John Hardeman Walker

John Hardeman Walker (born 1796 in Tennessee) was an early landowner in southeast Missouri, most famous for convincing the United States Congress to place the Bootheel in Missouri instead of Arkansas.

Walker moved to the Bootheel area at age 16. When many citizens of the area left after the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-1812, Walker maintained his cattle operation in the area and steadily increased his holdings.

When Missouri was added to the Union, its original border proposal in 1818 was to be an extension of the 36°30' parallel north that formed the border between Kentucky and Tennessee which would have excluded the Bootheel. However Walker argued that the area had more in common with the Mississippi River towns of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri and St. Louis, Missouri than with its proposed location in Arkansas Territory. The border was then dropped about 50 miles to the 36th parallel north. It follows the parallel about 30 miles until it intersects the St. Francis River which forms the toe of the boot back up to about the 36°30' parallel just west of Campbell, Missouri.

External links

* [http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/history/bootheel.asp How Did ... Missouri Come To Include the "Bootheel"?] , from Missouri's Office of the Secretary of State