Part 5 – Epilogue

So what happened to Robert Horatio and his band of Pioneers?

Right off the bat, in 1902, they were petitioning for a school for their children.

Robert and Maggie’s two youngest daughters, Gail and Kitty, were 10 and 8-years-old respectively when the family settled in Sherman Township. Over the next decade, their sons, Clyde and Ralph, added eleven more babies; daughter, Fanny, contributed four. Bob’s brother, Harry, brought three kids, 6-4-2 when they arrived, and four more were born in ND. Schools were a natural priority for the family!

Uh-Oh, In 1904, Robert was fined for illegal fishing. It says he was in “durance vile” – an old term that means hard labor! Honestly, he must have gotten a little aggressive with the game warden. I can imagine that he would consider a fishing license an unacceptable infringement on his freedom… This article refers to the illegal pursuit of the “finny tribe”, which is a Scottish phrase for fish! Very colourful!

Following the 1904 death of her husband, Robert’s older sister, Julia Pixley, came to live with the clan. Her mother, Abigail, was still alive, living with her sister, Sally Carothers, and her son, Arthur, and daughter, Stella, were getting knee-deep in kids – Arthur had six!

In 1905, he and a buddy started a new business, Hunter & Walker, to steam and clean feathers used in pillows and ticks. During those years, he was also a justice of the peace.

No doubt that the group were pleased when the Northern Pacific Railroad added a spur and built the town of Antler just five miles south of their Sherman Township homesteads.

The Antler town-site was owned and plotted by the Tallman Investment Company in May of 1905, and by December of that same year, there were 40 businesses in Antler. The residents have had telephone service since 1906. That doesn’t sound all that primitive, does it?

In 1906, Maggie and Robert’s daughter, Gail, married, getting a nice little write-up in the Bottineau Courant.

Robert’s mother, Abigail Reed Walker, passed away in 1908. Maggie’s mother, my great-great-great-grandmother, died in 1909, 94-years-old. Both of those remarkable women had been pioneers as children, and again as elders. Respect.

By 1910, the group looked a lot different. Sometime before then, Bob’s Brothers, Joseph and Harry, moved their families to Ft. McLeod, Alberta Canada.

Sister Sally Carothers, and her family moved to Boulder, Colorado.

Julia Pixley’s daughter, Stella, moved to Montana.

Maggie’s sister, Belle Elliott, and her family had migrated to Medicine Hat, Canada, in 1908.

Julia’s son, Harry Pixley, moved back to West Salem early on, marrying and running a repair shop there.

Robert and Charley Kinkade both returned to the farm in Richland County, though they maintained their claim in Sherman Township for many years.

Robert and Maggie’s youngest daughter, Kitty, married and moved to Deitrich, ID in 1912.

In 1913, the old soldier made a trip to Gettysburg to commemorate that battle.

The 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, known as the “Great Reunion” or 1913 Gettysburg Reunion, was a historic four-day event from June 29 to July 4, 1913, in Gettysburg, PA. Over 53,000 Union and Confederate veterans, with an average age of 72, met to reconcile, marking a peaceful, symbolic end to the conflict. There is an archive of pictures and interviews of the veterans that is fascinating. It must have been an emotional event for all.

In 1916, my most illustrious shirt-tail relative, Robert Horatio Walker, passed on, aged 70 years. He packed a lot of living into those years.

After her husband’s death, Maggie McWilliams Walker, (my 2x great grandaunt) moved to Idaho to live with her daughter, Kitty, where she died in 1918.

It was a grand scheme, wasn’t it? And what better did they have to do but build a community in a new land? What a dream!

The folks who remained in Antler for the rest of their lives, or until they got so old they had to go live with their children, were Robert’s sons, Ralph and Clyde, daughters, Fanny and Gail, and nephew, Arthur Pixley

These days (2026) the population of Sherman Township, ND is 47. Antler’s population is 22.

Their historical society is trying to do some preservation, but it’s pretty much a ghost town.

It seems even the ghosts have left, hanging out here with me, unveiling their story.

It has been my honor to share it with you.

Peace