USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of representative men of Chicago, Minnesota cities and the World's Columbian exposition : with illustrations on steel. V. 2 > Part 30
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Among other cases in which Mr. Case has been successful, was the acquittal of Harvey Gurley, who was indicted for kidnapping Annie Red- mond; the recovery of $40,000, this being the largest personal injury verdict ever given in this country ; the securing of the divorce for T. P. Keefe from his wife, where she was found guilty of adultery ; the acquittal of Theodore Sutter, who was charged with murdering Henry Romag, and many other prominent cases. Mr. Case was the author and instigator of the short-cause calendar bill, and is at present the senior member of the well known law firm of Case, Hudd and Hogan, who occupy elegant offices in the Quinlan block.
J. B.Walker
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THOMAS BARLOW WALKER,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
W HILE the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, the invariable law of destiny accords to tireless energy and in- dustry a successful career.
The truth of this assertion is abundantly veri- fied in the life of Thomas B. Walker, . whose career forms a bright page in the book of human achievements. Every step in his brilliant career has been an honorable tribute to industry, hu- manity and Christian manhood. His early life and struggles were along the same pathway that Lincoln and Garfield walked; his later years and remarkable success came to him on the broad prairies and among the forests of the west. He was not a follower of beaten paths ; his courage, his intelligence, his ambition, all had the genuine ring, and he carved his fortune out of nature's bounteous gifts.
It is our grateful privilege to here unfold his life-a life that has been earnestly and successfully devoted to the highest and best efforts of human endeavor.
Mr. Walker was born at Xenia, Greene county, Ohio, on the Ist day of February, 1840, and is the third child and second son of Platt Bayless and Austis K. Barlow Walker.
His mother was the daughter of Hon. Thomas Barlow, of New York, and sister to Judge Thomas Barlow of the same state, and Judge Moses Bar- low, of Ohio. In later years she showed the sturdy stock from which she came, for though young in years and untrained in business, she made a brave struggle against adversity, and lived many years to enjoy the fruits of her labors, in the homes of her affectionate children. The last sixteen years of her life were passed in the home circle of her son Thomas, whence she passed away to her reward.
Very early in life the family fell under a cloud never to be lifted, in the untimely death of the husband and father on his way to the gold fields of California. This was a loss in two ways, for not only did it deprive the young family of the counsels and instructions of a father, but the whole fortune of the father was invested in an im- mense train of teams, goods, merchandise and
supplies for trade in that far-away market, which promised more in return to the fortunate party who could reach it in safety, than the gold fields themselves. Dreams of great wealth, quickly ac- quired, were attractive enough to influence the father to leave his young wife and four small children and start on this venturesome journey. But, alas, like hundreds and thousands of others of the old '48 and '49ers, he saw not the end from the beginning. Before his train had cleared the bounds of Missouri, cholera made its appearance in his camp, and the master of the enterprise lay down to die. The shadow of the dark day, which brought the bereaved family the tidings of their heavy loss, made an impression upon the nine- years-old subject of this sketch that has never been erased.
Commercial honor was at low ebb at this time, and so it fell out that of all the thousands in- vested in that train, nothing was ever returned to the family, who were by this double misfortune, reduced from a position of ease, to a necessity for early efforts at self-support. Out of this grew the necessity which made of Mr. Walker a busi- ness man while but a boy in years.
This brief reference to the respected parents of our honored subject will serve to reveal the sources of character, which are found in the events of his life, and enable us to appreciate in- herited energies and habits of usefulness, and to value the influence of example and practical Christianity.
The early days of Mr. Walker were given to industry and thoughtful study. The activity and bent of his mind may be inferred from the fact that he early developed a taste and capacity for the more advanced studies, especially for higher mathematics. He was not only a natural student but a practical one, and possessed all those quali- ties that are essential to a perfect mastery of the sciences. The adverse circumstances surrounding him in those early years made his opportunities for gaining knowledge from books extremely limited. But his was an honorable ambition, and obstacles only stimulated him to greater efforts. His thirst for knowledge was insatiable, and from
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every source he gleaned his valuable harvest of intelligent lore.
