Fifty years. Half a century has rolled since Rev. Charles Orville Walker arrived at Jasper to pastor First Baptist Church. From 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday, March 27, a special celebration will roll at the Chamber of Commerce Building in Jasper's Lee Newton Park to mark the anniversary.
"He began in 1960––I think the first of April," former 9th District Congressman Ed Jenkins remembers. "I had come to Jasper in 1959, the latter part of '59, so I came at the same time. His work, not only in the church, his work outside the church, has been very important to the community."
Walker put his pen to writing history, covering local churches and religious denominations across Georgia. He became an expert on the old Federal Road through North Georgia and on the Cherokees who lived here before their forced removal west in the 1830s.
"Some of his drawings and paintings I think are particularly important to local historic groups," Jenkins said, "because he did a good deal of that of buildings."
Researching surveys and inventories of Cherokee property prior to their exile from this region along the Trail of Tears, Walker has made drawings to depict structures from that time. "He not only served as a pastor but as a working part of the community as a whole," Jenkins said. "He has been an important factor in preserving the history of North Georgia, the Cherokees, and Pickens County. I think his original drawings are on display at the Vann House."
Jeff Stancil heads the Vann House State Historic Site near Chatsworth and is another friend of Walker. "I've always called him Jasper's Renaissance man, because he can do it all," Stancil said. Walker's illustrations stand out in displays and videos at the Vann House and at New Echota, another historic Cherokee site near Calhoun.
"The Cherokee Nation considers Reverend Walker a true friend of the Cherokees, especially for identifying home sites and other historic sites from when the Cherokee lived in Georgia," Jack Baker said. Baker lives in Oklahoma and is an elected member of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council. "The Cherokee people very much appreciate his hard work over the years preserving our history."
To that honor, Stancil added praise for Walker's preaching and candor. "He's always told it like it was," Stancil said. "I like his forthright manner."
After Army service, Georgia State University, seminary at Louisville, Kentucky and pastor service at two other places, Walker came to Jasper to stay and work 38 years. He arrived with wife, Betty Anne, and infant son, Mark. A second son, Paul, was born to the Walker's at Jasper. Paul died here as a young man.
A search committee from the Jasper church found Walker as he was pastoring at Abbeville in south Georgia. They invited Walker up to Jasper to preach a try-out sermon.
"He came to Jasper and preached one Sunday as did a few more," remembers Charles Chapman, a longtime member at First Baptist. "I remember the first time he stood to preach," Chapman said. "Some of the first words out of his mouth were, 'Now I've come here today so y'all could look me over. And I've looked you over. Now let's get down to the business of worshiping the Lord.'
"And then he preached on the prodigal son––as had some of the others that had come," Chapman smiled.
Walker's audition sermon happened in February, followed closely by some serious winter weather.
"We got the ice storm of the century on the 29th of February and the first of and second of March," Chapman said. "We couldn't get to the church to hold conference." Church conference was actually postponed twice when icy weather prevented the congregation from congregating.
"We were beginning to wonder if the Lord wanted us to have him, 'cause He wouldn't let us get to the church to talk about it," Chapman quipped.
When they finally got together and warmed up a little, the church voted to ask Walker to come and be their pastor. Walker accepted the call and went to work. As he served the church, Walker's wife, Betty Anne, headed Pickens County Head Start, the government sponsored education program here for preschoolers.
Chapman served as church clerk at First Baptist when Walker became pastor. "Charles [Walker] came up with the idea that we ought to have a rotating board of deacons, so more people got to serve," Chapman said.
In a Baptist church, deacons hold a sort of servant-leader responsibility as they assist the pastor executively and also minister to church families. Twelve deacons manned the board. With the rotation system, four rolled off yearly, and four others rolled on. Charles Chapman was among the first four deacons to rotate onto the board.
Walker was Chapman's pastor from the time Chapman was 24 years old until he was 61.
"He baptized both my children," Chapman said. "He did my daddy's funeral and my brother's funeral." Walker officiated at the wedding of Chapman's daughter. "I guess it was one of the last things he did before he retired," Chapman said.
With Chapman in the funeral business, he and Walker often cooperated where their lines of responsibility intersected. "We got to where we had a pretty good understanding of each other," Chapman said.
As a deacon, Chapman said he held a similar rapport with Walker. "With the beginnings of controversies––all churches have them––we could sit down and talk frankly about it," Chapman said. "If we saw things brewing, we could frankly discuss it. I felt comfortable with him."
"He's about seven years older than I am," Chapman said. "He was born about 1929, and I was born in 1936."
Walker retired from his job as pastor in March 1997. His wife, Betty Anne, died in May 2000.
"About once a month [after Walker retired], he and I would eat breakfast and just go out and drive the country," Chapman said. "He's a great investigator of cemeteries. As we'd travel over the county, he'd tell me some places I didn't know, and I'd been here longer than he had," Chapman said.
They kidded some, too. "I'd teach him about some things if he went over preaching [some Sunday morning]. "I'd say preach as long as you want to. We leave at 12 o'clock," Chapman smiled.
Historian Ethylene Dyer Jones edited one of Walker's books, Volume 3 in his Cherokee Footprints series, Cherokee Names Remain In Georgia. "It was a joy and privilege to work with him," Jones remembers. They first became acquainted through the Baptist denomination.
"My husband was a minister in North Georgia as was Charles," Jones said. "I think he’s the only person I know who's had a pastorate for 38 consecutive years in the same place."
Jones and her husband, Grover Jones, arrived in North Georgia at the same time as Charles Walker and his wife, Betty Anne. "1960––that was the same year my husband went as pastor at Epworth Church at Blue Ridge," Jones said.
She served with Walker on the Georgia Baptist Historical Commission, preserving church history in Georgia, Jones said. At commission meetings, they talked a lot of local history, too, she remembers. Walker has also been a good friend to her husband, Jones said. "He's been a great support as a friend to both of us," she said.
Since 2003, Jones has made her home at Milledgeville, she said, to be near her husband as he receives care for Alzheimer’s disease at the Georgia War Veterans Home in that city. "Charles Walker has been a mentor and help to me as I've walked through this part of my life," she said.
With nearly 40 years as a pastor here and 50 years in this community, Walker's life has touched many others in ways people tend to remember. |
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| From 2007, Reverend Charles O. Walker displays a historic structure he rendered as artwork |
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