6-S WALTON. WAI.TOX. Billings, of Woodstock, Vt., and widow of G. F. Bailey, of Fitchburg, Mass. Politically Mr. Wallace is an earnest Republican. For three years, 1864, '65, and '67, he was one of the selectmen of Fitchburg, and in 1873 was sent as a rep- resentative to the Legislature, where he served on the committee on manufactures. Ill health forced him to decline a renomina- tion, but in 1880 he accepted a nomination, and was elected to the executive council of Governor Long, where he served on the committees on pardons, harbors and pub- lic lands, prisons and warrants, and in other important positions, being re-appointed the following year. In 1888 he was elected a member of the 51st Congress from the nth congressional district. Mr. Wallace stands deservedly high in the estimation of his fellow-citizens of Fitchburg as a man of rare integrity, saga- cious in business, and generous in the sup- port of praiseworthy enterprises. WALTON, George Augustus, son of James and Elizabeth (Bryant) Walton, w. is born at South Reading (now Wake- field), Middlesex county, February 18, 1822. He received his early education at the common schools and academies in his na- tive town and vicinity, and at the normal school in Bridgewater. lie entered the normal school in March, 1843, and gradu- ated in November, 1845, under the dis- tinguished normal instructor, Nicholas Til- linghast. Mr. Walton was subsequently a critical observer and devoted student of the pedagogical met hi ids of the lion. John W. Dickinson, at that lime principal of the Westlield normal school. Immediately on graduating at Bridge- water he commenced teaching in the public schools — first at Duxbury during the win- ters of i845-T>, and subsequently at Ed- gartown am! Barnstable. Meeting with marked success as a teacher of public schools, Mr. Walton was selected in 1847 principal of the Model school at West New- ton, an institution for observation and prac- tice connected with the state normal school at that place. In 1.S4X he received the ap- pointment of principal of the Olivergram- mar school of Lawrence. The marvelous increase of efficiency of this school at- tracted the attention of the state board of education, and he was employed as institute instructor in [861, and ap- pointed one of its agents in [871, which office he now holds. The duties of this office consist in inspecting and examining the schools in various parts of the State, in instructing teachers how to teach, and in addressing the public on educational topics. One of the most noteworthy services ren- dered by Mr. Walton for the public schools is his examinations in Norfolk county. The published report of these examinations is a most interesting document, giving the details of methods and results of the work, which occupied in its accomplishment a long time of patient labor. As early as his first teaching in the Model school at West Newton, Mr. Walton employed the method of teaching numbers since known as the Grube method. In 1S50 he became joint author with Dana P. GEORGE A. WALTON. Colbum of an elementary arithmetic, en- titled "The First Steps in Numbers." It was the initial step to the introduction into the schools of this country of the Grube method. Upon this little book as a basis, Mr. Walton published two other books, one a primary, the other a mental, arithmetic ; he also wrote and published with these a book of higher grade, thus completing " Walton's Series." Previous to this he prepared " A Table for Practice in the Fundamental Operations of Arithmetic." He also prepared a " Key " to this table, containing dictation exercises, with several thousand answers. This form of dictation had its origin in the Oliver
