Edwin C. Walker

Released
Date of birth:1849
Date of death:1931
Age:82† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1800s
State:Kansas
Time Imprisoned:
6 Months 15 Days
Support
Anarchism
Edwin C. Walker

Biography

Edwin C. Walker was an American individualist-anarchist and free-thought writer, an associate editor of Lucifer, the Light-Bearer. In September 1886 he and Lillian Harman, the sixteen-year-old daughter of editor Moses Harman, celebrated an "autonomistic marriage" — a free union entered without the authority of church or state, as a protest against the marriage laws. The couple were arrested the next morning and prosecuted under Kansas law in State v. Walker. Walker was sentenced to two and a half months in the county jail and, because neither he nor Harman would pay the court costs, was not released until Moses Harman paid them the following April.

Case

Jefferson County Jail
Charges: Violating the Kansas marriage law.
Arrested: Sep 20, 1886
Sentenced: Oct 19, 1886
Incarcerated: Sep 20, 1886
Released: Apr 4, 1887
Sentence: Two and a half months in the county jail, with release withheld until the court costs were paid. Held from September 20, 1886 until April 4, 1887, when Moses Harman paid the $113.80 in costs. Verdict as recorded: Yes — convicted under the Kansas marriage act; the convictions were upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court in State v. Walker (1887). Arrested September 20, 1886; sentenced October 19, 1886. Charges as recorded: Violating the Kansas marriage law — for their September 1886 "autonomistic" (free-love) marriage, entered without a license or clergy (State v. Walker, 36 Kan. 297).
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Colorado

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