Five people stand together outside the Hopping family home in Wainscott in this early photograph taken after 1880. It comes from The East Hampton Star’s archive, and on its back it identifies the house and indicates that at least some of those pictured were members of the Hopping family.
To the left, however, stands a Black woman holding fabric, while a dog sits at her feet. This woman was recently identified as Mary Jane Mabry Walker (circa 1865-1942) by members of her family.
According to Jeannette Edwards Rattray’s book “East Hampton History and Genealogies,” Jacob O. Hopping (1840-1923) brought James Henry Walker and his wife, Mary Walker, to Wainscott in order for them to work for him and his family. While Mrs. Rattray does not provide a date for this move, it occurred sometime between 1880, when census records show that the couple lived in Henrico County, Va., and 1884, when their son James Henry Jr. (1884-1968) was born in Wainscott.
Hopping moved buildings for a living, and James Henry Walker Sr. may have worked with him, though he is described in various censuses as a highway laborer, gardener, and day laborer. Mary’s role would have focused on their home; by 1900 she had borne 14 children.
The 1902 E. Belcher Hyde atlas of Suffolk County indicates that James Henry and Mary owned a parcel of land on Sayre’s Path, next to the Hoppings. Mrs. Rattray reports that “Jim and Mary” could be heard singing together on summer evenings and that Mary was known for both an infectious laugh and having a calm head in emergencies. At least two of the Walker children and more than a dozen grandchildren were Wainscott residents at the time of Mary’s death in 1942.
Today, the Walker family remains in Wainscott, living on lands passed down through generations.
Moriah Moore is a librarian and archivist in the Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Library.