From his ninth to his sixteenth year, he put in his time between short terms in school and the various occupations open to small boys in a country village. In his sixteenth year the family moved to Berea, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, for the better educational advantages to be obtained at Baldwin University. This seems to have been the turning point in the life of Mr. Walker. He cast aside the thoughtless raiment of the boy, clothed himself in the garb of serious manhood, and fully appreciating the value of an education determined to obtain it at any cost. He was with- out means to pursue a collegiate course, but he never for a moment lost sight of his books. De- termination was the biggest bone in his body, and it was never bent in all his later years. Aside from his duties as clerk in a country store, every spare moment was rigidly devoted to study. Although his average attendance at school did not exceed one term each year, he kept pace with and often out stripped his regular college classes. During these years while employed as a com- mercial traveler, his heavy case of books consti- tuted his principal baggage.
Throughout life Mr. Walker has been a model of industry. He rightly considered idleness a vice, and in every period of life work was his special delight, for he fully realized that without persistent mental and physical labor, such as few men care to undertake, he could never hope to accomplish the destiny which his energy and am- bition had led him to desire. The department of knowledge in which he specially excelled, and in which he ultimately became eminent, was higher mathematics and its kindred branches, astronomy, chemistry and the mechanical arts. To these studies, earnestly pursued and laboriously ac- quired, he is indebted for that ability, which, in later life enabled him to direct, with singular fore- sight and perception, a career that has brought him so much distinction, honor and respect.
When nineteen years of age, Mr. Walker's com- mercial travels brought him to the little town of Paris, Illinois, where a profitable business venture opened up to him, in buying timber land and cut- ting cross-ties for the Terre Haute and St. Louis Railroad Company. Few boys of his age would have seen this business opening, and fewer still
would have thought it possible to overcome the obstacles in the way of the undertaking. We can hardly credit our senses when we think of a boy in his teens attempting that which to-day requires the ripe experience of manhood. He had but little business experience, a stranger in the community, without means, and depending entirely upon the credit, which he might be able to establish with local banks, for funds to prose- cute his great work. He has, probably, never in his later career of eminent enterprises, undertaken any transaction which required so much nerve and self-reliance, combined with consummate tact and sound judgment, as this "cross-tie " contract in the wild and pathless forests of Illinois.
In a brief time he had his plans matured, funds enlisted, contracts closed, boarding camps built, and the echo of the chopper's axe resounded through the forest.
The enterprise consumed eighteen months and was a pronounced success, both in point of me- chanical and financial bearing, but the failure of the company the same month the work was com- pleted robbed him of the well-earned fruits of his magnificent success, and left him only a few hundred dollars he had saved. Taking his small earnings he returned to his maternal home and books.
The following winter he spent in teaching a district school, in which calling he was highly successful. Being himself a careful student, practical, clear and direct in his views and aims, he was able to present knowledge and the intri- cacies of study in so plain and simple a form as to make everything easily understood by his pupils. He rightly considered the teacher's pro- fession above all others, since theirs was the power to make or mar the young and plastic character.
In 1862, entertaining the idea of making teach- ing a profession, he made application to the board of the Wisconsin State University for the chair of the assistant professorship of mathematics, to which he was subsequently elected. The action of the board being delayed, he made arrange- ments, before their favorable action was reported to him, to engage in the government surveys. At this time, while sojourning temporarily at Mc- Gregor, Iowa, Mr. Walker met a citizen of the then almost unknown village of Minneapolis.
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True to the acquired instincts of the Minneapolis citizen, this casual acquaintance, Mr. J. M. Rob- inson, so dilated on the beauty and prospects of the embryo city, that Mr. Walker decided at once to visit it, and accordingly took passage upon the first steamboat bound for St. Paul, thence over the whole length of the only line of railway in the State of Minnesota, a distance of nine miles, from St. Paul to Minneapolis.
One hour after his arrival he had engaged to go on a government survey, with the leading sur- veyor of the state, Mr. George B. Wright, and began active preparations for immediately taking the field.
