Thomas Walker (explorer)
Encyclopedia
Dr. Thomas Walker was a physician and explorer from Virginia
who led an expedition to what is now the region beyond the Allegheny Mountains
area of British North America
in the mid-18th century. He was responsible for naming what is now known as the Cumberland Plateau
and by extension the Cumberland River
for the hero of the time, the Duke of Cumberland
. His party were some of the first Englishmen to see this area—previous white explorers were largely of Spanish
and French
origins. Walker explored Kentucky in 1750, 19 years before the arrival of Daniel Boone
.
Walker was the father of two Congressmen: John
and Francis Walker
. Walker also served as guardian for Thomas Jefferson
after the death of Jefferson's father, Peter Jefferson
, in 1757.
He was raised as Englishman in the Tidewater region of Virginia
. Walker's first profession was that of a physician after he attended the College of William and Mary
and studied under his brother-in-law Dr. George Gilmer
. Even though he never actually received a medical degree, Walker is thought to have been the first to have trephine
d bone for suppurative osteomyelitis as early as 1757.
Walker became a man of status in the county when he married Mildred Thornton (widow of Nicholas Meriwether) in 1741, and acquired a large portion of land from her late husband’s estate. Here, Walker would set his roots and build his home known as Castle Hill
, and have 12 children, who would become prominent Albemarle citizens in their own rights. He began his path to establishing his status by becoming a vestryman in April 1744, a position he would hold until 1785. He served Virginia proudly as a delegate to the House of Burgesses
from Albemarle County, a trustee to the newly formed town of Charlottesville
.
During the expedition, Walker gave names to many topographical features including the Cumberland Gap
. His party built the first non-Indian house (a cabin) in Kentucky (today's Dr. Thomas Walker State Historic Site
). Walker kept a daily journal of the trip.
At the age of 64, Walker again journeyed to the western areas of Kentucky and Tennessee to extend the border between Virginia and North Carolina westward. This controversial mapped border would forever bear the title of the "Walker Line" and today stands as the separating point between the two states.
Among those who benefited from their close ties to Walker was Joseph Martin (general)
, an Indian fighter and explorer and neighbor of Walker's in Albemarle County who was chosen by Walker to lead one of his expeditions into the Powell Valley region of Western Virginia and Kentucky.
He also had great influence in dealing with Indian affairs. Walker represented Virginia at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix
and Treaty of Lochaber
(1770) and dealt with the peace negotiations after the Battle of Point Pleasant
. In 1775, Walker served as a Virginia commissioner in negotiations with representatives of the Six Nations
in Pittsburgh at Fort Pitt
.
Walker is also credited as the first American to discover and use coal
found in Kentucky
, Albemarle County, Virginia
. At the time of his death Walker was noted as the fourth wealthiest citizen of Albemarle County.
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
who led an expedition to what is now the region beyond the Allegheny Mountains
Allegheny Mountains
The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...
area of British North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in the mid-18th century. He was responsible for naming what is now known as the Cumberland Plateau
Cumberland Plateau
The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, part of Tennessee, and a small portion of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia . The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the...
and by extension the Cumberland River
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
for the hero of the time, the Duke of Cumberland
Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland
Prince William , was a younger son of George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach, and Duke of Cumberland from 1726. He is generally best remembered for his role in putting down the Jacobite Rising at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and as such is also known as "Butcher" Cumberland...
. His party were some of the first Englishmen to see this area—previous white explorers were largely of Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
origins. Walker explored Kentucky in 1750, 19 years before the arrival of Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
.
Walker was the father of two Congressmen: John
John Walker (politician)
John Walker was a public official from Virginia.Walker was born in Virginia, the son of Dr. Thomas Walker. He received private education before attending the College of William and Mary, which he graduated from in 1764...
and Francis Walker
Francis Walker (Virginia)
Francis Walker was an American planter and politician from Albemarle County, Virginia. He was member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1788-91 and again in 1797-1801. He represented Virginia in the U.S. Congress from 1793 to 1795.Francis was the second son, and one of twelve children of Dr....
. Walker also served as guardian for Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
after the death of Jefferson's father, Peter Jefferson
Peter Jefferson
Peter Jefferson was the father of American President Thomas Jefferson . A surveyor and cartographer, his Fry-Jefferson Map of 1751 accurately depicted the Allegheny Mountains for the first time and showed the route of "The Great Road from the Yadkin River thro Virginia to Philadelphia distant 455...
, in 1757.
Early days
Thomas Walker was born at "Rye Field", Walkerton, King and Queen County, VirginiaKing and Queen County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 6,630 people, 2,673 households, and 1,897 families residing in the county. The population density was 21 people per square mile . There were 3,010 housing units at an average density of 10 per square mile...
He was raised as Englishman in the Tidewater region of Virginia
Tidewater region of Virginia
The Tidewater region of Virginia is the eastern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia formally known as Hampton Roads. The term tidewater may be correctly applied to all portions of any area, including Virginia, where the water level is affected by the tides...
. Walker's first profession was that of a physician after he attended the College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
and studied under his brother-in-law Dr. George Gilmer
George Gilmer, Sr.
