History of The Walker Family by Nell Callahan
Walker Family Cemetery
founded 1804
The campus of Augusta State University frequently receives visitors curious to see the results of transforming a federal arsenal into
an academic institution. The recent construction of a History Walk at the university which includes information on the arsenal, the
Summerville neighborhood, and the city of Augusta has increased interest in the Walker Family Cemetery which is located on the western
boundary of the campus and which predated the arsenal. When Freeman Walker sold the adjoining land to the government for the arsenal,
he retained one acre for the family cemetery. Included in this document are historical sketches of seven of the prominent members
of the family who were buried in the Walker Cemetery during its first seventy years.
The tract acquired by the government for
an arsenal had been the property of Freeman Walker, who was born in Charles City, Virginia, in 1780. During the post-revolutionary
period a number of Virginians came south and settled in this region rather than follow the westward trend. In 1797, Freeman Walker
and his younger brother Valentine came to Augusta to study law.(1) Two elder Walker brothers George and Robert were already practicing
attorneys in the city. Law and public service proved successful careers for these young men.(2) By the time Freeman and Valentine
arrived, George Walker had served in the Georgia Assembly and, in 1798, he was elected to the first town council established by charter
that year as well as being returned to the State House of Representatives. Only thirty-eight when he died in 1804, George was the
first to be buried in family cemetery.(3) Robert Walker served as solicitor general of the Superior Court from 1804-1808, and judge
of the same court from 1813-1816. He died in 1825 of "pulmonary disease," a common cause of deaths recorded during the period and
was interred near his brother George.(4)
The youngest of the Walker brothers Valentine also had a distinguished career as a practicing
attorney, a justice of the Inferior Courts of Richmond County and a state senator for several terms. During the War of 1812, he served
as a major general with the Georgia Militia. When President James Monroe visited Augusta in 1819, Major General Walker and General
Thomas Glascock took him on a tour of the U.S. Arsenal being constructed beside the Savannah River.(5) In 1832-1833, Valentine Walker
was in the midst of local tensions created by the Nullification Crisis. When South Carolina declared a tariff passed by Congress as
"null and void" in that state because it would hurt the southern economy, President Andrew Jackson replied that he would meet civil
disobedience with force and threatened to use troops to collect the tariff in South Carolina. Valentine spoke against nullification
and in support of national unity over individual state action. Although many other speakers disagreed, his position was accepted as
the majority opinion at a town meeting.(6) Valentine Walker, who was influential and respected until his death in 1852, was eulogized
by the Daily Chronicle and Sentinel as a "gentleman of the Old School."(7)
Among the Walker brothers, Freeman Walker achieved
the greatest political success. In addition to serving in the Georgia Assembly several terms, he was also mayor of Augusta and a U.S.
senator. Shortly after arriving from Virginia in 1797, he began studying law with his brother George. Five years later he was admitted
to the bar and started a local practice. Freeman Walker entered the political arena in 1807 and was elected first to the state legislature
as a representative and then as a senator. He was the first to be called "mayor" of Augusta, for his election in 1817 coincided with
the transfer of the title from intendant to mayor.
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History