Robert Benjamin Walker, the eldest of the four sons of James Alexander Walker, M.D. and his first wife, Elizabeth D. Booth, was born 20 September 1828 in Franklin County, VA, his mother's native county. He attended Emory and Henry College in Washington County, Virginia, and afterwards became a farmer and school teacher. On 24 November 1857 in Pittsylvania County, VA, he married Elizabeth Tunstall Haley, known as Bettie, born August 30, 1838 in Campbell County, VA, daughter of Captain Archibald Haley and Martha Alexandria Arnold Brown Haley of "Pocket Farm" plantation, located on the Staunton River in Pittsylvania County. The only child of this marriage, Ella Tunstall Walker, was born October 10, 1859, presumably at "Pocket Farm." Robert and Bettie separated either before or shortly after Ella's birth and were subsequently divorced. Bettie and Ella remained on the Haley estate where Ella was raised until she married William Adolphus Perrow on 27 October 1880. Afterwards Ella, Adolphus, Bettie, and Bettie's parents all moved to Gladys in Campbell County, and subsequently to near Sherwill in Campbell County, where Bettie died 7 July 1908. She is buried beside her daughter Ella, her father, and other family members at Early's Chapel United Methodist Church, located in Campbell County at the intersection of Routes 646 and 648. Although she was divorced, Bettie's gravestone states "Elizabeth H. Walker, wife of R.B. Walker."

By 1860 Robert B. Walker was living in Wise County, Texas. During the Civil War, he enlisted in Company E 23 of the Texas Cavalry in N.C. Gould's Regiment and was later promoted to Sergeant. On July 19, 1866 in Wise County, Robert married Julia Caroline Standifer, born October 8, 1847 in Shelby County, Texas, daughter of Dr. Jesse Marshall Standifer (1811?-1881) and his first wife, Eliza Penthea Edwards (1824-1850). Dr. Standifer, an Army post physician and native of Georgia, was one of the founders, along with Major General Worth, of Fort Worth, Texas. Robert was one of the pioneer educators of Wise County, where he taught for about eighteen years before settling in Stephens County, Texas in 1885. He died 11 March 1908 in Stephens County, and his second wife Julia died April 6, 1933 at Abilene in Taylor County, Texas. They are buried in Shady Grove Cemetery on Route 576 near Eolian in Stephens County. There were nine children of Robert's second marriage, making a total of ten for him. During his residence in Stephens County, Robert and his family may have resided for a time at Breckenridge, the county seat, but apparently they were living near the crossroads of Eolian, south of Breckenridge, at the time of his death in 1908, as they are buried there.

The following are the children of Robert Benjamin Walker by Julia Caroline Standifer, and all except the youngest were probably born in Wise County, Texas:

1. Lucie Panthia Walker, born 4 June 1867; died before 1927; buried at Fort Worth, TX; never married

2. Alexander Echols Walker, born 2 July 1869; died 24 July 1922 at Terrell, Kaufman Co., TX; never married; buried in Shady Grove Cemetery, Eolian, Stephens Co., TX

3. Flora Virginia Walker, born 22 February 1871; died 4 November 1929, probably in Wise Co., TX; married Byron Hatchett, born 28 December 1864 in Arkansas; died 16 July 1951 at Eolian, Stephens Co., TX. They apparently had no children and are buried in Shady Grove Cemetery, Stephens Co.

4. Clara Julia Walker, born 24 April 1874; died 17 May 1940 at Canyon, Randall Co., TX; never married; buried in Shady Grove Cemetery, Eolian, Stephens Co., TX.

5. Leah Belle Walker, born 20 November 1876; died 3 December 1947 at Fort Worth, TX, where she is buried in an unmarked grave in Laurel Land Cemetery. She was married 23 February 1905 at Midland, TX to William Middleton Nelson Beverly, known as Bob, born 5 May 1875 in Catoosa Co., GA; died 16 April 1958 at El Paso, TX. They were later divorced, and he remarried. They had one daughter, Nora Bob Beverly, born 16 March 1906 at Midland, TX, who was married 9 April 1923 at Tucson, AZ to Thomas "Gerald" Cowan, born 4 March 1903 in Madison Co., AR died August 7, 1995 at Jay, OK. Nora Bob and Gerry had one daughter, Beverly Mae Cowan, born in 1924 at Tucson, AZ, and shortly thereafter, Nora Bob deserted her husband and infant daughter, and disappeared from all of her family including her parents, never to be found. Beverly Mae Cowan was raised by her paternal grandparents in Arkansas and was married 2 June 1946 in Houston, TX to William Charles Morcom, born 28 February 1920 at Houston, TX; died 5 March 1984 at Baton Rouge, LA. She is an avid family historian and very interested in knowing what happened to her mother after she disappeared. The Morcoms had three children.

