Catherine Louella Walker is one of six children and the oldest daughter of William Walker and Mary Carrick (or Carrack). She was born September 30, 1810 in Tennessee and was living in Jackson County, AL when she met and married her husband Matthew Washington in 1831. Matthew and Catherine were married for 31 years and had either 11 or 12 children. Most are buried in the Washington cemetery in Stevenson, and those who are not are buried in Jackson County. Of these 12 children, Catherine outlived six of them; two of them died in infancy, two of them died of war injuries, and two died of illness and disease. Only three of them ever married: Amanda in 1860 before the war, Kate around 1966 immediately after the war, and Sallie in 1884. It is sad that a family so rich in sons as that of Matthew and Catherine had no descendants who carried the Washington name. In addition to raising their own children, Catherine and Matthew raised either one or two of the children of George and Betsy Walker, Catherine's brother Matthew died relatively early in the Civil War, on May 14, 1862 while trying to protect his assets from the approaching army.
After Matthew died, Catherine was left with a house full of little children to survive the war alone. The three older boys (William, John, and Matthew Lemuel) were part of the Confederate army, all serving in the same company, and two of them died from illness or injury sustained in the war. Less than year after Matthew's death, one of the three Washington sons fighting for the South, Matthew Lemuel, only 17 when the war started, returned home to die of tuberculosis July 27, 1863. And we have evidence that on May 1, l864 for some time period, the Ninth Regiment Illinois Infantry of the Union Army under General Logan occupied the Washington farm and home. The army occupied her home and consumed the resources she had set aside to maintain her family. She seems to have dealt bravely and resourcefully with the occupation, finding a way to remind the Northern general of her husband's Masonic ties to keep her children housed and fed. Kate Bradford wrote that "During the Civil War the Washington home was used by Federal soldiers as headquarters. The officers occupied the house and the soldiers were in tents surrounding the house. Grandmother and the ones at home were living on rations, carried by Frank, then nine years old from Stevenson. I mentioned this fact that while the northern officers lived in my grandmother's house the food was rationed. One day where the situation seemed desperate, Grandmother went upstairs and brought down the Masonic Apron, gloves, and sash that belonged to her husband and showed them to General Logan who was also a Mason. The rations were increased and no more did she send the children back for food. (This is complimentary to the Masons.) They lived in one large family room and a small room used as a nursery adjoining. They pretended that some of the children were sick in bed during that time to keep the northern army from burning the house." When the war was over, son John Lawrence came home, but had to be carried from the train to the family home. He never recovered from his war injuries and died July 4, 1869 as result of injuries he suffered during the Civil War. At the start of the Civil War, Matthew Washington was a wealthy man, with farmer with property valued at $85,000 and ownership of 10 slaves (most of whom were children). The family lost much in the war, and was forced to sell land to pay debts in 1866.
By 1870 the boys had moved out of the family home to locations closer to their work, and in the 1870 census, Catherine and the girls are living alone in the family home. However, by the 1880 census, son William had moved back home. He was suffering from Bright's disease that caused his death in 1888, so perhaps he had moved back home by 1880 so that his mother and sisters could look after him as his health grew worse. Sallie married in 1884 and William died in 1888. Catherine continued to live in the family home until her death September 27, 1895. She is buried in the Washington Cemetery in Wannville with her husband and children. Her obituary in the Alabama Herald on October 3, l895, said: "Mrs. Catherine Washington died at her home near Wannville last week. Mrs. Washington had lived out her three score and ten, and her husband had long preceded her to the grave. She had been in feeble health for a long time and her death was not unexpected. She leaves several children and a host of friends to mourn her loss. Mrs. Washington was an o1d mother in Israel, and goes to receive her reward."