Walker Brooke

Who was Walker Brooke?

Walker Brooke was a United States Senator from Mississippi.

Born at Page Brooke, Clarke County, Virginia, he was the son of Humphrey Brooke and Sarah Walker Page. He attended the public schools in Richmond, Virginia and Georgetown, D.C. He graduated from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1835, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1838 and commenced practice in Lexington, Mississippi. He was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1848 and was a member of the Mississippi Senate in 1850 and 1852.

Brooke was elected as a Whig to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Henry S. Foote and served from February 18, 1852, to March 3, 1853; he was not a candidate for reelection and resumed the practice of law. In 1857 he moved to Vicksburg and continued the practice of law; he was a delegate to the constitutional convention in 1861 and became affiliated with the Democratic Party that year. He was elected a member of the Provisional Confederate Congress from Mississippi in 1861 and served one year; he was then appointed a member of the permanent military court of the Confederate States. Brooke died in Vicksburg in 1869; interment was in Vicksburg Cemetery.