Walker, Cyrus

Born: 1791-05-06 Rockbridge County, Virginia

Died: 1875-12-05 McDonough County, Illinois

Walker moved with his family to Woodford County, Kentucky, in 1793. In 1797, they relocated to Adair County, where Walker later studied law and taught school. He earned admittance to the bar in 1813. Elected twice as a Whig to the Kentucky General Assembly in the 1820s, Walker moved to McDonough County, Illinois, in 1833. He practiced as a lawyer in Macomb, Illinois and Iowa until 1859, when he retired. Walker formed a law partnership with Josephus Hewett in 1835 and with James C. Conkling in 1839. He represented clients in a number of cases involving Abraham Lincoln. He ran unsuccessfully as a Whig for the Sixth Congressional District in 1843, and courted the Mormon vote. He was a Presbyterian and temperance advocate. In 1850, Walker was living in McDonough County, and owned $4,000 in real estate. By 1860, he owned $6,000 in real estate, and $990 in personal property.

The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Illinois of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Galaxy, 1875), 274-75; For Lincoln's cases involving Walker, search "Walker, Cyrus," Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis, et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), McDonough County, IL, 314; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), McDonough County, IL, 431; John M. Palmer, The Bench and Bar of Illinois (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:175; Gravestone, Camp Creek Cemetery, Industry, IL; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 140.