Picture from Newton Daily News March 1, 1935. Article titled Title of Oldest Man Awarded to Walter M. Earp
Started to Denver during 1950 gold rush but was turned back by returning prospectors.

The oldest man in Jasper County that is the unquestioned title that crowns W.M. (Walt) Earp 98 year old pioneer who lives between Reasoner and Galesburg in the southeastern part of the country.

I'm getting so old that I have about lost my senses he rejoins jokingly to the inquiry that 98 years is a pretty good record "But my health has been pretty good. I'm going on 99 you know; Nov. 8, 1935 I'll be 99.

And with that the white-haired dean of The Daily News Three Quarter Century club launches into a story of his life.

Born in 1836

He was born Nov 8 1836 in Ohio and lived there until he was nine years old. The family moved later into Illinois. The whole family settling around Monmouth, IL in Warren Co. When the young Earp was 16 years old his father moved into Iowa and because they liked Warren Co. so well they moved to Warren Co., Iowa near Indianola in the early 1880's. They lived out the fall of the year there and then moved back to Marion County, north of Pella and on the edge of Jasper County. A little later Mr. Earp's father bought land near Galesburg and members of the family have lived around this locality ever since.

Mr. Earp said that he always liked to live in Iowa but that all of his days since migrating into the state have not been spent here.

In the l850's along with hundreds of other young folks go the gold fever and they started out to Denver, Colorado in what was gold rush all of its own. But at the Missouri river he met some people coming back and they persuaded him to change his plans about the gold rush so he went south with them into Missouri.

After staying down in Missouri for a little he returned to Jasper County where he bought 80 acres and began farming.

Here for Many Years

He has resided in the southern and southeastern part of the county for a great portion of his life and has seen that part of the country grow. He remembers Galesburg when it was just beginning as a town and trading center.

Mr. Earp, whose eyesight is failing him some, is just as interested in world and national affairs as ever. When asked to what he attributed his long life he replied "Being a republican and good tobacco.

While he has not lived as many years in Jasper County as others of our pioneers he has lived a long and busy life in places close to Jasper County and knows much of the early trials of Iowans as they sought to build a thriving state from the open prairie land and swampy river bottoms that featured this state's earthy contour.

Newton Dailey News, March 1, 1935

Taken: 8/26/16