Contra Costa County CA Archives Biographies.....Walker, Joseph R. 1798 - 1876
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com November 29, 2005, 5:58 pm

Author: W. A. Slocum & Co., Publishers (1882)

CAPTAIN JOSEPH R. WALKER, (deceased).—Standing in the pretty little Alhambra
cemetery, at Martinez, is a plain, unpretentious marble headstone, bearing the
following inscription: "Captain Joseph R. Walker, born in Roane county,
Tennessee, December 13, 1798. Emigrated to Missouri in 1819, to New Mexico in
1820, to Rocky Mountains in 1832, to California in 1833. Camped at Yosemite
November, 13, 1833. Died October 27, 1876, AE. seventy-seven years, ten months
and fourteen days." What a wealth of reminiscence there is in these few simple
statements—what a life of energy, toil and adventure, do they speak. It would
appear, however, to be doubtful if Tennessee has the honor of claiming this
worthy old pioneer among pioneers. We are informed by no less an authority than
his nephew, with whom the aged veteran passed his declining years, that the
Captain was actually born in Virginia, but he was taken to Tennessee at a very
early age, whither his parents had emigrated. In 1819, he moved to and was a
resident of Jackson county, Missouri, and took part in the planting in that
State of the arts and sciences, which have done so much towards making the name
of the United States respected in every part of the habitable world. In the year
1820, Captain Walker made his first trip on the plains, going with a party to
New Mexico on a trapping and trading expedition, having the ultimate idea of
crossing to the Pacific coast, but when they had reached as far as Prescott
lake, troops were dispatched by the Governor of New Mexico to order their
return. He therefore retired to the settlements, and, until the year 1832,
maintained a residence in Jackson county, and carried on the business of trapper
and trader, his principal ground being in Arkansas and Texas. On a trip from
Independence to Fort Gibson, Arkansas, for cattle, our subject first met the
redoubtable Captain Bonneville, then stationed there, who told Walker of his
proposed expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and wished him to join it as a
partner; he had not money enough, however, therefore was engaged as one of the
captains of the two hundred and forty men, which comprised the company when
rendezvoused at Tort Osage in 1832. In his adventures of Captain Bonneville, the
greatest of American writers, Washington Irving, thus describes Captain Walker:
"He was about six feet high, strong built, dark complexioned, brave in spirit,
though mild in manners. He had resided in Missouri for many years, on the
frontier; had been among the earliest adventurers to Santa Fe, where he went to
trap beaver, and was taken by the Spaniards. He returned to Missouri, and had
acted, by turns, as sheriff, trader and trapper, until he was selected as a
leader by Captain Bonneville." Captain Walker remained with Bonneville until the
Spring of 1833, when he left the expedition in the Rocky Mountains, and
determined to visit California. The best maps he could procure of the country
represented a river flowing from the Great Salt lake to the Pacific coast. He
made up his mind to follow this route, and accordingly, in the early Spring, set
out at the head of thirty bold and experienced trappers, well mounted and
accoutred. Arriving at Salt Lake he made its circuit, to be disappointed in
finding the river; but nothing daunted, he struck out west, and in October
reached the Sierra Nevada, which he undertook to scale. His first attempt to
descend to the west was near the headwaters of the Tuolumne, which he found
impassable, but working a little farther to the southward, he struck the waters
of the Merced, and got into the valley of the San Joaquin. His was the first
white man's eyes that that ever looked upon the Yosemite, which he then
discovered, although the honor has been accorded to some other person at a
period twenty years later. His party encamped in the San Joaquin valley,
recruiting and trapping until Spring. Meanwhile Captain Walker, accompanied by a
few men, explored the principal valleys in the State, and made himself
thoroughly acquainted with their topography and capabilities. In the Spring of
1833, he moved to the southward along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada,
looking for a pass to the east. His skill in judging the lay of the country at a
distance has been described by old and experienced mountaineers as something so
marvelous as to be nearly akin to magic. He would look at a chain of mountains
forty or fifty miles away, which he had never seen before, and tell in an
instant whether they possessed timber, water or pasturage, and what was the best
approach to them—where were the natural water-ways and barriers. Guided by this
unerring instinct, he passed to the southward until he came to what he
considered the only true pass through the Sierras, and which is situated in
about thirty-five and a half degrees of North Latitude, and bears his name;
Walker's Pass he considered the true outlet from California to the East. On his
return to the East, he kept nearly on the thirty-fifth parallel, and found the
country east of the Colorado fertile, and a climate unequalled in the world for
salubrity. Thus he continued for the next decade of years, trapping and trading,
or, as his nephew expresses it, "coming and going."

