1838-49: Childhood

Cyrus Walker was born at the Whitman Mission of Waiilatpu in 1838. He was the first baby boy born to two white parents in the Pacific Northwest. 

His mother and father, Mary Richardson and Elkanah Walker, were Presbyterian missionaries who hoped to evangelize the Native tribes of the Pacific Northwest. In 1838, they journeyed to what was then called the "Oregon Territory" with the support of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) . Cyrus was born during their first winter, which they spent  at the home of fellow missionaries, Narcissa and Marcus Whitman. The Walkers soon moved about 150 miles north, where they attempted to convert members of the Spokane tribe to Christianity. While they enjoyed relatively friendly relations with the Spokane, they never succeeded in gaining any converts. 

Cyrus lived at Tshimakain for the first ten years of his life. The area was primarily Native in population, with few white inhabitants. He grew up speaking English and some Spokane, as well as what was then known as "Chinook Jargon," a language used in trade between groups of diverse backgrounds.

The family's life changed drastically after their friends, the Whitmans, were killed in a dispute with the Cayuse in 1847. Fearing that a general uprising of Native peoples might follow, the Walkers abandoned their mission and evacuated to Oregon City. The next year, they moved to a permanent home in a fledgling community in the West Tualatin Plains of Oregon. The small village where they took a land claim would later be called Forest Grove. This was peaceful farming community that was already home to several other ex-missionary families. When the Walkers moved in, the town was in the midst of opening a college preparatory school named Tualatin Academy. Cyrus and his siblings would be among the first students of this school. Cyrus would later be one of its first graduates. The Walker Family later donated part of their land claim towards the growth of the school, helping to establish the college program at Pacific University.