Cook-Grundy County IL Archives Biographies.....Walker, Charles  1802 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com April 29, 2006, 2:57 am

Author: Chicago Magazine

Charles Walker, Esq.

The subject of this sketch is a descendent of an old and wealthy English 
family of some note, who, in Cromwell's time, were portioned upon the Tweeds 
and called by the significant name of Borderers; members of which were among 
the earliest adventurers to this country, for we find mention made of his more 
immediate ancestors, as settlers in the Eastern part of New England, as early 
as 1640.

Col. William W. Walker, the father of Charles, is a native of Massachusetts. 
His father, who was a noted cattle dealer, at an early day moved his family to 
Ringe, New Hampshire, from which place Col. Walker emigrated at the age of 21, 
having little, or no capital, save his trusty axe and that hardy education 
which ever characterised the early sons of New England. Admiring the country 
of Central New York, he located in Plainfield, Otsego County, then but a 
wilderness. Here he became acquainted with a Miss Lucretia Ferrill, also a 
native of Massachusetts, whom he subsequently married, and with whom he has 
now lived upwards of fifty-five years. Though an Octogenarian, COL. Walker is 
still in the full enjoyment of all his faculties, having in his life-time 
filled many important political stations, been prominent and active in the 
Church, ready to lend a helping hand to all worthy benevolent objects, and at 
the same time secured to himself a competence and the universal respect and 
esteem of his fellow citizens.

Charles is the oldest son of William W. and Lucretia Walker, and was born 
February 2, 1802. The country being new, as we have before stated, his 
educational advantages were necessarily very limited. To a new log school 
house, which a few enterprising farmers had built, the young lad was sent, at 
the early age of six years, to gain those elementary lessons, which have been 
turned to such practical account through a long life of usefulness. Inheriting 
a vigorous constitution, and withal an active and inquiring mind, together 
with uncommon diligence, he not only performed an unusual amount of manual 
labor upon his father's farm, but made most rapid progress in his studies. 
Improving his advantages to the utmost during three months in the year, he 
studied with his teacher during the day, and with his parents during the long 
winter evenings. Though as a boy among boys in these juvenile days, his vigor 
of mind and decision of purpose was such, that notwithstanding his limited 
advantages, we find he was qualified for, and entered upon the duties of 
teacher at the early age of l5; and from that time forward continued in the 
same vocation during the winter months until he attained his majority, with 
uncommon success. He may well, we think, look back upon that era of his life, 
with peculiar pride and pleasure, as he now recognizes the names of many of 
his old pupils among the distinguished men, of the East and West. While thus 
engaged, then 18 years of age, he commenced the study of law, but soon found 
the sedentary habits of that profession not stated to his temperament, with 
the advice of his physicians he relinquished that idea and turned his 
attention to more active pursuits, we next hear of him riding through the 
country, daring the summer months, making purchases of sheep and cattle for 
his father.

At twenty-one, his health being then much impaired, he resolved to enter the 
mercantile business, and to that end hired himself out to a friend as clerk 
for a short time, at the very moderate salary of eight dollars per month. It 
did not, however, require a long clerkship for him to become a complete master 
of that merchant's method of doing business, and in two months he had fully 
determined to start in business for himself the following spring.

In the spring of 1824, with $1,350 aggregate capital, compiled of $350 of his 
own private funds, $500 given him by his father, being in fact his own 
earnings, and $500 loaned of a neighboring farmer, he started for the city of 
New York, with no letters of credit, reference or recommendation; and the 
following May opened his store upon the economical plan of doing his own work, 
and soon after made his first purchase of grain. The next spring, when he went 
East to make his purchases, he made his first appearance at the Bull's Head 
Cattle Yard, New York, where the Bowery Theatre now stands, with a fine drove 
of fat cattle. By close and judicious management business prospered till 1824. 
But shipping in the fall of that year a large amount of cheese, butter and 
pork, to a southern market, the cheese became damaged at sea, and through the 
mismanagement of agents, and the misapplication of funds, nearly all the 
accumulated fruits of four years laborious toil were swept away.