  In 1843, our subject was in the vicinity of Fort Hall. While there, Captain J.
B. Chiles arrived with the family of that venerable pioneer, George Yount, of
Napa, Julius Martin and wife, now of Gilroy, Santa Clara county, and Frank
McClellan, of Pacheco, Contra Costa county. A Miss Ayres afterwards joined the
party. Being afraid that they would not be able to get over the mountains before
the Winter, Captain Walker agreed to pilot the party into California. Captain
Chiles was sent on in advance, and was to return to meet them at or near
Walker's lake with supplies. After recruiting the animals, Captain Walker
started with his party for California by way of Walker's lake, the route he had
formerly traveled. He missed Mr. Chiles, and the party were in severe straits
for provisions. They got fish from the Indians on Walker's river, trading
horse-shoe nails (which the Indians used for awls) for them. Beyond Walker's
lake they abandoned the wagons, as Winter was closing in upon them; they
therefore cached their goods, killed their cattle for provisions, and after
terrible suffering got across the mountains into Tulare valley, at some point
now in Kern county. The chief dependence of this party of helpless women for
food was on the rifle of Captain Walker, and his woodcraft to pilot them over
the wild waste of desert plains and lofty mountains which intervened between
them and the settlements. His courage and energy were equal to the task. The
captain was wont to describe with great spirit the feast the party had on a fat
mustang pony, the first thing he killed after getting into Tulare valley. In
1846, war having been declared between the United States and Mexico, Captain
Walker drove a band of mules into New Mexico, which he disposed of to the
Government, and afterwards bought the same species of animals from the Mohave
Indians for a like purpose. In the Spring of 1847, he returned to Jackson
county, Missouri, where he sojourned until 1849, in the Spring of which year he
arrived once more in California. During that Summer he traded in the mines,
driving stock thither and selling them. He continued until 1851 on a ranch he
had acquired near Gilroy, in which year he organized a company of nine persons
to proceed to New Mexico and Arizona. In June, 1851, however, the party broke up
and scattered, the captain remaining behind until the month of March in the
following year. He then took up a ranch for a year or two near his old friend,
Julius Martin, at Gilroy, and subsequently, in 1854-55, organized a company
which proceeded on a prospecting tour in the Bodie and Esmeralda districts. In
1857, he turned towards Arizona, but one of his men, named Lyons, being wounded
in a fracas by the Mohave Indians (he died afterwards in Los Angeles), the
captain returned to California. In 1859, he acted as guide to the troops sent up
the Colorado from Fort Yuma to chastise the Indians. On May 9, 1861, he left on
a prospecting tour in Arizona, New Mexico besides other places in that locality,
while in the following year he arrived at the place where now the town of
Prescott, Arizona, is located, and discovered the rich mines in that vicinity.
The year 1864 saw him back in California, but to return before the close of the
year, to remain until 1867, when he came to reside with his nephew, James T.
Walker, at his home in the beautiful Ygnacio valley, where he died peacefully,
October 27, 1876. Several attempts in later years were made to get a sketch of
the life of the great pioneer, but old age had laid his heavy hand upon him; he
was too feeble to talk much, and when he did talk his enunciation was labored
and difficult. Of his wonderful memory and also peculiar talent of judging a
country at sight, we may mention the following: He had been down the Colorado on
an occasion twenty or more years prior to his guiding the troops along its banks
in 1859, and had then come down the river, but had never been up it;
nevertheless he would make an accurate map each morning of the country to be
marched over during the day, showing where the mountains approached the river,
and where the valley widened, where sloughs or tributaries made in marking the
halting-place for the night, and giving a description of its appearance and
extent. Furthermore, he would say, "There is grass and wood in those mountains
off there, with water flowing to the northward," or whichever way it went. The
veteran captain was a quiet, unpretending-man. He scorned to boast of his
achievements as a pioneer, though a better and more deserving man than many who
have had their fame and deeds trumpeted to the world. He died, as he lived, an
honest, upright man—one of Nature's noblemen.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA,
INCLUDING ITS GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION;
TOGETHER WITH A RECORD OF THE MEXICAN GRANTS; THE BEAR FLAG WAR; THE MOUNT
DIABLO COAL FIELDS; THE EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT, COMPILED FROM THE MOST
AUTHENTIC SOURCES; THE NAMES OF ORIGINAL SPANISH AND MEXICAN PIONEERS; FULL
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; SEPARATE HISTORY OF EACH TOWNSHIP, SHOWING
THE ADVANCE IN POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE;
ALSO,
Incidents of Pioneer Life; and Biographical Sketches
OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN;
AMD OF ITS TOWNS, VILLAGES, CHURCHES, SECRET SOCIETIES, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO: W. A. SLOCUM & CO., PUBLISHERS
1882.



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