Bio of WALKER, Thomas Barlow (b.1840), Hennepin Co., MN
=========================================================================
USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information
on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities,
as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is
obtained from the contributor of the file.
These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or
presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to
use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written
consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter,
and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent.

If you have found this file through a source other than the MNArchives 
Table Of Contents you can find other Minnesota related Archives at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm
Please note the county and type of file at the top of this page to find 
the submitter information or other files for this county.
FileFormat by Terri--MNArchives

Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Laura Pruden
Submitted: June 2003
=========================================================================
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
========================================================
submitted by Laura Pruden, email Raisndustbunys@aol.com
========================================================

EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical

Vol III, pg 8-14
THOMAS BARLOW WALKER
The great achievements of American manhood in all parts of our country have been
the subjects of an oft-told tale, but it is one that never loses its interest.
The manner in which many of our leading men in industrial life have raised
themselves to consequence and affluence and built up gigantic enterprises for
the development of our natural resources, giving employment to hosts of toilers,
magnifying our com­mercial greatness along widely beneficent lines and keeping
the wheels of production in motion for the benefit of all the people, contains
in its exposition elements of in­terest and inspiration that never grow stale or
pall on the taste.
Many of these men have contended with serious opposition and confronted almost
insuperable obstacles. But they have been made of the stuff that yields to no
pressure of circumstances, and have made, even of their difficulties, wings and
weapons for their advancement. One of the most illustrious examples of this
fiber is Thomas Barlow Walker of Minneapolis, for many years a leading lumberman
of the world. The story of his rise from a small beginning, over great and
continued trials and impediments, to the commanding rank he now holds in the
industrial and commercial world, is full of encouragement for struggling young
men, and shows in a graphic and impressive way the possibilities open to ability
and enterprise in this land of almost boundless resources and opportunities.
Mr. Walker was born in Xenia, Greene county, Ohio, on February 1, 1840, the son
of Platt Bayliss and Anstis (Barlow) Walker. He obtained his early education in
the public schools and through the teachings of his mother. When he was sixteen
years of age the family moved to Berea, Cuyahoga county, in his native state, in
order that the mother might secure better educational advantages for her
children. She was a lady of great force of character and breadth of view, and
belonged to a strongly intellectual family, two of her brothers being judges for
many years, Thomas Barlow in New York and Moses Barlow in Ohio. Her husband died
on his way to California in 1849, leaving her to struggle with adversity and
provide for her four children, who were all young.
At Berea, Mr. Walker had the advantages of several terms attendance at Bald­win
University, but was obliged to devote all his spare time to his first occupation
as a lumberman in the woods. While working in the woods he studied nights and
Sundays, and later, when he became a traveling salesman, he carried his books
with him and studied them as industriously as his work would allow. In this way
he became in a measure self-educated, especially in the higher branches of
mathematics and science. His business knowledge was gained by travel and
experience, contact with business men, studying business methods, solving big
problems, and pushing himself forward in the world generally, in which he
employed all his ability, courage and self-reliance to advantage and with good
judgment.
At the age of nineteen, after various business adventures, always attended with
hard work and generally with success, he taught a district school in a township
in the adjoining county. He next became a traveling salesman, selling
grindstones, wooden bowls and wagon spokes, and journeying throughout the middle
west to sell his goods. He was so much impressed with the business possibilities
of this region that he determined to make his home in it, and in 1862 located in
Minneapolis. Soon afterward he Joined a surveying party and began work as a
United States surveyor.
While this engagement occupied him only a part of each year he continued in it a
long time, and during the period helped to survey a considerable portion of
northern and western Minnesota, and divide it into townships and sections. His
experience in it was of great advantage to himself and the country in a business
way. It made him familiar with the white pine regions of the state, and led him
to begin purchasing tracts of them, in connection with other persons, for the
manu­facture of lumber, thus changing his purpose of devoting his energies to
railroad surveying and construction and making him a lumberman on a very large
scale.
In the lumber business, he formed a partnership with Levi Butler and Howard
Mills under the firm name of Butler, Mills & Walker, of which he was the
manager. Failing health took Mr. Mills out of the firm when its mills were
destroyed by fire, and a new firm was organized under the name of L. Butler &
Company. This firm built one of the largest sawmills on the Mississippi and did
a very extensive manu­facturing business for several years. In 1877 Mr. Walker
and Major George A. Camp formed the well known firm of Camp & Walker and bought
the Pacific mill, long operated by Joseph Dean & Company, and considered at that
time one of the leading lumber mills in this part of the world.
Mr. Walker's mind has always been expansive and broad of vision. In 1880 he
began to purchase large quantities of pine land on the head waters of Red Lake
and Clearwater rivers, and to utilize the timber there he and his oldest son,
Gilbert M. Walker, organized the Red River Lumber Company, erecting mills at
Crookston, Minnesota, and Grand Forks on the Red river in North Dakota. In 1887
this enter­prising and farseeing man formed another partnership with H. C.
Akeley of Minne­apolis. This firm sold large numbers of logs to the Minnesota
Logging Company and became the largest timber firm in the state. Mr. Walker
afterward extended his land interests into California, where he is recognized as
one of the largest owners of timber properties in the United States.
