. She lived much longer than her friends ever dared hope. Her last hours were comparatively painless, and she went to her long sleep with a smile.

The funeral was attended by a large concourse of neighbors and friends; and by many friends of her husband and her father. No service was held at the house, but at the grave, in the Walker plot in Union Cemetery, Mr. Fackenthall spoke impressively and appropriately and read over the coffin the solemn service of the church.

Little May Walker, two years old, the survivor of the double tragedy which has shadowed her baby life, will remain an ____ of her aunt's family, where a pleasant and healthful life is assured. Mr. Sylvester Walker will be her guardian and hold for her the little property left her.

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