History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 445

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

been a delegate to every State convention
held since he came to Texas. lie was also a
delegate to the national conventions of 1884,
1888 and 1892.
Wilbur F. and Frank M. are members of
the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows,
Knights of Pythias, the Elks and Red
Men, as was also their brother, henry T., to
each of which they accord a generous support
as well as to all benevolent purposes.
J(UDGE RICIIARD S. WALKER,
deceased.- Richard Sheckle Walker was
a native of Kentucky, born in Barren
county in 1824. His early educational advantages
were ample and propitious. He
graduated in 1842, at Centenary College,
Jackson, Louisiana, and in 1844, when but
twenty years old, received his diploma from
the law department of Transylvania University
at Lexington, Kentucky, and his license
to practice at the bar of that State. Returning
to Jackson, Louisiana, which was then
his home, he devoted one year to the study
of the civil law preparatory to practice in the
Louisiana courts; but, Texas having just
been admitted to the Union, his aspirations
seized on its prospects and he determined to
cast his fortunes with the bar of this new
State, and located at San Augustine, in February,
1846, where lie began his long and
distinguished professional career.
In the summer of 1848 he married Miss
Eliza J. Clark, a daughter of Judge Amos
Clark of Nacogdoches, and immediately afterward
moved to that place, where he formed
a partnership with his father-in-law. With
endowments of a high order, combined with
the advantages of his eminent association, his

rise at the bar was rapid an(l( contirine.l, antl
in 1848 lie was appointed District \ ttorilt-v,
and was re-elected t,> the ,amirc ofithe ait .cali
successive ternl (llring a period of l:tairly
eight years. In 1857 lie forineil a co p)artnership
with Judge George F. Moore, afterward
Chief Justice of the State, and colntinned
this connection until lie was elected
to the District Bench in 1880. During this
association lie was appointed, in coinnecti,,i
with lhis partner, Reporter of tlle Decisionr,
of tlhe Supreme Court, and they prepared tlhe
Twenty-second, Twenty-third and Twenl tyfourth
of the Texas Reports, which N.v'rc
made statutory models for subsequent issues.
In 18;6 lie reported alone the Twenty-fifth
volume, and was a member of the Constitutional
Convention of that year, in which lie
took an active part in framing the constitution,
which would at the same time comply
with the exigencies of the situation and assert
the rights and dignity of the State. In
1873 lie was appointed by Governor Coke to
the Judgeship of his former judicial district,
to which, after the expiration of the term of
his appointment, he was elected by the people.
In 1879 he was appointed a member
of the Commission of Appeals, which position
he held until 1890, when he resigned on
account of ill-health. His death occurred
May 24, 1892.
As a lawyer Judge Walker's career was
eminent and brilliant. The practice of the
firms of Clark & Walker and of Moore &
Walker, both in Federal and State courts,
was large and extensive, and they were employed
in many important cases in both the
civil and criminal branches of jurisprudence.
He held the position of District Judge until
1865, when he was removed by military
authority as an impediment to reconstruction.
Then he continued alone with increas,

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