Gale Richard Walker was born in Stockport, Ohio in 1948. He attended Stockport schools until 1965; graduated from Belpre High School in 1967; received his B.A. phi beta kappa at Marietta College in 1972; M.A. at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1974; and Ph.D. at Purdue in 1976. He was an assistant professor of sociology at Muhlenberg College, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1976-78, and served as chairman of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois, 1978-83; senior policy analyst, Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety, Springfield, IL, 1984-1989; and science assessment consultant and school improvement consultant, Illinois State Board of Education, Springfield, IL, 1989-2007.

Walker’s various history-related publications cited below began as a simple curiosity – a question. If finding no answer in libraries or elsewhere, he conducted his own research, whether in laboratories or libraries, seeking to discover, document, and share his findings and conclusions with others.

History-related publications in chronological order

Where Is the Legendary Silverheels? self-published, Carlinville, Illinois, 1980, 65 pp.

A Complete List of Tombstone Inscriptions of Center Township, Morgan County, Ohio, and Seven Other Nearby Cemeteries, ed. with Clyde K. Swift, self-published, Carlinville, Illinois, 1981, 51 pp..

Baldwin’s Day Books, 1794-1814, Books I, II, and III, Including a Muskingum River Survey, ed. with Clyde K. Swift, self-published, Springfield, Illinois, 1981, hundreds of unnumbered pages.

Tombstone Inscriptions of Windsor Township, Morgan County, Ohio, and All Nearby Cemeteries, self-published, Carlinville, IL, May, 1979, 66 pp. Reprinted in “Cemeteries of Penn-Windsor Townships, Morgan County, Ohio,” by the Morgan County Historical Society, McConnelsville, Ohio, 1982, 101 pp.

Where Is the Legendary Silverheels? ed., Occasional Papers in Muskingum Valley Arachaeology, No. 13, Zanesville, Ohio, 1983, pp. 1-50.

News of the Deaths of Two Noted Shawnee Indians, Nimwha and Cornstalk, as Recorded at Moravian Missions on the Upper Muskingum in 1777 and 1780, ed. with Sigrid Graner, German translator, Occasional Papers in Muskingum Valley Archaeology, No. 14, Zanesville, Ohio, 1983, pp. 65-72.

Names and Aliases of Noted Shawnee Indians, 1698—1808, with Dates, Places, and References, ed., Occasional Papers in Muskingum Valley Archaeology, No. 15, Zanesville, Ohio, 1983, pp. 74-114.

Muskingum River Narratives Before 1800, ed. with Clyde K. Swift, Occasional Papers in Muskingum Valley Archaeology, No. 17, Zanesville, Ohio, 1984, 100 pp.

Stockport, Ohio: A Compendium of Historical Information, Stockport Sesquicentennial Committee, 1984, 379 pp.

Radiation in Illinois: A Chronology of Selected Events, 1700-1980, Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety, Springfield, Illinois, 1988, 48 pp.

“Why Come to Big Bottom?” Tallow Light, Washington County Historical Society, Marietta, Ohio, Vol. XXII, Vik XXUUm No. 4, January-March 1992, pp. 201 ff. (Speech delivered at Big Bottom State Park in 1991, in commemoration of the bicentennial of the Indian attack.)

Wolf Creek and the Muskingum: Notes on the Settlement of Southeastern Ohio, Gateway Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1996, 599 pp.

Triracial Groups at Cutler, Chesterhill, and Zanesville, Ohio, self-published, Springfield, Illinois, March 2000, 32 pp. Speech at McConnelsville, Ohio, March 13, 2000.

“Who Was Caleb Swan?” Elk Eye, Morgan County Historical Society, McConnelsville, Ohio, series beginning May 2005.

A Select Chronology of the Social and Genetic History of European and African Castaways, including Melungeons, Lumbee Indians, Blacks, Mulattos, and Triracials, with Descendants in the Muskingum Valley in Ohio, draft, 2007, 25 pp.

The Sandusky-Muskingum Indian Trail in Southeastern Ohio 1786-1807, from the Great Swamp to Fort Harmar, Lower Muskingum Historical Society, Beverly, Ohio, 2010, 142 pp. (Also published by the Morgan County Historical Society, McConnelsville, Ohio, and the Multicultural Genealogical Center, Chesterhill, Ohio.)