Joseph Marshall Walker

Joseph Marshall Walker (July 1, 1784 – January 20, 1856) was a politician and cotton planter who was the 13th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1850 to 1853. He oversaw the passage of the 1845 Louisiana Constitution and was first Governor inaugurated in the new state capital building in Baton Rouge.

Early life Joseph Marshall Walker was born in the French Quarter of New Orleans on July 1, 1786, when Louisiana was a Spanish colony. He was the son of English immigrant Peter Walker and Charlotte Constance Revoil, a second-generation Louisiana creole woman.

He received a limited, private education in his youth and in 1807 travelled to Mexico where he joined the Spanish army. He was commissioned a lieutenant of the dragoons, and for a time headed the military school at Chihuahua. He continued his military career after returning to New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase. He volunteered in the Louisiana Militia and served under the command of General Andrew Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and given command of the First Brigade of the state militia

He married Catherine Carter, originally from Adams County, Mississippi, with whom he had twelve children. Walker purchased land in Rapides Parish which he later developed into a cotton plantation. He turned down offers from Democratic Party officials to be their candidate for the United States House of Representatives. Joseph Marshall Walker died three years later in 1856 and is buried on his plantation.