www.ourvolley.org Page 4. Saturdav, Sepfember 2, 2017 • News Messenger, Christiansburg, VA Page 4 • Saturday, September 2, 2017 • Radford News Journal www.ourvolley . org OPINION Thomas Walker the Explorer Revisited

In May 2016, I published a Walker was avoiding taxes, but . owning 86 slaves, 115 cattle, 3. That the former Jefferson column here citled "Dr. Thomas he had plenty of company, as Jim .; and two carriages. slave Isaac Granger mentioned Walker and che Dunkards." It the practice was commonplace Glanville : The only book about Walker Walker in his dicta red 1847 told that in 1750 the explorer among the land speculators. � seems co be David Burns recollections. ; Thomas Walker and his parry Earlier this year, Andrew and Adam Jones' "Gateway: The search hit that pictures of five men had spent four days Schenker of Blacksburg wrote Local Historian \ Dr. Thomas Walker and the a 1781 officer's commission for with the Dunkard community me, correctly pointing out that ., Opening of Kentucky" (Bell Thomas Walker dearly shows it n�ar ••••••••••••• to where present-d.ay 1-81 in praising Dale Carter, the � Wal �;'" f" C�;ti� ,; County, Kentucky, Historical to be issued Francis Walker. crosses the New River. They col umn left an unbalanced Thomas o Society, 2000). The Encyclopedia yields were temporarily delayed there impression of Walker. Hill." McCleod, remarked that These authors point out that only three search hits for while tracking down their "Doctor Thomas Walker despite Walker 's impressive (24 years before Daniel Boone} "'Cumberland Gap. n One is as horses that had ran off. (1715-1794): Explor e r ) achievements he is relatively Walker the agent for the to the Daniel B60ne entry, Walker's party had come up Physician, Statesmen, Surveyor, unknown. Noti ng that Loyal Land Company on his a second is to the Botetourt from the Great Lick (Roanoke), and Planter of Virginia and Walker's lifetime coincided 1750 trip with his party was Artillery being there during which Walker wrote had been Kentucky" is the title of Keith with Virginia's great westward the first English-speaker at the Civil War, and the third "one of rhe best places for Nyland's 1971 Ohio State expansion, McCleod observed the Cumberland Gap. On that is to Doug Wilder starting his Game in these parts and would University Ph.D. dissertation. that his frequent and extensive trip, Walker named the Gap 1985 campaign for Lieutenant have been of much greater The tide summarizes Walker's travels gave Walker a unique and the Cumberland River and Governor there. Because it .is advantage .. , if the Hunters achievements. sense of the poten tial future built the first cabin in the generally teckoneo that some had not killed the Buffaloes Walker grew up from English greatness of the con tinent. fucure Kentucky. 300,000 pioneers pa ssed for diversion, and the Elks and stock in King and Queen In addition to his Wikipedia has an entry tided through the Gap on their way to Deer for their skins." County and attended the achievements listed above, "Thomas Walker (Explorer)" building America, the omission The column also noted College of William and Mary. Walker was an entrepren<::;ur, that unfortunately misses aU of a Cumberland Gap entry is a the passing of the excellent Later, he ran a general store in a member of the House of three of the sources cited above. decidedly embarr ssing . a Kingsport local historian Dale Fredericksburg and took up the Burgesses, anc:gotiator ofIndian The online " Encyclopedi Southwestern Virginia is in Carter, one of whose best practice of medicine. treaties, and a highly successful Virginia," which bills itsdf as general badly slighted by che arricJc.� (now onJine) is titled In 1741 f he marrjed Mildred frontier land speculator. He "The first and ultimate online Encyclopedia. In addition to

" Was Dr. Thomas Walker a Thornton Meriwether (the served as commissary of reference work about the the absence of Thomas Walker Crook?" widow of Nicholas Meriwether, troops during the French and Commonwealth of Virginia" and Cumberland Gap entries, Cn his article, Carter showed a, the owner of the escace thac Indian War. Peter Jefferson glaringly lacks aD entry for there are no entries for James by land measurements chat is now Charlottesville). This was a close friend of Walker, Walker. The encyclopedia's Patton, William Preston , in 1752 Walker paid land tax marriage , which even tually and Walker served as one of only three legitimate search Andrew Lc;wis, and Governor on 6,800 acres at Abingdon, produced twelve children, the guardians of the you ng hits for Walker tell that 1. He John Floyd or his wife Letitia Virginian , while actually getting brought Walker control of an Thomas Jefferson. Walker also was a partner (with George Preston. 13,000. Carter concluded that Albemarle County estate of shared business interests with Washington and others) in Somebody should complain...... Thomas Walker and John more than II.OOO-acres. George Washington, James the 1763 Dismal Sw amo Land

Buchanan , along with James In 1977, the practlcmg Madison, and other prominent Company; 2. That a Sept. 23, Jim Glanvill� is a r�tir�d Parron, Edmund Pendleton, Nashville physician Alexander Virginians of his time. 1783, letter to Walker from chemist living in Blacksburg. and John Shelton devised a McLeod wrote for volume 71 According to the Monticell o Thomas Jefferson asks him H� has bun publishing and way to defraud the colonial of the "Filson Club Historical website, the 1742 personal to edit "Notes on the State lecturing for more than a duade

c " land office of the orrect Quarterly" the 32-page article property tax list of Albemarle of Virginia and add data on about the history of Southwest : payment due for land patents ." �A Man for All Region s Dr. County shows Walker as animal sizes and Indians; and Virginia.