Mr. Walker's impressions of Minneapolis were so favorable that he wrote back to his home in Ohio, and to his affianced wife, "I have found the spot where we will make our home."
The expedition, however, was destined to ter- minate disastrously. The Indian outbreak forced the party for safety into Fort Ripley. Mr. Walker returned to Minneapolis, devoting the winter to his books. He rented desk room in the office of Mr. L. M. Stewart, attorney, who said to him as he was leaving in the spring, "You have put in the hardest and best winter's work on your books that I ever saw a young man do."
The following season was spent in examining lands for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, and in the fall he returned to his home. Here, on the 19th day of December, 1863, in Berea, Ohio, by the Rev. J. Wheeler, his former college president, and brother-in-law to his wife, he was married to Harriet G., youngest daughter of Hon. Fletcher Hulet.
This marriage has been a happy one, and eight children have filled the home with the life and joy that only children can bring. Seven still re- main. The eldest, Gilbert, has been for some years associated with his father in business, hav- ing taken up heavy responsibilities since his nineteenth year, and shown by his successful oper- ations the result of his father's practical and thorough training from his earliest boyhood in business habits.
The second son, Leon, when but eighteen, just as he had joined his brother Gilbert in business, was stricken with brain fever, and death in one short week bereft the family of one tenderly loved, and whose cherished memory will live for-
ever in the hearts of the home circle. Two daughters and four younger sons yet remain at home.
All the married life of Mr. and Mrs. Walker has been spent in Minneapolis. Their first home- making here was full of trial, self-denial and hard labor for both, for Mr. Walker's business for many years, kept him .months together out of every year, away from his family and home. This, to the home-loving man, which he has ever been to a remarkable degree, was no slight trial, while it added infinitely to the labors, cares and responsi- bilities of the young wife. But they were united in their determination to own and possess a home, and to perform, without shrinking, the duties of life, whether light or heavy.
These were war days, and the high prices of the staples of life made the problem of saving and home-making none the easier to solve. But energy and determination won the fight, and not many seasons passed before they were in a home of their very own.
The summer of 1864 was spent in running the first trial line of the St. Paul and Duluth railroad, after which, for a number of years, he gave his attention wholly to government surveys.
In 1868, Mr. Walker began his first ventures in pine lands. His knowledge of the vast tracts of unlocated pine forests of the State of Minnesota, gained in his vocation as surveyor of government lands, strongly impressed him with their immense value. The mighty fields of wealth and enter- prise, thus opened up by Mr. Walker, was regarded at this time with little or no interest by the lead- ing lumber men of Minneapolis.
What a change has come over their vision since those days. How well they recognize the prophetic wisdom of Mr. Walker to-day, and well they may, for he owns more valuable pine lands to-day than any man in the broad west.
His first pine-land partners were the Hon. L. Butler and Howard W. Mills, under the firm name of Butler, Mills and Walker. They furnished the capital and Mr. Walker furnished the brains, labor and experience, and the lands thus found and located became the joint property of the three.
From this date, during a series of years, the labor of Mr. Walker was severe and unremitting. He planned gigantic lumber enterprises and
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carried them forward with a determination that brooked no physical opposition. All lands se- cured he located from personal examination, which kept him in the forests with his men, many months at a time cach year, for ten consecutive years. He modestly passes over the privations and hardships that attended him through all these years, but those who know aught of his life, in the pathless forests of a rigorous climate, can re- alize what he must have endured. In connection with his surveys and pine land enterprises, Mr. Walker is extensively engaged throughout various sections of the northwest in the manufacturing of lumber.
He has been largely interested in the old Butler, Mills and Walker Lumber Company, afterwards L. Butler and Company, and later, Butler and Walker. He was interested in all the mills built by the firms on the Falls of St. An- thony, and afterwards in the formation of the Camp and Walker Company, who purchased the large Pacific Mills, which were afterwards de- stroyed by fire, and later rebuilt into the most important and finest mills in the city or upon the upper Mississippi. Of late years he has been the principal owner of the large lumber mills which he built at Crookston, Minnesota, and Grand Forks, Dakota, both of which are most promi- nent factors in the development of the north- west. All of these mills furnished employment to thousands of men for many years, while those located in the Red River Valley reduced the price of lumber, and aided very materially in the development of that section of the country.