But by attending personally to the sales in New York, and the purchases at 
home, business flourished till '32, when a sudden decline in the price of 
provisions occasioned another heavy loss. But from 1833 to '34, large 
operations in all the leading products, attended by a steady and gradual rise, 
brought to a successful termination all his business operations. In the spring 
of '33, being in New York, he accidentally became a purchaser from a cargo of 
raw hides from Buenos Ayres, which he was enabled to obtain upon favorable 
terms; but upon getting them home, and finding they were somewhat injured and 
could not be turned into the New York market without serious loss, he hit upon 
the expedient of manufacturing them into boots and shoes, and disposing of 
them at the fall Indian payments at Chicago; in furtherance of which plan, his 
brother, Mr. Almond Walker was in due time sent on, who opened his assorted 
stock of guns, boots, shoes and leather, at Fort Dearborn, in the autumn of 
1834.

By this adventure his attention was turned toward the West, where he soon saw 
and appreciated her undeveloped resources; and early the ensuing Spring—now 
twenty-one years ago—he was on his way to this city, with ready means, 
enlarged and liberal views, an extensive business experience and acquaintance, 
in the vigor of manhood, with a wide spread and favorable reputation at the 
East, to unite his fortunes with the destinies, and contribute his energies to 
the development of the unknown resources, of this, then lake shore village. 
Among his first operations here was the buying of several lots of real estate, 
among which was the purchase of John S. Wright, Esq, the corner of Clark, and 
South Water Street, in connection with Capt. Bigelow, of Boston, and Jones, 
King & Co., of Chicago, for the sum of $15,000, cash; which was considered by 
many at that time, a most visionary speculation. Some days subsequent to 
making this purchase, after reconnoitering in the country, he publicly avowed 
the then bold opinion that Chicago was destined to be the great city of the 
inland seas, and in test of his faith in this prediction, immediately set 
about making this city the principal point for his future operations. In 
May, '35, while on his way to Chicago, being detained at St. Josephs, there 
being no regular means of conveyance across the lake at that time, he made 
several purchases of hides from the flat boats and butchers' stalls for the 
Eastern market, to which were subsequently added purchases made in and about 
Chicago; this shipment, it is believed, is the first ever made from the State 
of Illinois to any point as far east as Utica or Albany.

The next year he established business in Chicago with the late E. B. Hurlburt, 
Esq., under the firm of "Walker & Co.," upon South Water street, for importing 
implements of husbandry and household utensils from the East, together with a 
store of general merchandise taking in exchange the various products of the 
West. During this period he was much of the time riding through the country, 
on horseback, as far north as Green Bay, locating government lands at the Four 
Lakes, (now Madison) Beloit, and other points on the Rock and Milwaukie Rivers.

The next year came the terrible financial revulsions of '37, when ruin and 
desolation swept the whole country, those who sat in the high places of wealth 
and affluence were drawn irresistably into the maelstrom of utter insolvency. 
Banks, like business men, came down with a crash, and the depreciation of 
currency produced ruinous confusion in the mediums of exchange, but Mr. Walker 
was one of the very few men, extensively engaged in business, who stood up 
against the storm; though he had to bring to bear his best energies and most 
expert financial skill, for maturing liabilities pressed hard upon him, and 
his name was largely endorsed upon the paper of other men; had not his 
reputation in Eastern commercial circles been of the best character, he would 
certainly have been swamped with thousands of others. But he found, in this 
emergency, that the relation he thus held as an important commercial medium 
between the merchant and artizan of the East, and the pioneer husband man of 
tbe West, of immeasurable advantage. The extensive and favorable business 
reputation he enjoyed among the leading men an banks of the East, aa well as 
tbe confidence of the dealers of the West, enabled him to greatly enlarge his 
operations. To prevent the necessity of purchasing Eastern drafts at ruinous 
rates, he adopted tbe plan of purchasing the products of the country with the 
depreciated currency of the West, and made his extensive shipments of products 
the medium of exchange through which to meet his Eastern liabilities. Thus he 
was enabled to prevent the entire stagnation of business at home, preserve his 
reputation abroad, and in a few years of almost unprecedented vigilance and 
activity, to entirely overcome all his embarrassments.

