Walker Family History

Father - Steven N Walker 1951 - 2010 - Custom Home Builder

Born: March 2, Texas Independence Day 1951, Anchorage, Alaska (Father Stationed in Alaska during Cold War)

Death: February 11, 2010, Fort Worth, Texas

- Custom Home Builder - Fort Worth (North Texas)

- Known as an intelligent and honorable man. Owned and operated a custom home build business for 2 decades , teaching his son Josh Walker the home building business.

- Loved fishing at the lake, peaceful time on the water.

Grandfather - Lieutenant Colonel Leighton N Walker 1918 - 1987 - US Air Force

Born: October 20, 1918, Orange, Texas

Death: February 16, 1987 Fort Worth, Texas

- Lieutenant Colonel United States Air Force

- B52 Stratofortress Pilot - One of the first 500 pilots trained on the B52 Bomber.  Commissioned to fly bomber runs from Alaska to Russian air space loaded with nuclear payloads during the Cold War.

- WW2 and Korean War

- B24 Liberator Pilot

- Texas A&M Football Running Back - Texas A&M 1939 National Champions 11-0

Great Grandfather - Samuel Routh Walker II 1881 - 1957 - Builder

Born: January 9, 1881, Opelousas, Louisiana

Death: November 19, 1957, Baytown, Harris County, Texas

- Builder

- Loved fishing at the lake, peaceful time on the water.

2nd Great Grandfather - Samuel Routh Walker I 1849 - 1898 - Farmer

Born: June 11, 1849, St. Joseph, Louisiana

Death: January 30, 1898, Lake Charles, Louisiana

- Farmer

- Notary Public

Great Cousin - Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Hamilton Walker in the Texas Rangers 1817 - 1847

Born: February 24, 1817 • Toaping Castle, Prince George's, Maryland

Death: October 9, 1847 • Huamantla, Tlaxcala, Mexico

Burial: San Antonio, Texas

- Texas Rangers Hall of Fame Waco Texas

- Walker County, Texas, was renamed for him.

- Samuel Hamilton Walker was an American army officer. He served as a Texas Ranger captain and officer of the Republic of Texas and the United States armies. Walker served in several armed conflicts, including the American Indian Wars and the Mexican–American War

- Co-Inventor of the Walker Colt Revolver. The Walker Colt was created in the mid-1840s in a collaboration between Texas Ranger Lt. Col. Samuel Hamilton Walker (1817–1847) and American firearms inventor Samuel Colt (1814–1862), building upon the earlier Colt Paterson design. Walker wanted a handgun that was extremely powerful at close range.

- Caught and Escaped twice by the Mexican General Santa Anna. Walker was captured on December 26, 1842, and marched to Mexico City as a prisoner of war. He survived what became known as the Black Bean Episode and was held prisoner for two years before he escaped to Louisiana and returned to Texas

- Mexican American War

- Comanche Battle at Walker Creek Texas. In 1844 Walker joined John C. Hays's company of Texas Rangers and participated in the battle of Walker's Creek near the junction of Walker's Creek and West Sister Creek northwest of present-day Sisterdale in Kendall County. During the engagement the rangers, using new Colt revolvers, successfully defeated about eighty Comanches.

- Seminole War Florida and worked as a scout in Florida until 1841.

- Walker enlisted in the Washington City Volunteers for the Creek Indian Campaign in Alabama in 1836.

- It’s said that Walker was not a man you would much notice in everyday life. He was of average size, and quiet. But in battle he was a lion. In his Notes of the Mexican War 1846-1848, J. Jacob Oswandel observed of Walker that ‘’war was his element, the bivouac his delight, and the battlefield his playground.”

Walker lived more in his short life than your average ten men live in their long lives combined. He is the Walker, Texas Ranger, that should be most remembered.

Samuel Walker: The Real ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ | Texas Standard

Walker, Samuel Hamilton - Texas State Historical Association

Samuel Hamilton Walker - Wikipedia

Samuel H. Walker Texas Ranger Hall OF Fame

3rd Great Grandfather - William Watson Walker 1792 - 1831 - Attorney at Law

Born: September 15, 1792 Rutherford, North Carolina

Death: June 25, 1831 Natchez, Adams, Mississippi

- Attorney at Law

Great Cousin - James Francis Walker Sr - Old 300 - Built First Brick Home Rural part of County 1756-1837

Born: 13 December 13, 1756 • Orange County, Virginia

Death: 29 May 29, 1837 • Brenham, Washington County, Texas

Buried: College Station, TX

- One of the First Settlers of Texas:

Dateline: January 1823 "The Old 300"

Texas is officially opened to colonization by citizens of the United States.

Stephen F. Austin executed a land grant from Mexico for 300 settlers to colonize Texas. These 300 were known as “the old 300”.

- Historical Marker: Built First Brick home rural part of County.