It may be remarked in this connection that Mr. Walker's life-long business carcer, although emi- nently prosperous and successful has, neverthe- less, on several occasions suffered severely by disasters from fire and flood. His career has been remarkable for originality of method, strict busi- ness integrity and honorable regard for others' rights. His word has always been as good as his bond.
Extremely liberal in the use of his wealth, his charities are unlimited. And Mrs. Walker, pos- sessing all the sterling qualities of heart and mind that have made her Christian husband so distinguished, is perfectly in accord with the no- ble sentiments that prompt Mr. Walker to con- ceal from the left hand the charity dispensed by
his right. Mrs. Walker is truly a noble woman, endowed with all the choicest gifts of Christian humanity. Her devotion to the sufferings of worthy humanity has won her the unqualified respect and gratitude of an entire city. At the time of the grasshopper visitation, by which the farmers of the western part of the state of Minne- sota were reduced to a condition of poverty and semi-starvation, Mr. Walker's efforts in behalf of these starving people should have been inscribed upon the living records of a grateful state. Im- mediately after the grasshoppers had passed, he organized a scheme for the raising of state crops, that was of inestimable valuc to the farmers, and averted the threatened famine. He bought up all the turnip seed, and likewise all the buckwheat to be had in the Twin Cities, and then telegraphed to Chicago for all that was on sale there. In this labor of love, Mr. Walker himself visited the afflicted territory, making up the seed into pack- ages, and with hired teams conducted personally a systematic distribution of his benevolence over the afflicted counties. The season was so far ad- vanced that only these crops could be attempted, and it proved a most timely aid to hundreds of families and numberless cattle. When the free distribution of these seeds became known in the suffering districts, many of the farmers walked fifteen and twenty miles to meet the teams, and thus avail themselves of Mr. Walker's beneficence.
Mr. Walker's life has, from a very early period, been strongly influenced by good libraries. When only a boy, he was one day observed by a Cath- olic priest, who was an inmate of the same house, to be much of his spare time reading the trashy, extravagant stories of adventures by land and sea, that at that time constituted almost the only provision of entertaining reading for young boys. Good old Father Blake took the time and trouble to explain to him the effects of such reading on the mind, the waste of time and opportunities, and urged him to take up a different class of books. He went farther than this, and took the boy to his own private library, selected such books as he thought most likely to attract his at- tention, laid for him a course of reading, and indicated certain other lines that in his judgment were well to avoid. This slight service opened up to his young and active mind a new field of thought and research, and he never again returned
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to the yellow-colored trash that has been the ruin of so many boys. How many lives might be moulded by the " right word at the right time," if only the right person would speak it.
In Berea books were plentiful, and again when Mr. Walker began his timber contract work in Paris, Illinois, one of his first discoveries was the circulating library of that enterprising little city. From this source he drew quantities of books, both for himself and for numbers of his em- ployés whom he succeeded in interesting in read- ing and study. And towards this Paris circulating library he has through all the years cherished a grateful remembrance and affection.
On his arrival in Minneapolis, Mr. Walker was not slow to discover the Athenaeum Library and establishing relations therewith that enabled him to draw upon its at that time exceedingly slender resources. The reports show that at that time the library consisted of four hundred and fifty volumes. From Mr. Walker's long absence from the city for several years, in the prosecution of his surveys and pine land enterprises, his active connection with the Athenæum Association other than a shareholder and reader, did not commence until the year 1877. But before this time he had felt that the usefulness of the library was much circumscribed by its close corporation, which very largely confined its benefits to the narrow circle of actual stockholders and their families, the majority of whom were in condition to stand very little in need of its use. It was not, there- fore, a popular institution, nor one of great benefit to the mass of the people who most stood in need of it. It is on this account that we find recorded in the books of the Athenaeum at various times during those first years, a complaint of lack of interest, lack of support, and small number of patrons of the library, and frequent urgent ap- peals to the public to purchase shares and become participants in its benefits. The board of di- rectors and librarian were strongly opposed to any movement looking towards making it a real public library, and steadily contested any effort in that direction. They unanimously decided that "this library could in no sense fill the place of a public library in catering to the taste for popular fiction."
