ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — On the surface, Felix Walker sounds like another early frontier politician who drifted through Western North Carolina history.
But his story carries a surprising punchline: a Revolutionary War veteran tied to the region helped give American English the word “bunk.”
As July Fourth celebrations and America’s 250th anniversary observances continue to spotlight the nation’s founding era, Walker’s path runs through familiar mountain ground, including the early political landscape of Buncombe County and the frontier settlements that helped shape Western North Carolina.
From frontier youth to Revolutionary War soldier
Walker was born in Virginia in 1753 and moved with his family as a teenager into the North Carolina frontier. Like many young men of his era, his early life was shaped by migration, militia service and the westward push beyond the coastal settlements…