SARA

SARAH STOKES WALTON.

ARAH STOKES WALTON was born in Philadelphia, Pa., February 12, 1844, and is the third oldest child of Charles Crawford Dunn, Sr., and Helen Struthers, his wife, and is one of thirteen children. From her sixth to tenth year she attended a private school kept by Miss Sarah James, who was well known to all the best Philadelphia families, having taught children of three generations.

In the spring of 1854 Mrs. Walton's father purchased a farm on the Jersey side of the romantic Delaware River, and there built their beautiful home "Magnolia Hall." To the dreamy child this was a taste of paradise, and the happiest years of her life were passed there. She was a pupil in the Farnum Preparatory School, Beverly, New Jersey, until 1858, then at the early age of fourteen her school days ended, the fast increasing family requiring the care of the elder ones.

In 1864 the first sorrow of her life occurred, viz, parting with her beautiful home. Her father's presence being required in Washington, D. C., he sold his home and moved his family back to Philadelphia. On October 24, 1866, she was married to Louis N. Walton, a Philadelphian by birth, but at that time a resident of Lexington, Ky., and has at present time two children, a daughter just budding into womanhood, and a son of sixteen years. After three years' residence in Lexington, Ky., she returned to Philadelphia, and gradually drifted back to New Jersey, near the scenes of her happy childhood. There in her pretty home, "Woodbine Villa," surrounded by her family and pets, she lives a quiet, uneventful life.

Mrs. Walton is five feet six inches in height, with dark hair and eyes. She is an earnest church worker, having been a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church since her fourteenth year, and is also a member of The King's Daughters. Her ancestors on her father's side were Huguenot refugees, who settled in Chestertown, Maryland, in 1625; Scotch on her mother's side, she being a grand-daughter of the late John Struthers, of Edinburgh, Scotland, who presented to his adopted country the beautiful marble sarcophagus, in which rest the mortal remains of our first president, George Washington.

Mrs. Walton composes at night only, writes only "when the spirit moves her,” takes pencil and tablet to bed with her when in a writing mood. She has also been quite successful as an amateur artist, having taken a number of prizes for amateur work. H. S.

WILLIAM DAVIS GALLAGHER.

WILLIAM DAVIS GALLAGHER was born

in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1808. He was the son of Bernard Gallagher, a native of Ireland, who fought in the rebellion of 1803; and at the close he emigrated to America, and settled at Philadelphia, where he began life on a paper called the Shamrock. Abigail Davis-Gallagher, William's mother, was born in Bridgeport, New Jersey. Her father was a Welshman, an industrious farmer, and a soldier in the Revolutionary army. He fought under General Washington, and fell at Valley Forge. The Irish refugee and the Welsh patriot's daughter were so much attracted to each other that they joined their lives in wedlock. Four sons, Edward, Francis, William and John, were the issue of this marriage.

The father died in 1814 when William was not quite eight years old. Mrs. Gallagher two years later removed with her family of little children to Hamilton county, Ohio, and settled on a small farm near Mount Healthy, now Mount Pleasant, not far from where the Cary family lived. Mrs. Gallagher and Mrs. Cary were near relatives.

The first school that William Gallagher attended was taught by Samuel Woodworth, and the schoolhouse was a log cabin in the neighborhood of Mount Healthy. During his attendance there he became familiar with such instructive books as the "American Reader" and the “Columbian Orator.” Young Gallagher was a great admirer of nature, and in company with several of his school-fellows he would frequently roam through the wildwood, over the hills about Mount Healthy, and along the beautiful banks of Mill creek.

It was decided by the mother, brother and uncle, to send William to the Lancastrian Seminary. While a student in the school he would make daily visits to the office of the Remembrancer, a small paper owned and edited by the Rev. David Root. It was in this establishment that Gallagher first learned the art of printing and proof-reading. Young "Billy" Gallagher was made assistant manager of the Western Tiller in 1826. In 1828 he was engaged by S. J. Brown, of the Cincinnati Emporium, but that paper soon suspended publication. His next venture was with the Commercial Register, a daily newspaper published in Cincinnati, and it existed six months only. Mr. Gallagher and his brother Francis controlled the Western Minerva that lived but a year.

In 1824 young Gallagher wrote for the Literary Gazette, and in it appeared his first poetical composition, "Lines on Spring," signed "Julia." In 1826

he contributed to the Cincinnati Saturday Evening Chronicle under the signature of “Rhoderick."

In the summer of 1828 Gallagher went to Mount Sterling to visit his brother John, and while there he was engaged to write editorials for the Mount Sterling Whig. He had just entered on his duties when he learned that his brother Francis was lying very low with fever at Natchez, Mississippi. He forthwith started out to visit his sick brother, stopping at several places on the route, among them the beautiful country seats of General James Jackson, where he was hospitably entertained for a short time, and "Ashland," the home of the Kentucky statesman, Henry Clay, where he was cordially received by that gentleman.

He took a steamboat at Louisville and was soon on his way to Natchez. He wrote, while there, a series of entertaining letters, giving a graphic description of Kentucky scenery, and the Blue Grass regions. These letters were published in the Cincinnati Saturday Evening Chronicle which brought him literary fame.

In 1830 Mr. Gallagher bought a printing office in Xenia, Ohio, and started the Backwoodsman. In that year a campaign barbecue, or banquet as they are now styled, was given in honor of Henry Clay at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and Gallagher was one of the invited guests, and was given a seat by the side of the great Kentucky statesman and orator, who desired an interview with the talented young editor and poet from Xenia.

The Backwoodsman failed in 1832, and Mr. Gallagher took charge of the Cincinnati Mirror, afterwards the Western Gazette of Literature. As a lecturer Mr. Gallagher stood in the foremost rank. His lecture "Eulogium on the Life and Character of William Wirt," which is said to be his first, was delivered before the "Lyceum" with great effect.

The first volume of poems by Mr. Gallagher were published in 1835, entitled "Erato No. I," and Erato No. II," and in 1837 "Erato No. III.”

Mr. Gallagher was editor of the Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review in 1836, the Western Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal published at Louisville, Ky., in 1837. In 1838 he controlled the Ohio State Journal, and in the same year Mr. Gallagher published the Hesperian with wonderful success. This once widely popular magazine was transferred to Cincinnati in 1839, and near the close of that year was discontinued, when Mr. Gallagher accepted a position as assistant editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, which was tendered him by Charles Hammond, its editor, and one of the brightest men of his time.

Mr. Gallagher was a member of the "Franklin Society," the "Inquisition," the "Tags" or "T