Solon Sleight WALKER

                   Newspaper Article: J. H. Walker, Texas Commissioner, Writes of Family
    Background

    Solon Walker, a pioneer settler of Stephens county, comes of pioneer stock and
    is truly a Texan. His father, Phillip Walker, a native of South Carolina, came
    to Texas in the summer of 1835, at the age of 20. He and Joseph Burns worked
    their way on a steamboat from Paducah to Nacadoches on the Mississippi, when
    they walked thru the wilderness to San Augustine. On Sept. 28, 1835, as shown
    by the land office records, sthey joined Vehleims colony and applied to the
    Mexican government for land. Before the grants were consummated, they joined
    the army and served throughout the war for the independence of Texas. Phillip
    Walker was in the detail that buried Farnin's men.

    Solon Sleight, the christian name of our subject, was given him in honor of a
    Scotchman who had befriended his father.

    The Walker family of which Solon is a member, were immigrants to Virginia in
    its early colonial period. Our branch of the family moved to South Carolina
    from which Capt. Phillip Walker, Solon's great-grandfather, entered the
    revolutionary war. He commanded the company that rescued Andrew Jackson from
    prison in Charleston. Three of his grandsons, Phillips, James and Joseph were
    Texas pioneers. By a strange coincidence in names, Robert Walker, brother to
    Captain Phillip had three grandsons, Phillip, James and Joseph, who were also
    colonists and served in the army of the Republic of Texas.

    The Walker-Hemphill-Telford families on his father's side and the
    Cooper-Jackson-Landrum families on his mother's side, participated with marked
    distinction in all the wars in which our country has been involved, furnishing
    their quota of men and lives. They have all slept and fought on the battle
    fields of Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, Georgia, and Mississippi. It does not
    appear that even one of the number was of belligerent aggressive type seeking
    personal gain, or self aggrandisement, but without exception, the family
    offered their fortunes and lives when their country needed them.

    Solon Walker, true to his line, went into the fields where his country needed
    him most and three his heart and hand into its development. There he rounded
    out a career of usefulness equaled by few.  When the final hour came there were
    scores of neighbors at his home in a slient offering of love and devotion and
    the entire county bears testimony to his work and usefulness.

    SOLON WALKER
    RIGHTS TODAY
    Ivan Citizen, 82, in County
    Fifty Years

    Solon Sleight Walker, 82, of Ivan, prominent citizen of Stephens county for the
    past fifty years, will be buried this afternoon at the South Prairie cemetery,
    south of Ivan, after services conducted by Mayor A. J. Morgan, Masonic rights
    will be held at the grave.

    Mr. Walker died at the home Thursday night at about 7 o'clock. He had been a
    farmer and stockman at Ivan for the past 57 years.

    He was born in Shelby County, Texas, August 17, 1851. He was the son of Philip
    Walker, a native of South Carolina, who came to Texas in the summer of 1835
    when it was a Mexican province. He was reared in Johnson county where his
    parents moved in 1856.

    During the early days of Trinity University at Tehnacana he was a student of
    that institution. He was married to Miss Clementine Hill in Johnson county on
    December 19, 1873. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last year.

    Mr. Walker once served as justice of the peace and county commissioner of
    Stephens county during the early days. He never sought public office but took
    great interest in the political aspirations of his friends.

    His father before him and Mr. Walker have voted in every general election held
    in Texas. His father's first vote was for Stephen F. Austin for president of
    Texas. Mr. Walker's first vote was the straight democratic ticket in 1872.

    Survivors inclujde his widow, and six children, Mrs. Lena Lee, Lubbock; R. W.
    Walker, Lubbock; Osborn Walker, Holtsville, Calif.; Mrs. Beulah White of
    Lubbock; Sleight Walker, Ivan; Mrs. Alta Ray Allen, Lubbock; and eleven
    grandchildren.

    His brother, J. H. Walker, is commissioner of the land office in Austin. He is
    also survived by two sisters, Mrs. W. A. Clack of Breckenridge, and Mrs. J. E.
    Dodson of South Pasadena, Calif.; and a niece, Mrs. Nora Fie of Graham, whom he
    raised.