Richard Wilde Walker Jr.

Richard Wilde Walker, Jr. (March 11, 1857 – April 10, 1936) was born Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, to Richard Wilde Walker, Sr. and his wife, Mary Ann Simpson Walker. He was a grandson of John Williams Walker, and nephew of LeRoy Pope Walker and Percy Walker. Walker foillowed in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and uncles into the field of law, becoming an Alabama Supreme Court Judge before he was 34 years old and latter a judge of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Walker attended Washington and Lee College, Lexington, Va., one year, and afterward went to Princeton College, New Jersey, where he achieved scholarly distinction, graduating with the class of 1877. His father and paternal grandfather had each graduated in the same institution. After attending the Columbia Law school in New York city, one session, he was admitted to the bar at Huntsville, Ala., in the fall of 1877. He practiced law in St. Louis, Mo., for about one year; went to New Mexico, but remained on two or three months, and in 1881 went to New York city, where he engaged in the practice of his profession for more than two years. He left New York and returned to Huntsville, Ala., early in 1884. On February 23, 1891, he was appointed by the governor to the office of associate justice of the supreme court of Alabama, being then not quite thirty-four years of age. In 1914, he was appointed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He reached senior status in 1930 and remained with the court until his death.

On January 22, 1886, Walker married Shelby White (January 14, 1862 - March 12, 1949), daughter of Addison & Sarah White, in Huntsville, Alabama. They had no children. Both are buried in the Maple Hill Cemetery, Huntsville.

References

“Memorial Record of Alabama: A Concise Account of the State's Political, Military, Professional and Industrial Progress, Together With the Personal Memoirs of Many of Its People,” Volume 2, published by Brant & Fuller in Madison, WI (1893), page 765-766 found on Ancestry.com and in libraries.

U. S. Census Records 1860-1930.