Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Walker Family Papers, Accession #1532, 1545 , Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Walker family papers were first loaned to the Library on September 29, 1942, by Herbert E. Kellar of Chicago, Illinois, and accessioned under the number 1532. The papers were subsequently purchased by the Library from Herbert Kellar on October 14, 1942, and reaccessioned under the number 1545. The collection is unrestricted.

Scope and Content Information

The papers of the Walker Family of Rockbridge County, Virginia, contain ca. 1200 items (2 Hollinger boxes, ca. 1 linear foot) 1753-1873. This collection consists of correspondence, business and legal papers, autographs, military documents, poems, bound ledgers and memoirs, and miscellaneous papers.

These papers pertain to Alexander Walker, his siblings, and five generations of their descendants. The Walker business and legal documents, which include receipts, promissory notes, slave information, indentures, insurance contracts, articles of agreement, and Alexander Walker's will, reveal that Alexander Walker was a merchant, mill owner, money lender, and captain in the local militia.

Several business and legal documents (Box 1) mention the sale of slaves. Among these are: a slave boy named Moses bequeathed to Mary Walker (1802 June 23); the sale of a five year old Negro boy named Kennaday (1803 July 18); the transfer of a slave girl named Maria ( 1816 July 13); the sale of a mulatto boy named Bill (1840 August 31); the conditions for hiring a Negro girl named Maria (1840 September 1); the hire of Negro woman named Malinda (1857 January 21); and conditions for a slave sale (1813 February 11).

Other items of interest in the business and legal documents include: an executor's questions regarding John Walker's will, which mentions his slaves by name (1806 October); the withdrawal of insurance because of a fire (1821 December 6); a stock certificate for Snicker's Gap Turnpike Co. (1824 December 9); Margaret Walker's will (1827); a bill from James River & Kanawha Company for unpaid installments of their stocks (1837 April 14); Alexander Walker's will (1841); a bill of lading for a steamboat named "Reliamoe" (1859 April 22); information on the tax exempt law for principal and interest (1864 May 13); a "tax in kind" form (1865 January 18); a receipt of Donovan & O'Toole Grocer's and Shippers (1868 March 31); a receipt of Baker Brothers, Wholesale and Retail Grocers, and Dealers in Flour, Grain and Country Produce (1867 October 22); and a description of a patent assignment for an improved adjustable brace gate (1876 July 1).

Letters in the collection indicate that Walker family members migrated to both Tennessee and Missouri. A majority of the correspondence is from John Walker, a brother of Alexander, who resided in Missouri. Within these letters there is information pertaining to the general level of trade, the prices of various goods, political events, the existence of droughts, and the presence of diseases such as smallpox, scarlet fever, cholera, and yellow fever.

Some items of interest in the correspondence files (Box 2) include: a mention of John Walker leaving Colonel Tucker's to teach school with Mrs. Flint (1817 March 6); John Walker's employment at the Sheriff's Office (1819 February 14); a statement about a steamboat traveling between St. Louis and Ohio, as well as New Orleans (1817 August 8); a letter stating the major concerns of the Missouri Assembly then in session (1818 December 19); the population of Gasconade in 1818 (1818 December 24); an opinion of slavery and information about Illinois being a haven for runaway Negroes and renegades (1820 April 16); complaints concerning epidemics of typhus fever and dysentery (1822 July 15); John Walker's campaign for election as Sheriff (1822 August 9); Major Sibley's commission to build a road to Sante Fe (1825 September 14); the presence of smallpox (1831 September 13); the effects of scarlet fever (1832 January 7); the election of J. Stuart to Congress, son of Robert Stuart (1838 August 26); the Fiscal Corporation Bill up for possible veto by the President (1841 September 12); mention of the Whig candidate for the districts of Shenandoah, Rockingham, Hardy, Pendleton, Augusta, and Rockbridge, Alexander Stuart of Staunton, Virginia and the opposing candidate, William Taylor of Lexington (1843 May 7); excitement concerning the Pacific Railroad, the Great National Railway and accounts of the success of the California gold mines (1850 February 13).

One member of the Walker family, Sam A. Walker, served in Company H, 14th Virginia Cavalry, under Captain J.A. Gibson, during the Civil War and his letters mention the scarcity of feed for the horses and disagreeable officers (1862 May 4 & 16, and June 13; and 1863 Sep 27).

Also included in Box 2 are land grants with the autographs of the following Virginia Governors: Barbour, James Nelson, William Brooke, Robert Nicholas, Wilson Cary Cabell, William Page, John Fauquier, Francis Pleasants, James Giles, William Randolph, Thomas Mann Guaranty, John Smith, George Lee, Henry Tyler, John Letcher, John Wood, James McDowell, James Monroe, James

Autographs of various individuals include: Cass, Lewis Preston, J. Garrard, James Rives, William Cabell Houston, Sam Smith, Francis Henney Lee, Richard Bland Stuart, Alexander H.H. Moore, Andrew Valentine, E.V. Pendleton, William N.

Additional documents have been divided into two categories: the Virginia Military Papers, which have dates of 1800-1865, and Printed and Miscellaneous Papers. Within the Military Papers are several items of interest: acts of Congress concerning the military, records of items returned from companies and battalions, an exemption from service because the person was an agriculturist (1864), agriculture assessments (1863), an application for arrears pay (1864), a form granting military acceptance (1865), an amnesty oath (1865), a letter concerning the distribution of military laws (1820), and a confirmation slip for the oath of allegiance (1863).

Items included in the Printed and Miscellaneous Papers are: Emory & Company's price list, details of some lotteries, Bicknell's Counterfeit Detector and bank note list, an advertisement for the Virginia Life Insurance Co., a commissioner's sale regarding an auction of six slaves and 150 acres of Alexander Stuart's estate (1840 Jul 7), an act of law regarding the payment for Sundry Judgements against the Commonwealth during the Revolutionary War (passed in 1833), a letter from James Dorman about running for Senate (1833), an advertisement for the Southern Railroad & Steamship (1850), a statement from the Graham Society of Washington College, Virginia, about the death of fellow-member Dr. James C. Walker (1842), a publication regarding the Freedman's Bank swindle and leading colored men (n.d.), a copy of the "The Richmond Price Current" (1870), an Ice Memorial Association Circular describing some of the attributes of (Robert E.) Lee (n.d.), and the birth dates for Samuel, William, Nancy, and Margaret Walker (n.d.).

The bound volumes in the back of Box 2 include the ledger of James Walker (1845-1851), and account book of W.W. Walker (1842-1868), a ledger of Samuel Walker (1864), a ledger of Edward Terrell, and a ledger for the Walker family. Some important items located in these books and ledgers are the birth dates and relations between many of the Walkers, the price of goods, memoirs and poems.