Dr. Andrew Calvin Walker
and Corilda Catherine (Owen) Walker; photo courtesy
Laura Robbie (Sneed) Stooksbury.
Corilda Catherine (Owen) Walker was a daughter of William
Allen Owen and Elizabeth Odell. Born in Radford in Pulaski
County, Virginia, her family moved for a few years to
the Bear Creek
area of Claiborne
County, Tennessee, where she met and married Andrew
Calvin Walker, the son of Jacob Shuff and Martha (Davis)
Walker of Straight Creek.
About the time of his father's death, Andrew attended
medical school at the University of Nashville and soon
returned to start practice, moving his family shortly
to Forkvale
in Campbell County.
Soon, though, the family settled in Norma,
where Andrew for a while was a company doctor for the
New River Lumber Company and then was in private practice.
He also owned a pharmacy in partnership with Dr. W.W.
Foust in Huntsville. As the diaries open, they lived
in Norma but moved to Caryville
as the diaries progress.
Both known diaries are transcribed here; Corilda used
date books given to her husband by medicine peddlers
and sometimes erased entries and reused sections. This
transcription reorders all entries and tries to make
as much sense of the original as possible, including
erasures. Although many dates are missing, these books
appear to include all of the entries she made for the
entire period..
Transcribed by Roma A. Walker, who noted:
Corilda used the same diaries over and over - erasing
some pages and writing again, and not always in the
correct order. I have tried to put entries in order
by dates rather than the order they are recorded in
the book. For example, I would find an entry for 1923
amid entries for 1925. If anyone who reads this finds
something they know is in error, please let me know.
She had her own kind of shorthand - "Eav"
for "evening" - "Rain'd" - "Rab"
is Ruby - "Birt" is Birdie - "B.I."
is Ballard - "R" is Ruby - "P" is
Paris. She refers to Andrew as "Dad" and "Dock"
I cannot recall an entry where she calls him Andrew.
She was apparently a person who loved having her family
around and was "lonesome" when they were away.
I am astounded by her preoccupation with the weather.
After transcribing two volumes I feel as if I know
Corilda intimately. I would have liked to have spent
an afternoon with her as she planted her flowers and
cooked possum or fresh vegetables from her garden.
Roma Walker, 1996
Words in square brackets or italics are
inserted and do not appear in the original. Underlined
words or phrases are underlined in the original.
