Rosene Conrad was believed to have been born in France where she spent her early childhood. Sometime in the 1840's she traveled to the United States and resided with Robert and Margaret Jamison of Talladega County, Alabama. She is believed to have worked as a housekeeper and seamstress for the couple until the early 1850's. She met and married William F. Walker of Munford, Alabama sometime in the mid or late 1850's. During the American Civil War William Walker served in the Confederate Army, but his activities during the war were not documented in the correspondence. Following the war, he returned to farming and operating a lumber mill.