Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

2958 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSJudge Walker married Mary Neal, a woman of many accomplishmentsand of strong Christian character and one who impressed herself uponher family and community. The last public service performed by JudgeWalker was in the office of state senator, to which position he was electedduring1 the later days of the war.The Walker ancestry is exceedingly interesting and especially so inthe light of the achievements of the younger members of the family, illustrating as it does the sturdiness of character that produced men of affairsand accomplishment. The earliest known ancestors on the paternal sideof Attorney General Walker, were natives of Scotland and from themcame John H. Walker, a Revolutionary soldier who subsequently becamea minister of the Baptist faith and one of the earliest in Georgia. Throughmarriage the family is traced to Mathew Rabun, John Veazy and SimpsonNeal, the first-named of whom came to Georgia from Halifax County,North Carolina, about the year 1785, and became one of the state's wellknown men. He was the father of Governor William Rabun, of Georgia,who was a brother of Billington S. Walker's great-grandmother. MathewRabun was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Georgia, whichconvened in 1798, and by which a state constitution was adopted thatremained in force for fifty years or longer.John Veazy was of English origin, a freeholder and planter of CecilCounty, Maryland, as early as 1687, and one of his descendants was ThomasWard Veazy, who was Governor of Maryland from 1836 to 1838. Thegreat-great-grandfather of Clifford M. Walker, James Veazy, a grandsonof John Veazy, was living in Georgia in 1784 and served as a soldier inthe Revolutionary war from this state. Of Simpson Neal, also a greatgreat-grandfather,it is only known that he was an honorable citizen ofYorkville, York District, South Carolina.Billington Sanders Walker was reared by parents who maintained firmbut just discipline. Like his brothers, before he was permitted to go tocollege, he was compelled to exhibit industry and practicality by raisingthree crops, this being the father's test of his sons' stability. He attendedthe common schools in Walton County and the Mount Zion Select School,of which Hon. W. J. Northern was principal, after which he entered theUniversity of Georgia, from which he was graduated with the class of1872, following which he entered his father's office and there appliedhimself to the study of law and was admitted to the bar. Almost fromthe first he gave the larger part of his attention to the business featuresof his profession, having business qualifications of a high order, as had hisfather, under whom this side of his character had been- well developed. In1892 Mr. Walker organized the Bank of Monroe, of which he has sincebeen president, and in 1896 he erected the Monroe Cotton Mills, of whichhe has also been the chief executive, and both of these enterprises haveproved vastly profitable under his able management. For three years hewas president of the Georgia Industrial Association, composed of the cottonmill companies of the state, and his administration of the affairs of thisoffice was very helpful in creating sympathy between the cotton mill ownersand banking institutions of the state, this contributing very materially to thebetterment of financial conditions in Georgia.Mr. Walker has always given his community the benefit of his businessexperience, progressiveness and public spirit having entered into all theenterprises that he has inaugurated. Ever ready to co-operate, it waslargely through his efforts that the two railroads that enter Monroe weresecured and he has been equally concerned in other movements. As anemployer of labor, Mr. Walker is a strict disciplinarian, but is impartialand just and is generous in rewarding fidelity and faithfulness and forthese reasons has had a minimum of labor trouble.