Full church records citing the memberships of each
of our early Walkers have not been found, but enough
is known to make some assumptions about our ancestors
and an apparent conversion.
Prior to the American Revolution, there were several
established churches and official religions in some
colonies. Since so little is known about our Walker
ancestors during that period, we have no idea what religion
even Edward
B. Walker followed from birth, much less his parents.
However, following the war, sentiment turned against
the establishment of religion, and the mainline denominations
especially suffered. Many people turned to the newer
denominations, particularly Baptist and Methodist, some
of which seemed more democratic.
Especially on the frontier in places like Tennessee,
the older denominations failed to take hold. Among other
reasons, the older denominations insisted on well-educated
pastors and all the accouterments to which they were
accustomed. The living conditions and spread-out nature
of the people on the frontier meant that the older denominations
were not able to serve the growing populations. The
Methodists in particular, with their circuit-riding
ministers, were well-suited to serving the needs of
far-flung congregations.
At the time that Edward B. Walker and Jane Horn married
in 1790, one or both were probably Baptist. After all,
they were married in a Baptist church by a Baptist minister
named Richard Murrell. At the time, civil ceremonies
and even common-law marriages were perfectly acceptable
and quite common, so marriage in a church typically
meant that at least one if not both parties were members
of that church.
In the late 1790s and early 1800s, Methodists, most
prominently Bishop Francis Asbury, came to Sullivan
County frequently and won many converts. Again, evidence
is only indirect, but when religious affiliations can
be proven, the Walkers, Tusseys, and other neighbors
of the Walkers all appear to have become Methodists
in that early period in Sullivan County.
Once they moved to Claiborne County, they may have
associated with the Methodist Church in Tazewell, at
least at one point. When Jane was applying
for a pension, Charles McAnnally, a minister there,
and Benjamin Sewell, an elder, both testified on her
behalf. About the same time, though, son Joseph
gave land for a Methodist church where his brother,
Jonathan, would preach. Whether that church was actually
built is unclear; Joseph's daughter Anna and her husband
would later give land to build the New Salem Baptist
Church, which still exists.
So at least one of the sons of Edward B. Walker was
a Methodist minister, and another, John W., may have
been but was not necessarily named for John Wesley.
One of their grandsons, Henry
(son of Edward Jr.) was a Methodist circuit rider, and
at least two granddaughters married Methodist ministers:
Edward Jr.'s daughter Jane
married Shadrach Ball, and Samuel Walker's daughter
Malinda married Alvis Brogan, who was either a minister
or at least helped to start a Methodist church.
Remains
of Thomas Chapel Methodist Church near Mulberry
Gap; photo taken 9/2/2005 by Phillip A. Walker.
At least some of the Walkers, including Edward
Walker, Jr.'s widow Sarah (Crumley) Walker and his
sons Jacob, William, James, and Green, attended the
Thomas Chapel Methodist Church on the Mulberry
road a few miles from their house, and Jim and Green
were active in the Methodist church in Newport and in
later communities where they lived.
Thomas Chapel Methodist Church met in homes for decades,
and church records are fragmentary at best. It is no
longer a functional church, and, in fact, its last church
building is now being used as a barn. Although pictured
here, the last building was erected about 1900 and would
not have been the building that the Walkers attended.
Even as early as Edward B. Walker's grandchildren,
conversions began again, with several becoming Baptist
and others joining the Christian Church in Kansas or
other denominations. Whether the war and pressure over
slavery drove some conversions or simple convenience
is unknown. Jacob Shuff Walker, for instance, married
into a family descended from a prominent Baptist minister,
Rev. Andrew Baker, and while he appears to have remained
Methodist for the first decade of his marriage, he eventually
joined the Baptist church at Mulberry Gap and later
gave land to build another one on Straight Creek, both
of which are still in use today.
Religion is certainly a facet of the wider family story,
but the exact roll that it played in most of individual
lives of the Walkers may never be known. Protestant
churches in particular kept few records in the first
place, and many that were kept do not survive.