At the annual meeting in February, 1877, was begun a movement, which resulted in the develop-
ment of the public library scheme, and the con- struction of the magnificent building in which the Athenaum is now so satisfactorily located. This movement originated with Mr. Walker, who for some time prior to the annual meeting, con- sulted with numbers of the old original stock- holders, and, with the hearty approval of nearly all who were consulted, received their proxies with which to elect a board of officers favorable to the most liberal policy consistent with the welfare of the library. The movement was op- posed by Mr. Thomas Hale Williams, who, with a few adherents, attempted to secure proxies enough to counteract the movement and prevent the con- summation of what he considered a revolutionary scheme. But Mr. Walker's proxies, together with the direct votes of many shareholders who attended the meeting, greatly outnumbered those of Mr. Williams, and a board was elected con- sisting of Prof. O. V. Tousley, president ; Rev. J. H. Tuttle, vice-president ; Rev. H. A. Stimson, secretary ; Thomas Hale Williams, treasurer and librarian ; directors: H. G. Harrison, S. C. Gale and T. B. Walker. At that meeting was also passed a resolution allowing the regular ten dollar memberships to be sold on the basis of three dollars cash and the remainder in annual installments of one dollar each, subject, as other memberships, to the annual assessment, which had formerly been three dollars, but was at this meet- ing reduced to one dollar and fifty cents.
The new directory pulled out the several par- titions on the library floor of the building and changed it into a large reading room ; took the books from side shelves and put them in alcoves ; made the reading room free for general use, and in every respect placed it within the reach of those who were most in need of library accommo- dations, as far as consistent with the interests of the association. The library hours were extended from five P. M. to nine P. M., and the public in- vited to a free use of the room.
The charge for readers (not shareholders) was reduced from ten cents to five cents per week. The reading room was also opened on Sundays in order to gather in those who might otherwise 'be disposed to frequent saloons or other evil places. Miss Grace Lyon was appointed assistant libra- rian, to aid Mr. Williams in extra work caused by the increased use of the library.
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The opponents of the new management raised a question of the legal right of the stockholders to issue memberships without the full payments being made in cash, the methods of selling shares on time ·was dispensed with, and a resolution passed by the stockholders authorizing the issu- ance of certificates at the price of four dollars each, which entitled the holder to all the advan- tages of the library, excepting the right to vote, and subject to the same annual assessment as regu- lar memberships.
During this and the three preceding years, there was carried on through the press a vigorous discussion regarding the management of the library during that time, and the course of Mr. Walker was criticized in controlling the elections and policy of the association through the agency of the proxies which he had at first gathered up, and afterwards by the agency of nearly one hun- dred regular memberships which he purchased for the treble purpose of avoiding the proxy trouble, and also to furnish money to help cover the de- ficiencies in the increased expenditures, and to use the certificates for loaning to persons not able to purchase and pay assessments. It was claimed that the course pursued was the subversion of the rights of the stockholders, and, while admitting that it was being done with the approval of a large majority of members, that it was wrong to pur- sue the course opposed by one or more members. In one published communication the writer said : " The inviting of the whole town to use the library is a greater violation of the rights of share- holders than the manner of selling shares-in the one case the shareholders derive some benefit from the sale of shares, but in the other they have nothing-they have been prevented from using what belongs to them." In another the writer said : " It was not intended for a loafing place for tramps to read, but where any person who was a shareholder could find a pleasant place to read or obtain such information as they desired, which could be found in books ; " and again, " I see no more reason for having free reading than free soup, especially when the reading has to be stolen from its rightful owners."
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