Mary Richardson Walker (missionary)

Mary Richardson Walker (April 1, 1811 – December 5, 1897) was an American missionary. She was the daughter of Joseph and Charlotte Richardson of West Baldwin, Maine. Both parents were school teachers and valued education for all their children. She attended Maine Wesleyan Seminary. Mary wanted to be a missionary and applied at the American Board of Missionaries, but she was turned down, because she was not married.

William Thayer, a mutual friend of Mary Richardson and Elkanah Walker, knew they wanted to be missionaries, so he set up a meeting between them. After a 48-hour courtship, Elkanah proposed to Mary. A year later on March 5, 1838, they married hurriedly so they could depart for the Oregon Country as missionaries.

The Walkers departed her home at North Yarmouth, Maine on March 7, 1838 for Boston, Massachusetts and then to Independence, Missouri for the long trip across the continent with three other couples: Cushing and Myra Eells, Asa and Sarah Smith, and William and Mary Gray. Mary Walker became pregnant and traveled side-saddle for most of the 1900 miles. The missionaries arrived at the Whitman Mission on August 29, 1838.

On March 20, 1838, the Walker and Eells family arrived at Tshimakain and began setting up their new homes among the Spokane people. The Walkers lived at the Tshimakain Mission for ten years. Six months, after the Whitman Massacre, 60 members of the Oregon Volunteers traveled up to the mission and brought the Walkers and Eells families to the Willamette Valley, Oregon Country.

The Walkers moved to Forest Grove, Oregon in October, 1849. While living at Forest Grove, the Walkers helped establish Tualatin Academy (now Pacific University.) When the Tualatin Academy became Pacific University in 1866, the Walkers donated land for the new campus and Elkanah served as a university trustee until his death. Cushing Eells became the first principal of Tualatin Academy and later founded Whitman College as a memorial to the martyred Whitman's. Elkanah Walker's name is on the charter of both Whitman Seminary and Whitman College. On December 5, 1897, Mary Richardson Walker died at Forest Grove. She died at the home of her son Levi. She was the last surviving member of the original thirteen members of the Old Oregon Mission.

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