A native of Virginia, and was born in Winchester, Frederic county, on the 29th of December, 1814. At the age of fifteen years he lost his father, and the widowed mother and children moved to Pickaway county, Pickaway, near Circleville, Ohio, where he spent three seasons on a farm. When about eighteen he obtained employment in a store at New Lexington, Highland county; remained there one year, and then spent five years as a clerk in a wholesale dry-goods house in Cincinnati, at the end of which time he returned to New Lexington and embarked in mercantile trade for himself, continuing it until 1841, when he immigrated to Iowa. After spending a few weeks at Iowa City he bought a squatter's claim, and in October of that year settled near the spot where his present home is found. There being but few families in the township he concluded to adopt the occupation of a farmer for a few years and wait for mercantile opportunities to present themselves. In May, 1849, he opened the first general variety store, and the second store of any kind, in Mount Vernon. Mr. Waln retired from mercantile life in 1860, and since then has attended to his farm, besides operating at times in the insurance business. He was one of the first movers in the literary enterprise projected about 1850 and resulting in the founding of Cornell College, one of the most prosperous institutions of learning in the state. The first money raised for the starting of this institution was paid by Mr. Waln. Mr. Waln was one of the representatives from Linn county to the general assembly in 1858, and has held several offices in the municipality of the place. He was a member of the school board, and is an ardent worker in educational matters. In politics, he is a republican, with Whig antecedents. His church connection is with the Methodist Episcopal. He has been a class leader and is now president of the official board. On the 10th of September, 1836, he was joined in wedlock with Miss Mary Jane Adams, of New Lexington, Ohio.
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