David Walker

David Walker (February 19, 1806 – September 30, 1879) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge and notable early settler of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Walker served on the Arkansas Supreme Court for a total of eight years, including two years as chief justice. Early life and career Walker was born near Elkton, Kentucky on February 19, 1806 to Jacob Wythe Walker and Nancy Hawkins Walker, members of a prominent family in the Southern United States. He grew up with little formal schooling and read law by himself. In 1830, Walker moved to Arkansas, where he was examined to become a lawyer by Ben Johnson and Edward Cross before moving to Fayetteville, Arkansas, a small settlement in northwestern Arkansas, with $2.75 ($ in today's dollars) in his pocket. Political career He became active in Whig politics and was elected to a two-year term as prosecuting attorney for the Third Circuit Court of Arkansas Territory beginning September 13, 1833. He was re-elected in 1834, but resigned following election to the 9th Arkansas Territorial General Assembly. Walker was elected to the state constitutional convention which authored the 1836 Arkansas Constitution. Walker also engaged in land speculation and other business with Archibald Yell, another prominent early settler of Fayetteville. Together Walker, Yell, and William Haile founded the town of Ozark, Arkansas in the Arkansas River Valley, and later using political power to establish the Ozark Turnpike Company, which built a road between Fayetteville and Ozark which was subsequently designated as Arkansas Highway 23 and known as the Pig Trail Scenic Byway. Walker won election to the Arkansas Senate in 1839, representing Washington County alongside two other men, and served in the 3rd Arkansas General Assembly and the 4th Arkansas General Assembly. Walker resigned from the General Assembly to run for Arkansas's at-large congressional district in the 1844 election as the Whig party candidate. Yell sought the seat for the Democrats, having held the seat as a Arkansas's first congressman after statehood in 1836, now seeking a return following two terms as Governor of Arkansas. The bumptious Yell defeated a restrained, Whiggish Walker, though the two avoided personal attacks during the campaign.