The next year his firm purchased a few bags of grain of the surrounding 
farmers, which were sent to his mills in Otsego county, New York; this 
shipment of wheat, we believe, was the first ever made from Chicago to so 
Eastern a market.

During this period, though making Chicago the principal theatre of his labors, 
he was yet a resident of the State of New York, dividing his time nearly 
equally between this city, his home in Otsego Co., New York City, and 
traveling on business. In '39 the famous struggle between tbe old Safety Fund, 
and the so-called Red Dog, or free banking system, was at its height. As a 
Representative from his native county he was sent to the Legislature. Carrying 
with him tbe same comprehensive and far-seeing viewss as a legislator, that 
ever characterized him as a business man, he was instrumental, in no small 
degree, in carrying through, though opposed by the great preponderance of tbe 
money power of the State, that deservedly popular system of redemption and 
exchange, which has since that time been in effect.

Each succeeding year his business in Chicago continued to increase, so that in 
1840 his shipments had so much enlarged, that in the purchase of hides and 
skins alone, he not only exhausted his supply of merchandize, but was obliged 
to bring money from the East. In 1842, he established a partnership with Cyrus 
Clark, Esq., of Utica, under the firm of Walker & Clark, for receiving Western 
produce; to bring himself nearer the chief point of business, he resolved to 
close out his affairs in Otsego County, and in May, 1845, he removed his 
family to our city.

In 1847 came the great crisis in tbe grain trade which carried down the oldest 
and best houses in the Union. Though not escaping without some most terrible 
losses that would have intimidated ordinary men; with a courage undaunted bv 
reverses—with a nerve and will, equal to the emergency, his craft was guided 
to a safe anchorage from the fearful breakers that engulphed his less 
fortunate competitors; and his firm continued to hold its position as the 
leading grain and produce house in the West.

In 1851 it was found that C. Walker & Sons, of Chicago, Walker & Kellog, of 
Peoria, and Walker & Clark, of Buffalo, were the largest purchasers of grain 
from the farmers in the United States. So that the few bags of grain, which in 
1839 were sent on their eastern journey and the few bushels of 1824, had in 
1851, grown to l,500,000 bushels.

At this period a severe attack of that malignant disease, the cholera, 
destroyed his health and compelled him to leave the financial management of 
the business to his oldest son, who continued the same under the firm of C. 
Walker & Son and C. Walker & Sons till 1855, when he retired from the business 
altogether, leaving it to his two sons and others, who continue the same under 
the firm of Walker, Bronson & Co., prosecuting the business with all the vigor 
of its founder, this firm have, during the past year, handled over five and a 
quarter million of bushels of grain, an amount, we think, which will bear 
comparison with that of any other establishment in our own country or in 
Europe. Mr. Walker retires, we understand, the oldest grain merchant in the 
Union, having steadily remained in one of the most hazardous speculations in 
the world over thirty-one years. Acting upon the principle that he who can so 
cheapen and make efficient the avenues of trade, as to bring the productions 
of the country so much nearer a market, that the farmer can receive but one 
penny more the bushel for his grain, brings millions to his country, he feels 
amply repaid for the great risks he has run; and whatever benefit may have 
accrued to himself, that he has rendered an ample equivalent to those whom he 
has served.

While thus engaged as a pioneer in his own peculiar business he has been none 
the less efficient in promoting works of public utility. Prominent in all 
those great schemes which do so much towards developing the resources of the 
country, he has ever been one of the foremost in opening up and turning to 
account those great thoroughfares which vein our broad prairies, and wind 
their deep channels through our hills and valleys, and which, with each throb 
of animated industry, quicken into life new avenues of trade, turning their 
accumulated wealth to swell the commercial tide that has so strongly set to 
the heart of our western metropolis.

