DUANE
Duane's take
The marker in Lampasas tells it, and I'm just the one passin' it along — this is the story of Walter P. Acker. Now, some men ease into history slow and quiet.
Walter Acker was not that kind of man. He joined the Confederate Army in Paulding, Mississippi at sixteen years old. Sixteen.
Whatever that war asked of a boy that age, Acker gave it. By 1875, the war was long over and Walter Acker rode into Lampasas — not as a soldier this time, but as an attorney, with his second wife, Elizabeth, beside him. A new town, a new chapter, and apparently the man had no intention of slowing down.
Lampasas took notice. In 1878, they elected him district attorney. Then in 1883, he was off to the state legislature as a representative.
And if you thought he might settle into a rocking chair after that, well — in 1901, the people of Lampasas elected him mayor. But here's the thing about Walter Acker: he wasn't done moving. In 1910, he packed up and headed east to Harris County, and darned if Harris County didn't send him right back to the State Legislature — three more terms.
And then comes 1930. That year, Walter P. Acker was honored as the last Confederate veteran to serve in the Texas Legislature.
Think on that for a moment. A boy who'd picked up a rifle in Paulding, Mississippi, was still standing in the halls of Texas government decades later. He died at the Confederate Home in Austin.
A long road from a Mississippi enlistment at sixteen — and he traveled every mile of it.
What the marker says
Walter Acker joined the Confederate Army in Paulding, Mississippi at age 16. He arrived in Lampasas in 1875 as an attorney with his second wife, Elizabeth. He was elected district attorney in 1878. state representative in 1883, and mayor in 1901. In 1910 Acker moved to Harris County and served three terms in the State Legislature from that district. In 1930 he was honored as the last confederate veteran to serve in the Texas Legislature. He died at the Confederate Home in Austin