William David Walker

The Right Reverend William David Walker
First Missionary Bishop of North Dakota, 1883-1896
Bishop Walker
Province	The Episcopal Church
Diocese	Missionary District of North Dakota
Installed	as Bishop of Western New York on December 23, 1896
Term ended	by death on May 2, 1917
Predecessor	Arthur Cleveland Coxe
Successor	Charles Brent
Orders
Consecration	December 20, 1883
Personal details
Born	June 29, 1839 New York City
Died	May 2, 1917 Buffalo, New York

William David Walker was consecrated as the first Missionary Bishop of the Episcopal Church’s Missionary District of North Dakota on December 20, 1883. He became the third Bishop of Western New York in 1897 and held this position until his death in 1917.

Walker was born in New York on June 29, 1839. He graduated from Columbia University and the General Theological Seminary.

During his ministry, Walker held three positions: Vicar of Calvary Chapel. New York City, 1862-1883; First Missionary Bishop of North Dakota, 1883-1896; Third Bishop of Western New York, 1896-1917.

Walker was consecrated as the first Missionary Bishop of the Missionary District of North Dakota on December 20, 1883 in Calvary Church, New York.

When Walker came to North Dakota, the district consisted of “eighteen churches, and about thirty-five missions.” In the missions, worship services were being held in space that could be found. Walker noticed that dozens of hamlets could be reached by railroad. In some of them there was no space large enough for a congregation of twenty people.

Walker sought an answer to this lack of worship space. Having learned about a Russian Orthodox chapel car which was used on the Trans-Siberian Railway, Walker decided to procure a similar car to provide a place for worship in the many places on the railroads where there was no church building. Walker also “felt that to erect churches in towns, until their stability was assured, would be a waste of capital.” He implemented his plan by first raising the cost from friends back east and, then, contracting with the Pullman Palace Car Company to build it. The chapel car could seat eighty persons on portable chairs. The words "The Church of the Advent" and "The Cathedral Car of North Dakota" were painted on the sides of the car.

The railroads took the Cathedral Car to the various hamlets. The bishop would have placards announcing its coming and the time of worship posted before he arrived. This pattern was followed across North Dakota. The Cathedral Car covered seventy thousand square miles. Often, the Cathedral Car could not accommodate all the people who wanted to attend worship, so there had to be “multiple services.” Besides regular worship, there were marriages and funerals.

People in the hamlets were impressed by “compactness, dignity, and simple churchly beauty” of the Chapel Car. They were also impressed by Walker what did. He lived in the car, did his own cooking, and cleaned both his living quarters and the chapel. Often he was the organist for services.

After Walker left, the Cathedral Car was sold and scrapped in 1901. Its material and furnishing were used by various stationary churches in the district.

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Wikipedia