Representative Percy Walker

Percy Walker (1812–1880) was an American physician, lawyer, and politician from Huntsville, Alabama, who became a prominent public figure in Mobile and represented Alabama in the United States House of Representatives in the mid-nineteenth century. Born in 1812, he came of age in a period of rapid growth and political change in the American South. Although details of his early childhood and family background are sparse in the surviving record, his subsequent education and professional pursuits indicate that he was afforded opportunities consistent with those of the emerging professional class in Alabama during the antebellum era.

Walker pursued higher education in medicine and attended the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, one of the leading medical institutions in the United States at the time. He was graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in 1835. Shortly after completing his medical studies, he relocated to the Gulf Coast and began practicing medicine in Mobile, Alabama, which was then a growing commercial center and port city. His early professional life thus combined advanced formal training with practical service in a region experiencing significant demographic and economic expansion.

In addition to his medical practice, Walker participated in military affairs. He served in the campaign against the Creek Indians, taking part in the conflicts that accompanied the final stages of Native American removal and frontier consolidation in the Southeast. This experience, occurring alongside his medical and later legal work, placed him at the intersection of public service, regional security, and the broader federal and state policies of territorial expansion that characterized the era.

After establishing himself in Mobile, Walker shifted his focus from medicine to the law. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, subsequently commencing the practice of law in Mobile. His legal career advanced rapidly, and he served as State’s Attorney for the 6th judicial district, a position that entrusted him with the prosecution of cases on behalf of the state and reflected his growing stature in Alabama’s legal community. This combination of medical, military, and legal experience provided a foundation for his entry into elective office.

Walker’s political career began at the state level. He was elected to the Alabama State House of Representatives in 1839, marking his first known legislative service. He returned to the State House in 1847 and again in 1853, indicating sustained support from his constituents and an ongoing role in shaping state policy during a period marked by debates over internal improvements, states’ rights, and the expansion of slavery. His repeated elections to the legislature underscored his prominence within Alabama’s Democratic and later nativist-leaning political circles.

Building on his state legislative experience, Walker was elected as a candidate of the American Party to the Thirty-fourth Congress and served as a United States Representative from Alabama from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1857. The American Party, often associated with the “Know-Nothing” movement, was characterized by its nativist positions and skepticism toward immigration and Catholic influence. Walker’s election under this banner placed him in the midst of the turbulent national politics of the 1850s, as sectional tensions over slavery and union intensified. During his term in Congress, he participated in the legislative work of a deeply divided House of Representatives, although the surviving record does not detail specific committee assignments or major legislative initiatives associated with his name. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1856, thereby limiting his congressional service to a single term and returning him to private life and professional pursuits in Alabama.

In his later years, Walker remained in Mobile, where he had long been established as a physician, attorney, and public figure. He continued to be identified with the city and with the broader political and legal community of Alabama. Percy Walker died in Mobile on December 31, 1880. He was interred in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, a burial place for many of the city’s notable citizens, thus concluding a life that spanned nearly seven decades of profound political, social, and territorial transformation in the United States.