6. Edward Robert Walker, born 8 April 1879; died before 1910; buried near Garvin, Wise Co., TX; apparently never married.

7. John Vivian Walker, born 16 June 1881 near Garvin, Wise Co., TX; died 16 January 1956 at Odessa, TX; married 17 March 1907 at Weatherford, Parker Co., TX to Bessie Lee Carr, born 23 May 1886 at Weatherford, TX; died 31 December 1927 at Midland, TX, daughter of Jess S. Carr and Emma Roberta Kelly Carr of Weatherford. John and Bessie had three children, Ray, L.V., and Bertagene, and are buried in Oakland Cemetery at Weatherford, TX. From these children, there was only one grandchild, through their son Ray Dennis Walker (24 December 1907-26 February 1973) who married (first) to Leah "Virginia" Douglas (26 June 1915-June 1984). His only child was a daughter, Patricia Ann Walker, born in 1934 near Houston, TX, now married to James Terrell Scott.

8. Ada Walker, born February 1884; died before 1910; buried at Farmer, Young Co., TX; apparently never married.

9. Jesse James ("J.J.") Walker, born 10 June 1886 in Stephens Co., TX (death certificate says Breckinridge, the closest town to the village of Eolian); died 5 February 1967 at Canyon, Randall Co., TX; married 3 June 1915 at Memphis, TX to Myrtle Locke, born 8 August 1881 in Texas; died 21 August 1976 at Memphis, Hall Co., TX. They apparently had no children and are buried in Dreamland Cemetery at Canyon, where he was a pharmacist.

For descendants of William Adolphus Perrow and Ella Walker Perrow, Ella's father, Robert Benjamin Walker, remained an elusive ancestor for some time, and accounts of him among his descendants in Virginia varied widely, owing to the lapse of more than a century. The above information is an unbiased account of Robert's life and family, whereas some of the information herein is subject to scrutiny because of biases stemming from Victorian attitudes and paternal responsibility, as well as the likelihood that stories surrounding Robert's life and activities are rather one-sided. It is said by the family of his first marriage that Robert had a drinking problem and was somewhat wild, whereas Bettie was rather religious. They were not compatible and soon separated. Afterwards Bettie asked for a divorce, a rarity in that time, and the first judge she went to was very conservative and did not believe in divorce under any conditions. However, a younger man Bettie knew was aspiring for a judgeship whom Bettie believed would be more sympathetic to her situation, so she prayed he would win the position and he did. Upon becoming judge, he heard her case and stated that he had roomed with Robert Walker in college and suggested most nice girls could not live with him, so he granted the divorce. This probably occurred in Pittsylvania County, as Bettie probably returned there, or was already living there, when she and Robert separated. Perrow family tradition states that Bettie and Robert's daughter Ella was born in the Haley family plantation, "Pocket Farm," in Pittsylvania County; however on her marriage certificate to William Adolphus Perrow under "Bride's birthplace" there appears to be the equivalent of a present-day dashed line indicating the same place as shown on the line above, "Groom's birthplace," which is Campbell County. Ella's death certificate gives her birthplace as Pittsylvania, but such information is always based on what the informants provide. Pittsylvania County is the most likely place of birth, and more than likely, since Robert and Bettie were together less than three years as he was in Texas by 1860, they probably lived with the Haleys the entire time as was the custom with newlyweds.

Children of Adolphus and Ella Perrow recalled that Ella's parents separated either before or shortly after her birth in 1859, and that her father went to Texas. Ella's youngest daughter, Phanie Perrow Flynn, stated that her Grandfather Walker wrote to her mother occasionally but that the letters had been lost. Whether Ella ever knew about her father's subsequent marriage and children and vice-versa is unknown.

Apparently Ella knew about her father's family in Bedford, for her children had heard their great-grandfather was a doctor in Bedford City (actually Dr. James Alexander Walker lived in Bedford County about seven miles south of Bedford City, then known as Liberty). Phanie stated in a taped interview in 1986 that Robert's father was Dr. Robert Walker of Bedford, but this first name was a simple oversight. The marriage bond of Robert B. Walker and Bettie T. Haley lists his parents as James A. and Elizabeth D. Walker, his age as 28 (actually he had just turned 29), his birthplace as Franklin County, VA (where his mother's family, the Booths, were from), his current residence as Bedford County, VA, and his occupation as farmer. Bettie's age was listed as 19, her parents as Archibald and Martha Haley, and her birthplace as Campbell County, VA (where her mother's people, the Browns, were from). This proves that the Robert B. Walker who fathered Ella Walker Perrow was the same Robert B. Walker listed as a son in James A. Walker's 1869 will. The Bedford County Walkers, descendants of Robert's siblings and half-siblings, also knew Robert went to Texas, but unfortunately none of the present generations knew about any family he may have had or divorces.

Robert's Civil War service record is taken from his wife Julia's application for a Confederate widow's pension made in 1910 while she was living at Rising Star in Eastland County, Texas.

For proof that the Robert B. Walker who married Julia Standifer in 1866 in Texas was the same one of this family, there is an 1890 deed in Stephens County, Texas records between Robert B. Walker and Julia his wife of that county and Edward T. Walker and Leila his wife of Bedford County, Virginia, also recorded in that county, concerning some land in Bedford that Robert inherited from his father which he was apparently having his brother Edward sell for him. Although the record does not state how Robert acquired this land or the relationship between the said parties, it can be inferred that he was having Edward, or Ned, sell his inheritance for him. Also, Robert and Julia had children with family names which matched those of the Bedford Walkers, including Alexander, Lucie, Edward Robert, and Jesse James Walker. In addition, Robert's full name, as listed in Julia's 1910 application for a Confederate widow's pension and on his gravestone, was Robert Benjamin Walker, indicating he had probably been named for his grandfathers, Robert Munford Walker and Benjamin Booth. Next, photographs of Robert's daughter Ella by his first marriage and his daughter Leah by his second marriage show a striking resemblance between half-sisters, and there do appear to be some other resemblances between Robert's Virginia and Texas descendants. Finally, a photograph labelled Alexander Eccles Walker, Robert's son by Julia, is in possession of a descendant of Robert's half-brother, Alexander Smith Walker (1839-1902), who remained in Bedford County, Virginia.

In 1869 Robert wrote a letter to his brother Ned (Edward Thomas Walker) addressed from Round Rock, Texas, which in the 1990s was in the possession of Ned's granddaughter Mrs. Leila Terry Walker Vinson (1928-2011), wife of retired Judge H. Nelson Vinson of Hamilton, Alabama. I called Mrs. Vinson in 1994, and she read the letter to me. Their father had recently died, and in the letter Robert expressed regret for not getting back to Bedford to see him beforehand, and he was requesting Ned to sell some property left to him and deposit the money in a specified bank. In the letter Robert mentions his constant fear of Indian attack, especially since he had a baby in his household (Lucie Panthia Waker, but he didn't give a name; his second child Alexander Echols Walker was born July 2, 1869). Round Rock, which is near Waco, Texas, is over 100 miles from Wise County, where Robert was supposed to have been living until 1885, so the Round Rock address on the letter is a mystery.

Before I made contact with my Walker cousins in Bedford, my own family, consisting of the descendants of my great-great-grandmother Ella Walker Perrow, had not had any contact with our Walker kinfolk in Bedford, owing to Ella not knowing her father and his family because of the divorce. One exception was Ella's daughter, Euphan Perrow Carter (1898-1977) of Leesville, Virginia, who lived near and knew Miriam Walker Laughon (1920-1981) of Bedford County, a granddaughter of Robert's half-brother, Alexander Smith Walker. According to Aunt Euphan's son, Calvin Perrow Carter (1924-2008) of Leesvile, his mother and Mrs. Laughon knew they were related and determined they were "about third cousins." Actually, since they had the same great-grandfather but not the same great-grandmother, they were half-second cousins.

Most of the nine children of Robert and Julia Walker either died young, single, and/or without children, so in spite of such a large family, their present-day descendants are relatively small. From these nine children there were only four grandchildren, as only Robert's daughter Leah and son John had children, as far as known. The full names and dates of birth of all of these children was listed in a Bible record which their youngest child, Jesse James Walker of Canyon, Texas, donated to the Texas State Archives in 1945. Dates and places of death and burial have been found for six of these children. The remaining three, Lucie, Edward, and Ada, apparently never married and were deceased before 1927, as an article was published that year on the Standifer family in a Fort Worth, Texas newspaper which stated they were deceased and where they were buried. Three children, Alexander Echols Walker, Flora Walker Hatchett, and Clara Julia Walker, are buried in Shady Grove Cemetery in Stephens County, Texas beside their parents.

Photographs of Robert Benjamin Walker have not been located, but I do have copies of pictures of both of his wives. A picture of Bettie Haley Walker was inherited by her youngest granddaughter, Phanie Perrow Flynn, and this original was, in the 1990s, in the possession of Phanie's daughter Mrs. Marguerite Flynn Harry (1926-2011) of McCormick, South Carolina, who graciously made a copy for me, among other pictures, in 1992. Original pictures of Julia Caroline Standifer Walker are owned by two great-granddaughters, Mrs. Beverly Cowan Morcom of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Mrs. Patricia Walker Scott of San Antonio, Texas, who graciously allowed me to copy these photographs while visiting them during my temporary residence at Austin, Texas in 1997. Unless Beverly Morcom's mother, Nora Bob, had more children after deserting her and her father, it can be safely assumed that Mrs. Morcom and Mrs. Scott are the only great-grandchildren of Robert Walker by his second marriage.

The remaining paragraphs discuss how I managed to find out what became of my great-great-great-grandfather, Robert Benjamin Walker, and his second family, after he settled in Texas. My success at this has been due to several peculiar coincidences, so I feel the full story will be interesting, albeit boring, to tell:

When I began tracing the Perrow side of my family and contacting cousins on that side, I first heard about my great-great-great-grandfather Robert Walker in 1991 from some notes my Aunt Phanie jotted on her mother's family, and because none of my Perrow cousins knew what became of him after he settled in Texas, I was determined to find this elusive ancestor. It is only because of rare coincidences that I was able to solve this mystery. I was able to determine Robert's family background upon reading the books "'Our Kin:' Bedford County, Virginia Families" and "Tidewater to Blue Ridge: Pullen-Walker Families of Bedford County, Virginia." In 1992 I then set out to determine what the Bedford Walkers knew about Robert, and a letter I wrote to Cauthorn Walker (1935-2011) was read at the 1992 Walker Reunion and answered by his brother, J. Phelps Walker (1922-1993) of Richmond, Virginia, who knew about Robert going to Texas and told me about the letter owned by Mrs. Leila Terry Walker Vinson. In 1994 I called Mrs. Vinson, who told me about a great-grandaughter of Robert in Louisiana who was interested in genealogy, had visited her late mother a decade earlier in Bedford while looking up the Bedford Walkers, and had coincidentally sat near her on a train as they departed from Atlanta a few years before. Mrs. Morcom was on her way to or returning from a Daughters of the American Revolution convention in Washington, DC, while Mrs. Vinson was returning to Alabama after visiting her mother in Bedford. They somehow began discussing genealogy and found out, to the astonishment of the other passengers around, that they were only second cousins once removed, Mrs. Vinson being the great-granddaughter of Dr. James Alexander Walker and Mrs. Morcom the great-great-granddaughter, and that Mrs. Morcom had visited Mrs. Vinson's mother a few years earlier. Unfortunately, Mrs. Vinson told me then that she and this cousin had lost contact and she could not remember her name or where in Louisiana she lived.

In May, 1995, while researching at the Library of Virginia, I found a Robert B. Walker, age 52 and born in Virginia, listed in the 1880 Texas Census Index. Upon finding his family in the census rolls on microfilm, I learned that in 1880 he was living in Wise County, Texas and had a wife Julia, about 20 years younger then he, and several children with names which were also found in the Bedford County, Virginia Walker family, including Lucy and Alexander. I was not certain this was my Robert B. Walker, but remained optimistic that it was, and then used Directory Assistance to locate Walker families living in that area. I randomly called several of them, but none of them were familiar with this Robert Walker.

A few months after my conversation with Mrs. Vinson, she received a letter from Mrs. Morcom, who had fortunately recorded Mrs. Vinson's address when they met on the train. While making plans to attend my first Walker Reunion in Bedford County in July, 1995, I called Mrs. Vinson again at her home in Alabama, and she said the Walker cousin whose name she could not recall when I called the previous year had written her since then. I was very thrilled that I now had Beverly Cowan Morcom's name and address, so I called her immediately after my conversation with Mrs. Vinson and told her about being descended from Robert Walker's first marriage in Virginia, which Mrs. Morcom (who after less than a year of correspondence had inisted I call her Beverly) did not know about. She told me everything she knew about Robert and sent pictures of Robert's and Julia's grave which she and her late husband had visited in the early 1980's. It was unfortunate that Beverly had no information on Robert's other children, as she was an only child and an only grandchild whose grandmother, Leah, did not talk much about her siblings as she did not get along well with them. It is also unusual that given her unfortunate family situation, such as not knowing her mother and being raised by her paternal grandparents in Oklahoma, that Beverly would take such a keen interest in genealogy.

