Bainbridge Elder's Memory
Goes Back Before Civil War

(One of a Series)

By BARBARA BOLMER KALFS

Henry C. Walley of Bainbridge has "two claims to fame" when it comes to totalling up the years because, in addition to being 91 years young, he boasts a 66-year membership in the International Order of Odd Fellows. Endowed with a quick-on-the-trigger wit, this chipper nonagenarian laughingly remarked that he's done a little bit of everything in the job line. His hearing is failing and he misses listening to the radio, but reading compensates in part for this loss. Mr. Walley is well informed, peruses every printed sheet that comes his way.

Retired at 75

When he was 75, he was retired by the Steel and Iron Co. in Springfield. "The quit me because I was too old," he explained, while adding a "serves them right" note. "They put a man on who destroyed more things in a day than I did in a year."

He was born Sept. 26, 1859, on the present Floyd Drummond farm, located on Buckskin creek in Paxton township. Of eight children born to David and Melissa Walley, he is the only survivor.

Mr. Walley has a phenomenal memory and maintains that he can remember back when he was two years old...which was before the Civil War.

Speaking of that strife, he recalled, "I never saw a Rebel. When Morgan's men flew through I stayed in the house, I was so scared. My uncle enlisted and was shot through the body at Perrysville, Ky. They brought him back to die and inside of a year, he was at Johnson's Island. He died in Texas a few years ago."

Never in Uniform

This slightly balding nonagenarian pointed out that he was mighty lucky because he never saw service in any of the four wars which have been fought in his lifetime.

He went to school until he was 12. Then, he worked in Chillicothe as a plasterer in the employ of Luther Jones. After a while he drifted back to the farm and it was there, in 1888, that he married Emma Atkins.

Mr. Walley's other trades included working on the D.T.&I. railroad as a fireman. He remembers well the Springfield, Jackson and Pomeroy narrow gauge tracks and the old C.H.&D. lines which later became part of the B.&O.

He worked in London 14 years as the "jack of all trades" for a hardware firm. His chores included delivering goods, working outside, helping as a machine "setter-upper" and collecting bills, which was by far the worst of the four jobs, he said.

It was while he was in London that he had a run-in with one of the early "horseless carriages". The cause of his trouble was an old stemwinder Ford which came as he puts it, "pert near jerking my head off". That evidently gave him his fill of autos. Although he'd ride in the contraptions, he never had another hankering to own one.

Two of his four children, Mrs. Eli (Bessie) Wilgus and Edwin Walley, are deceased. His daughter, Miss Grace Walley, keeps house for him and another daughter, Mrs. Coleman (Miriam) Heaton lives in Springfield.

The Walley family has multiplied by leaps and bounds and today Mr. Walley boasts 10 living grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Mr. Walley and other nonagenarians in the Chillicothe trading area would like to know about others whom "Father Time" has awarded membership in their "select" fraternity. The Gazette welcomes news about anyone else who has reached the outstanding 90-year-mark.

This article appeared in the "Chillicothe Gazette" ca. 1951.
transcribed by Stephen A. Rausch