- Walker, James (1756–1837). James Walker, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, was born in 1756. During the American Revolution he served in Orange County, Virginia, and Virginia Continental line units. He married Catherine Miller on September 9, 1783, and they had fourteen children, including Susanna, who later married Phillip Singleton. They lived in Virginia and Kentucky before moving to Texas in 1824. Walker received a Spanish land grant of one league in what is now Washington County on July 21, 1824. The 1826 census lists him as a farmer and stock raiser over fifty years of age, with a wife over fifty, three children, and four slaves. Walker suffered loses in property and health during the Runaway Scrape and died in 1837 in Washington County.

- His son, James Walker, Jr., was born in Madison County, Kentucky, on October 20, 1793. He married Abler Collett on April 25, 1816, in Wayne County, Kentucky, and they had five children. She died in 1831. He moved his family to New Year Creek in Washington County, Texas, in 1835. Walker later received 640 acres for service to the Republic of Texas from March 1 to May 30, 1836, and 1,280 acres for being in the battle of San Jacinto as a private in Col. Sidney Sherman's command. Walker died on March 24, 1873, and is buried at the Cobb family cemetery in McLennan County.

- The "Old Three Hundred" were 297 grantees who purchased 307 parcels of land from Stephen Fuller Austin in Mexican Texas. Each grantee was head of a household, or, in some cases, a partnership of unmarried men. Austin was an American approved in 1822 by Mexico as an empresario for this effort, after the nation had gained independence from Spain. By 1825 the colony had a population of 1,790.

The colony encompassed an area that ran from the Gulf of Mexico on the south, to near present-day Jones Creek in Brazoria County, Brenham in Washington County, Navasota in Grimes County, and La Grange in Fayette County. It was the first authorized colony of Anglo-American settlers.

Stephen F. Austin agreed to carry out his father's plan for a colony. At the end of the summer of 1821, he and a small group of Anglo-American settlers crossed into Texas. Before he reached San Antonio to meet with the governor, the group learned that Mexico had gained its independence from Spain. Texas was now a Mexican province rather than a Spanish one. Governor Martinez assured Austin that the new Mexican government would honor the colonization contract.[3]

Austin returned to Louisiana to recruit settlers. He offered land at 12 cents per acre, which was 10% of what comparable acreage sold for in the United States. The Settlers were required to satisfy four regulations:

• They had to be Catholic,
• They had to be of good moral character,
• They had to improve the land (usually by adding structures), and
• They had to cultivate the land within two years, or forfeit it.

- James Walker, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, was born in 1756. During the American Revolution he served in Orange County, Virginia, and Virginia Continental line units. He married Catherine Miller on September 9, 1783, and they had fourteen children, including Susanna, who later married Philip Singleton. They lived in Virginia and Kentucky before moving to Texas in 1824. Walker received a Spanish land grant of one league on July 21, 1824 located on New Years and Woodward creeks in present Washington County, TX. The 1826 census lists him as a farmer and stock raiser over fifty years of age, with a wife over fifty, three children, and four slaves. Walker suffered loses in property and health during the Runaway Scrape and died in 1837 in Washington County. he is buried in Peach Creek

Cemetery in Brazos County, Texas. There is no tombstone,

From the Texas State Historical Society

Also if you go to this link there are lengthy biosketches of the Walkers both Sr and JR

Daughters of Republic of Texas - - Volume 1 - Page 282

https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1563112140

Walker, James - Texas State Historical Association

Old Three Hundred

Old Three Hundred - Wikipedia

Honoring Texas History: "The Old 300" January 1823

4th Great Grandfather - Lieutenant Colonel Felix Hampton Walker M.D. US Congressman 1753 - 1828

Born: July 19, 1753 Hampshire Co., Virginia, now part of West Virginia

Death: January 25, 1828 Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi

- Lt. Colonel Walker fought in the American Revolutionary War

- US Congressman Democratic-Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina between 1817 and 1823.

- Medical Doctor

-  Joined Daniel Boone's company, which established the settlement of Boonesborough, Kentucky, in 1775. He was named clerk of the court of Washington district of North Carolina in 1775 and held that post until 1778 (Washington district lay mostly within the boundaries of contemporary Tennessee and was organized as a county in 1777.

- He worked as a trader and land speculator in Haywood County before being elected to Congress.

- In 1816, Walker was elected to the 15th United States Congress as a Democratic-Republican. He was re-elected twice and failed in a bid for the fourth term in 1822.

Felix Walker (American politician) - Wikipedia

Bioguide Search

Felix Walker (P-26) | NC DNCR

5th Great Grandfather - Colonel John Rutherford Walker II 1728 - 1796

Born: January 16, 1728, Bohemia Creek, New Castle, Delaware

Death: January 25, 1796, Hampshire, Rutherford, North Carolina

- John Walker, Indian fighter and Revolutionary officer, was born in Appoquinimink Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, the son of John Walker of Derry, Ireland, who immigrated to Delaware in 1720. The elder Walker was the grandson of the Reverend Governor George Walker of Donaghmore County, Londonderry, Ireland, who successfully commanded the Siege of Derry in 1689 against the forces of King James II.