Dr. George Gilmer served as mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia, from 1746 to 1747.Gilmer was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1700. He studied medicine at the Edinburgh University. In 1731, Dr. Gilmer emigrated to Virginia, settling in Williamsburg...
. Even though he never actually received a medical degree, Walker is thought to have been the first to have trephine
Trephine
A trephine is a surgical instrument with a cylindrical blade. It can be of one of several dimensions and designs depending on what it is going to be used for. They may be specially designed for obtaining a cylindrically shaped core of bone that can be used for tests and bone studies, cutting holes...
d bone for suppurative osteomyelitis as early as 1757.
Walker became a man of status in the county when he married Mildred Thornton (widow of Nicholas Meriwether) in 1741, and acquired a large portion of land from her late husband’s estate. Here, Walker would set his roots and build his home known as Castle Hill
Castle Hill (Virginia)
Castle Hill , is an historic, plantation located at the foot of the Southwest Mountains in Albemarle County, Virginia, near Monticello and the city of Charlottesville, recognized by the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Castle Hill was the beloved home of Dr...
, and have 12 children, who would become prominent Albemarle citizens in their own rights. He began his path to establishing his status by becoming a vestryman in April 1744, a position he would hold until 1785. He served Virginia proudly as a delegate to the House of Burgesses
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America. The House was established by the Virginia Company, who created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America...
from Albemarle County, a trustee to the newly formed town of Charlottesville
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
.
Exploration
On July 12, 1749, the Loyal Land Company was founded with Walker as a leading member. After receiving a grant of 800,000 acres (3,200 km²) in what is now southeastern Kentucky, the company appointed Walker to lead an expedition to explore and survey the region in 1750. Walker was named head of the Loyal Land Company in 1752.During the expedition, Walker gave names to many topographical features including the Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, also known as the Cumberland Water Gap, at the juncture of the U.S. states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia...
. His party built the first non-Indian house (a cabin) in Kentucky (today's Dr. Thomas Walker State Historic Site
Dr. Thomas Walker State Historic Site
Dr. Thomas Walker State Historic Site is a park in Barbourville, Kentucky in Knox County. The land was donated by the American Legion and the city of Barbourville, and marks the area where Kentucky pioneer Dr. Thomas Walker built his cabin in 1750. The site was dedicated in 1931.A replica of the...
). Walker kept a daily journal of the trip.
At the age of 64, Walker again journeyed to the western areas of Kentucky and Tennessee to extend the border between Virginia and North Carolina westward. This controversial mapped border would forever bear the title of the "Walker Line" and today stands as the separating point between the two states.
Among those who benefited from their close ties to Walker was Joseph Martin (general)
Joseph Martin (general)
Joseph Martin was a brigadier general in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War, in which Martin's frontier diplomacy with the Cherokee people is credited with averting Indian attacks on the Scotch-Irish settlers who helped win the battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens...
, an Indian fighter and explorer and neighbor of Walker's in Albemarle County who was chosen by Walker to lead one of his expeditions into the Powell Valley region of Western Virginia and Kentucky.
He also had great influence in dealing with Indian affairs. Walker represented Virginia at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix
Treaty of Fort Stanwix
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was an important treaty between North American Indians and the British Empire. It was signed in 1768 at Fort Stanwix, located in present-day Rome, New York...
and Treaty of Lochaber
Treaty of Lochaber
The Treaty of Lochaber was signed on October 18, 1770 by British representative John Stuart and the Cherokees. Based on the terms of the accord, the Cherokee relinquished all claims to property from the North Carolina and Virginia border to a point near Long Island on the Holston River to the mouth...
(1770) and dealt with the peace negotiations after the Battle of Point Pleasant
Battle of Point Pleasant
The Battle of Point Pleasant, known as the Battle of Kanawha in some older accounts, was the only major battle of Dunmore's War. It was fought on October 10, 1774, primarily between Virginia militia and American Indians from the Shawnee and Mingo tribes...
. In 1775, Walker served as a Virginia commissioner in negotiations with representatives of the Six Nations
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
in Pittsburgh at Fort Pitt
Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)
Fort Pitt was a fort built at the location of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.-French and Indian War:The fort was built from 1759 to 1761 during the French and Indian War , next to the site of former Fort Duquesne, at the confluence the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River...
.
Walker is also credited as the first American to discover and use coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
found in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
Final days
After the death of his first wife, Walker would marry another lady with a famous name in 1781, Elizabeth Thorton (official marriage contract). Thomas Walker died on November 9, 1794 at Castle HillCastle Hill (Virginia)
Castle Hill , is an historic, plantation located at the foot of the Southwest Mountains in Albemarle County, Virginia, near Monticello and the city of Charlottesville, recognized by the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Castle Hill was the beloved home of Dr...
, Albemarle County, Virginia
Albemarle County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 79,236 people, 31,876 households, and 21,070 families residing in the county. The population density was 110 people per square mile . There were 33,720 housing units at an average density of 47 per square mile...
. At the time of his death Walker was noted as the fourth wealthiest citizen of Albemarle County.