ville, Tenn., I thought that his adopted state might honor him as her distinguished citizen, legislator, Congressman and Governor, and the United States might honor him as her President, but Mecklenburg county, N. C, would claim him as her own son."
In 1893 his remains were removed, by the State, from Polk Place to the capitol square.
The Polks were leading men in their day, and figured prominently in the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. James K. Polk's great-great-grandfather, Robert Polk, was a native of Scotland, and married Magdalen Tusken, the heiress of a large estate. His son, Robert, emigrated to this country in 1735.
SECTION III.
2 Jane⁴ Maria Polk, eldest daughter of Major Samuel Polk and wife, Jeanette Knox Polk, was born in, or near, Charlotte, N. C. While a mere girl she removed with her father and family to Maury county, Tenn., about the year 1806, and in 1813, in her sixteenth year, she married James Walker, Esq. In 1829 she became a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and ever after lived a faithful, consistent member. She was a cheerful Christian, kind and charitable to the poor and the afflicted, often ministering to their wants.
From a copy of her obituary sent me by her granddaughter, Mrs. Boon, of Carthage, Mo., we learn something of the life and character of this noble woman. Well and nobly did she fill her sphere in life. "Her children arise up and call her blessed." At her death, she was one of the oldest inhabitants of Columbia, Tenn., having come out when the whole country was but a wilderness. She was stricken with paralysis or apoplexy, and died in Columbia, Tenn., October 11, 1876, in her seventy-ninth year. The remains were laid to rest in the old family burying ground in Greenwood Cemetery, by the side of her husband, who preceded her to the grave.
James Walker was born in Fayette county, Ky., May 29, 1792. Their children are as follows: