WALKER, WILLIAM HENRY (1805–1864). William Henry Walker, early Milam County settler and justice of the peace, was born in Alabama on January 22, 1805. He came to Texas in the early 1830s and married Sarah Wilhelm in Washington County on July 8, 1833; the couple had eleven children. Walker received a headright on Walker's Creek in Milam County on December 16, 1834. On June 4, 1836, the Walkers and three other families were attacked by Indians; they barricaded themselves in the Walker cabin and managed to fend off their attackers. Because of the threat presented by the Indians, the Walkers moved to a site near Anderson in what is now Grimes County. From July to October 1836 Walker was a private in William W. Hill's company of volunteer rangers. He served as justice of the peace in Milam County in 1836 and 1837 and represented Milam County in the House of the Second Congress from September 25, 1837, to May 24, 1838. In January 1839 he furnished supplies to the army volunteers stationed in Robertson County. The Walker family moved back to their home on Walker's Creek in 1847. Walker served as county commissioner of Milam County in 1848, 1852, and 1858, and was chief justice of the county in 1852. He died on September 14, 1864, and was buried in Salem Cemetery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Milam County Heritage Preservation Society, Matchless Milam: History of Milam County (Dallas: Taylor, 1984). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832–1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).

Vivian Elizabeth Smyrl, "WALKER, WILLIAM HENRY," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwa27), accessed May 08, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.