When the Galena Rail Road was resuscitated, in 1847, Mr. Walker, was chosen 
one of its Directors. He entered into the project with all his heart. In its 
gloomiest days his faith never filtered; his confidence in the ability of the 
country to build the road, never failed. When it was found that more 
subscriptions were necessary, he as one of a Committee for soliciting 
additional subscriptions, traversed the country westward, and as far north as 
Beloit. His coarage never wavered. When, in its darkest days, at a meeting of 
the Board, all confidence seemed to have departed from a majority of the 
Directors, he, with two or three others, remained firm in his confidence that 
the work would go through without failure. "A Committee of the Believing," was 
appointed to take measures to present immediate disaster, composed of himself, 
J. Y. Scammon, Esq., and one other. Their measures were successful; and when, 
on the return of its President, Mr. Ogden, from New York, it became necessary 
that the Directors should become individually liable for a large sum of money, 
to secure the iron to lay the first division of the Road; Mr. Walker did not 
hesitate to be among the first to do so; and to the credit of the Board, be it 
said, that all the Chicago Directors, but one, pledged their individual 
liability for the progress of the work. Mr. Walker, has remained in the 
Directory from the first, taking an active part in the construction and 
management of the road.

In February, 1856, the enterprise of pushing forward, across Iowa the 
counterpart of the Galena Railroad, was projected; and the Chicago, Iowa & 
Nebraska Railroad was organized, having its eastern termination at the voting 
and growing town of Clinton, on the western bank of the Mississippi. Of this 
company Mr. Walker is one of the main directors and its president, and if the 
work be prosecuted, and who doubts it will, with the same sound sense, and 
untiring vigor that has characterised the whole life of its President, what 
better guarantee could be given of its ultimate success.

Though now ostensibly retired from business, and impaired in health, he still 
stands foremost among the public-spirited men who seek to blend schemes for 
their own advantage with plans of the greatest public utility. During the past 
summer, he has, in connection with others, erected and put in operation at 
Beloit, Wis., an excellent paper mill and a large reaper manufactory, and from 
a superior quality of clay upon his own farm in Morris, Ill., he has commenced 
the manufacture of "Green Mountain Ware," expecting, in time, to supply 
Chicago and the North-West with a quality of stone ware equal to any in the 
United States. He is also largely engaged in farming in the interior.

Animated by the conviction, that he who does the most towards opening up and 
diffusing the great channels of trade, so that the poor man's labor will gain 
a level with the rich man's capital, is a practical philanthrophist, he has 
been in theory and practice a thorough utilitarian. In private life a plain 
man and thoroughly democratic, he recites the incidents of his boyhood and 
early struggles with a degree of well-earned satisfaction, and none is more 
ready in every consistent way, with kind words or material countenance and 
aid, to cheer onward honest and persevering industry. From the first a 
faithful and influential member of the Church and most exemplary man, we think 
we do no injustice to any other citizen to say, that while we are frank to 
concede there are others who have added to themselves greater wealth, to none 
is Chicago more indebted for her unexampled prosperity than to him.

In closing this brief notice of one so highly esteemed, we may fitly add the 
words of another: "In the internal improvements which have done so much to 
develop the exhaustless resources of the State—in Rail Road enterprises, which 
have poured a flood-tide of wealth and business into our commercial metropolis 
of the North West, in every public work, whose intention and effect was to 
build up and promote the healthful growth of the city, he has ever been in the 
foremost rank of public spirited men. In short, taking into consideration the 
varied incidents of his active life, his indomitable perseverance and 
industry, and the financial ability he has exhibited. Mr. Charles Walker has 
had few equals and no superiors, as a skillful business man and a good 
citizen."

Additional Comments:
Source: Chicago Magazine, The West As It Is, Vol. 1, March 1857, No. 1


Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/cook/photos/bios/walker659nbs.jpg

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/cook/bios/walker659nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/

File size: 19.3 Kb