From the information that Beverly Morcom provided me in 1995, I was certain Robert's only other descendants by his second marriage had to be from his son John Vivian Walker, who was living in Abilene, Texas in 1933 where his mother died and who had three children, Ray, LV, and Bertagene, according to the aforementioned newspaper article in 1927. Fortunately, in 1997 I was hired by White Oak Semiconductor, a computer chip company under construction near Richmond, Virginia, and sent to Austin, Texas for ten months of training by Motorola, one of our parent companies, while construction was completed. I viewed this as a great opportunity to search out my Walker cousins in Texas and also visit Robert's and Julia's graves. I started out by getting as many death certificates and obituaries as I could for Robert's children, and at first I felt I would never track down John Vivian Walker because he seemed to have left Abilene, Texas after 1933. By searching Texas death indexes, I finally found a John Vivian Walker had died in Odessa, Texas and used his death certificate to confirm he was the same one born in 1881. I then was able to find obituaries for all three of his children, Ray, LV, and Bertagene, and determined that LV committed suicide in Abilene in 1946 and had been married four years but apparently did not have any children. Mrs. Morcom had found that Bertagene's married name was Donnelly, and I again used Texas' death indexes to determine a B. Jean Donnelly had died in Fort Worth, Texas in 1967 at age 47 from lung cancer. Her obituary listed her husband as Bernard J. Donnelly and also mentioned no children. Upon searching for Ray Walker in the same indexes, I found that a Ray D. Walker and wife LaMoine both died of asphyxiation during a house fire in their Odessa home in 1973. His obituary mentioned a daughter, Mrs. Pat Scott of Odessa, and two other children whom I correctly assumed to be LaMoine's from a previous marriage. Ray and Lamoine's funeral service was conducted by a Lutheran church in Odessa, so I called that church to see if they had any records on them and his daughter Pat Scott, and they gave me birthdates for Patricia Ann Walker and her husband James Terrell Scott who had been members of that church at one time. I could not locate anyone by that name in Odessa, so my only hope was that since the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles makes driver records available to the public, I could find the Scotts that way if they still lived in Texas just by providing the DMV with their full names and dates of birth. To my surprise, the Scotts were both living in San Antonio, only an hour south of where I was living in Austin, so I called them and she was very excited I had found her. I had feared I would get a bad reception since most people do not realize driver records are public information in most states unless the person requests otherwise. Mrs. Scott and her husband, whose children were still living in and around Odessa, had moved to San Antonio several years before to open a basket and flower shop. They graciously welcomed me to visit them, which I was able to do just two months before leaving Texas in January, 1998. Mrs. Scott knew a lot about her mother's ancestry, which is also quite interesting and includes some prominent New Englanders such as Rebecca Nurse who was hanged in the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of 1692. She is also a former DAR member. Since her parents were divorced and she did not know her father as well, Mrs. Scott did not know much about her father's family, so I was able to fill her in. Shortly after meeting her, I visited Weatherford, Texas, which is where her grandparents, John Vivian Walker and Bessie Carr Walker, and her Aunt Bertagene, were buried in the Carr family plot. Her Grandmother Walker was from Weatherford and died young from cancer in 1927, and her grandfather had lived in several places in Texas including Breckenridge, Midland, Abilene, and Odessa. Since I was beginning to think Robert Walker's Texas descendants had nearly died out owing to the fact that so many died childless, it was a great surprise when I found out Pat Scott had a large family and at the age of 63 already had several great-grandchildren.

So in my ten months of living in Austin, Texas, I managed to accomplish my goal, but not without the help of these gracious Walker cousins and the Texas Division of Motor Vehicles. My only other wishes are to locate a picture of Robert Walker, which could exist among some of the Bedford clan if one was ever taken, and to determine what became of his granddaughter Nora Bob Beverly Cowan, born in 1906, who abandoned her only known child. I also need to search the records of Pittsylvania County, Virginia or neighboring counties to determine if any records exist of Robert and Bettie's divorce to confirm my late Aunt Phanie's recollections.