David Walker

David Walker opposed secession, yet he presided over the 1861 convention that took Arkansas out of the Union and later served the Confederacy as a colonel on a military court. Elected chief justice in 1866, he wrote Hawkins v. Filkins, upholding the legality of the wartime government; the 1868 constitution ended his term. Back as an associate justice in 1874, he joined a 1877 ruling that voided about a third of the state debt. He died September 30, 1879, thrown from a buggy at the county fair.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park — 10 mi
  The December 7, 1862 battlefield where about 2,700 fell and Hindman withdrew in the night, with the Borden orchard, Hindman Hall's free museum, and walking and driving tours.
• Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area — 20 mi
  Arkansas's largest state park, about 12,000 acres on Beaver Lake, with the Van Winkle mill site, a graveyard of enslaved people, 54 miles of trail and regulated hunting.
• Devil's Den State Park — 20 mi
  A Civilian Conservation Corps park begun in October 1933 in the Lee Creek valley, with log-and-stone cabins, a 1937 stone dam, about sixty crevice caves and a 15-mile trail.
• Walmart Museum — 22 mi
  Sam Walton's 1950 variety store on the Bentonville square, now a free museum with his 1979 pickup, a recreated office, the 1945 Newport store door and a 1950s-style soda counter.

More markers nearby

• Old Mt. Comfort — 4.1 mi
• Wartime Gristmill Destruction — 5.5 mi
• Holcomb's Spring in the Civil War — 8.7 mi
• Regular Baptist Church of Shiloh — 8.8 mi