- As a young man Walker settled on the south fork of the Potomac River in Hampshire County, Va., and in 1751 married Elizabeth Watson. He served as a volunteer under Colonel George Washington in the Virginia colonial troops suffering in the disastrous defeat of the army of General Edward Braddock in 1755 near Fort Duquesne and fought the rear action during the retreat of the colonial troops. Shortly afterwards he moved to the area that became Lincoln County, N.C., on Lee Creek, about ten miles east of the present town of Lincolnton. 

- 1761 Campaign against the Cherokee Indians. He enlisted in Col. Grant's S.C. Regiment and served in the campaign against the Cherokee Indians in 1761.

- He then purchased a beautiful span on Crowder's Creek about 4 miles from Kings Mountain. In 1768 he moved to a tract of 400 acres at the mouth of the Cane Creek about 5 miles NE of Rutherfordton.

- In 1774 he was appointed by the NC Legislature as one of the Commissioners to select a site to build a courthouse, prison and stocks for the county of Tryon. Prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he was a leader in Civil Activities under the Royal Government but resigned his office in 1775.

- In 1775 he was appointed to the Provincial Congress. It is said that he wrote, masterminded and was a signer of the District and County Commission of Safety, the Tryon County Declaration of Rights and Independence from British Tyranny. At the third Provincial Congress, two regiments of Continental troops were ordered raised in NC and he was immediately selected as one of the captains of a company in the First Regiment and was commissioned Sept. 1, 1775. He held several commissions such as Col. and Commandant of the Tryon Militia.

- During the Summer of 1775, John Walker was the existing Colonel over the Tryon County Regiment of Militia.

- On 9/1/1775, John Walker was commissioned as a Captain under Col. James Moore in the 1st NC Regiment, which was considered to be "Provincial Troops" at that time.

- On 11/28/1775, this regiment was placed on the NC Continental Line. Capt. John Walker led his company at the battles of Moore's Creek Bridge (2/27/1776) and the Breach Inlet Naval Battle, SC (6/28/1776).

- On 2/12/1777, John Walker was appointed as an Aide-de-Camp to Gen. George Washington, retaining his rank as Captain.

- He was a Justice of the Peace, a court judge (the first session of the Rutherford Co. Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions was held at his home).

- He had six sons who also served in the American Revolutionary war. Felix was the oldest (there is a Historical marker honoring Felix on the highway in Maggie Valley, NC and there was John Walker Jr; James Reuben; William, Thomas and the youngest, Joseph (He also had two other sons, George and Jacob). On Dec. 22, 1777, he resigned stating that being 50 years old, that a younger man might be needed and to that he had six sons in service and a wife and two small sons at home exposed to the mercies of marauding bands of Indians. The two sons at home were George and Jacob. In 1778, Tryon was abolished by the Act of Legislative of 1778 and Rutherford and Lincoln counties took it place. This Act designated Col. John Walker as one of the four commissioners to survey the dividing line between the two counties and to assist in setting up a government in these counties. In 1778 he moved to the forks of the Green and Broad Rivers in Rutherford Co (now Polk Co) where he purchased a large tract of land and resumed his agricultural pursuits. He died there on Jan 25, 1796, in his 68th year and was laid to rest on a gentle knoll on his plantation. That valuable inheritance of land was left to his youngest son, Jacob, who remained to care for his mother. She died on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1808, at about the age of 75 and was placed beside her husband on the plantation.

Walker, John | NCpedia

The Patriot Leaders in North Carolina - John Walker

Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: Vol. 6, T-Z - Google Books

6th Great Grandfather - Colonel John Rutherford "Gunstocker" Walker 1704 - 1778

Born: March 17, 1704 • Ulster, England then moved to Newry Down, Ireland

Death: November 17, 1778 • Walker Creek, Rockbridge, Virginia, USA

- During the first stages of the conflict (border wars of 1750) the most famous Indian fighter of the (Walker) clan was John, the third son of the original emigrant from Ulster.

- By 1788 this John Walker was listed in the community records as a ranger, that is, a man detailed to stay more or less permanently in the woods to wait for and deal with Indian raiders.

- In addition to ranging, John Walker, along with at least two of his brothers, Samuel and James, fought at Point Pleasant, one of the most crucial pitched battles of the border wars.

- In 1778, when he was seventy-three years old, he and his second son, Samuel, went off hunting or exploring in the Clinch River valley along what is now the boundary between Virginia and Tennessee. There the two men were caught and scalped by the Cherokee.

7th Great Grandfather - John Alexander Walker 1671 - 1726

Born: 1671 • Donaghmore, Tyrone, Northern Ireland

Death: October 10, 1726 • New Castle County, Delaware, USA

- Arrived in America 1686