"One of the most fascinating Texas Rangers of all time was Samuel Hamilton Walker—no relation...to Chuck Norris' fictional character Cordell Walker." - Samuel Walker: The Real 'Walker, Texas Ranger' (Texas Standard 3/21/2018)
"Many Ranger aficionados rate Sam Walker the second-most-important Texas Ranger of all time, behind Jack Coffee Hays." - Stories from Texas (2018)
"The Walker Colt, developed in 1846 by Samuel Colt with the aid of former Ranger Samuel Walker, was the first sixshooter." - Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers (2002)
"Walker's memory...generated lush praise as he was mourned as a martyr to courage. 'Walker's splendid record attracted to him public attention...throughout the country,' said Captain Edmund L. Dana." - Cult of Glory (2020)
Why is Captain William H. Walker still regarded as on the most important Texas Rangers of all time?
In 1882, Col. Edmund Lovell Dana (1817-1889) published a short 15-page work titled "Incidents in the Life of Capt. Samuel H. Walker, Texan Ranger."
In recalling Walker's characteristics, Dana writes:
"In private life, Capt. Walker was exemplary in his habits, and used neither liquor nor tobacco in any form. In camp, he was a genial companion, open, frank, generous, always ready to do more than his share of the drudgery of camp life, truthful and proverbially unselfish. As I recall his personal appearance, after the lapse of thirty-five years, he was of medium height, of sanguine temperament, with keen gray eyes, hair inclined to sandy, with a lithe, active form, capable of great endurance, an unassuming manner, quiet yet alert, quick of perception, fertile in resources, prompt, and, as his whole life evinced, fearless in action."
