Background
David Walker was born in what is now Todd County, Ky. He was the son of Jacob Wythe and Nancy (Hawkins) Walker. His father's ancestors are said to have come to Virginia from Staffordshire, England, about 1650.
David Walker was born in what is now Todd County, Ky. He was the son of Jacob Wythe and Nancy (Hawkins) Walker. His father's ancestors are said to have come to Virginia from Staffordshire, England, about 1650.
David was an apt pupil; he began the study of Latin when he was seven, and soon thereafter was reading the classics.
Admitted to the bar in Kentucky in 1829, he went to Little Rock, Ark. , in 1830, and shortly afterward settled in Fayetteville. From 1833 to 1835 he served as prosecuting attorney. He was a member of the convention of 1836 which drew up the first state constitution, and there worked to prevent unfair apportionment, advocating that the number of free white males be adopted as the basis of apportionment in order that the slaveholding counties might not dominate the state. In 1840 he was elected to the state Senate as a Whig. Four years later he was nominated for Congress, but was defeated by the matchless campaigner, Archibald Yell. In November 1848, much to his surprise, while on a visit to Kentucky, Walker was elected associate justice of the supreme court of Arkansas by a Democratic legislature over so prominent a Democrat as Elbert H. English. In the presidential election of 1860 he canvassed the state for the Bell and Everett ticket. The following year he was elected to the state convention called to consider the matter of secession. He was made president of the convention and was largely instrumental in preventing secession at that time. When, however, following the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the convention reassembled and voted for secession, Walker appealed to the five opponents to make the vote unanimous. Some raiding Federal soldiers arrested him in 1862, but he was released on taking the oath of allegiance. He served as chief justice of the Arkansas supreme court from 1866 until the state government was reorganized under the Reconstruction Act. Upon the overthrow of the Carpet-bag regime (1874) he was elected associate justice of the supreme court and served until 1878, when he resigned on account of failing health. He was interested in the economic development of the state and went to Boston in 1870 in an effort to secure a railroad for northern Arkansas. Gov. Augustus H. Garland appointed him delegate to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where he delivered an address setting forth the natural resources and attractions of his state. His bearing was so dignified and reserved that many thought him unapproachable; yet he had numerous intimate friends. He started fourteen young men on their professional careers by boarding them and teaching them law. He was charitable, giving freely of his store to those in want, particularly in the short harvest year of 1874.
In 1833 he married Jane Lewis Washington of Kentucky, who bore him six sons, two of whom died in infancy, and two daughters.