While Mr. Walker's timber, logging and lumber manufacturing business has been
conducted very largely outside of Minneapolis, he has always manifested the
strongest feeling and desire for the welfare of the city and its residents and a
fruitful ambition to see it among the foremost cities of the country in its
educational, industrial, commercial and social importance. He founded the
Business Men's Union, the forerunner of the Commercial Club, and with Major
Camp, planned and estab­lished the Central Market and Commission district, now
one of the greatest wholesale markets and wholesale exchanges in the world and
which has made Minneapolis the third city in this country as a commission
center, it being surpassed only by New York and Chicago. He also furnished the
capital for and built the Butler building, when it was a question whether the
Butler Company would locate its northwestern branch in Minneapolis or St. Paul.
By this act he secured for the Flour City the largest wholesale establishment
west of Chicago.
But Mr. Walker's business success, great and instructive as it has been, is
neither the only nor the best feature of interest in his career. He has been a
great student and made himself master of many lines of thought and action. He is
a recognized connoisseur in art, an authority on literature, ancient and modern,
and has a vast wealth of information on every live and timely topic of
consideration. Minneapolis is indebted to him for its fine public library, and
he has been annually elected presi­dent of its executive board from the
beginning of its history in 1885. An early mem­ber and patron of the old
Athenaeum Library, he foresaw the need of a free public library and secured the
enactment of the law which gave to the city its present fine library building.
The rapid growth of the library in capacity and popular favor since its opening
day in 1889 has given it a standing in circulation fourth among the pub­lic
libraries in the United States.
A contemporary biographer, writing in 1913, continued: "But this is not all of
Mr. Walker's manifestation of interest in the finer side of life. The Walker
home oc­cupies half a city block in Minneapolis, and here he has a large and
splendid private library, covering standard authors in philosophy, science,
history, political economy, poetry and art, and what is even more notable, a
rare collection of fine paintings and other art products, which is said to
constitute one of the finest art galleries in America or Europe. The collection
represents about four hundred fine paintings by the old masters and modern
American and European artists gathered in from the fine galleries of England,
France, Italy, Germany and Spain, and from many of the galleries of this
country. In addition to these he has about one hundred and twenty-five large
paintings in the public library and over one hundred unhung.
"This sumptuous art gallery is also enriched by a large assortment of the finest
Chinese, Persian, Japanese and Corean pottery and porcelain, and one of jades
that stands ahead of any known collection in beauty of form and color. He has in
addi­tion a magnificent assemblage of carved hard stones of most beautiful color
and form, together with a large number of gems and precious stones and splendid
crystals, an extensive and superior lot of ancient sunspot bronzes, mostly from
China but some from Japan, and the finest aggregation of ancient glass to be
found in any museum or collection. The gallery is open every week-day to the
public without any charges for entrance fees or catalogues. It consists of ten
rooms adjacent to his residence, and he has recently, during the current year
(1913), begun the erection of a twenty thousand dollar addition to it. In the
gallery at the public library he has a large and valuable collection of
porcelains and other works of art in addition to the paint­ings he has there,
and in the museum of the Academy of Science he has a fine selec­tion of ancient
art work, pottery, porcelain, ancient glass, Greek and Persian vases, and a
magnificent case of ancient bronzes. These two rooms are each one hundred and
forty feet long."
The gift of his noted collection to Minneapolis made this city one of the art
cen­ters of the country. In this connection one of the local papers wrote: "The
gift of T. B. Walker to Minneapolis of his world-famed gallery of paintings and
his collec­tion of bronzes, ancient jewels, jade and great variety of art
specimens of the ancient and modern times, is expected to make Minneapolis one
of the art centers of the nation. Mr. Walker not only gave the city this large
collection, valued at many millions of dollars, but also gave a large tract of
land, part of the old Lowry home­stead, as a site for a public library which
will house the collection. The only other gift to the city comparable to the
Walker donation was the establishment of the William Hood Dunwoody Institute by
the late William H. Dunwoody. It is said that no city in America has ever been
presented with a more notable collection of art objects. The site on which the
art gallery is to be placed is to be known as Walker terrace. A commission of
five persons to be appointed by the library board will have charge of the
property. The collection represents a lifetime of selection. Deeds to the
collection and to the three and a half acres of the Lowry homestead including
all of the land except that portion on which the old Lowry home stands, were
pre­sented to the library board when Mr. Walker announced his donation on
October 12, 1918. It had been Mr. Walker's desire for many years that the
collection be presented to the city, so that future generations might have the
benefit as well as the present. The University of California at Berkeley for a
long time urged Mr. Walker to present the collection to that institution, and
the University promised to erect a magnificent building for the valued art
works. Although Mr. Walker has large holdings in that state and is interested in
the development of California, he finally decided that Minneapolis, his home and
the place where he brought up his children, should benefit by the collection.
For many years Mr. Walker has taken a keen interest in library work in
Minneapolis. He has been a member of the library board for many years, and a
large number of paintings from his collection have been on exhibition at the
public library.
"The collection, while noted especially for its paintings-some of them among the
finest examples of art in the world-consists also of Greek vases and property,
Greek glass, old Persian ware, Greek Tanagrans, Chinese idols, polished pearl
clam shells, lamps, bronze, instruments, ancient coins, agates, minerals, shells
from the southern seas, and other objects of interest to collectors. In the
collection of canvases are some of the finest Rembrandts in the world. 'The
Erring Woman Before Christ,' from the collection of the Duke of Marlborough, has
been pronounced one of the most important works in the life of that famous
artist. There are nine other examples of this artist's work. From the early
Renaissance period down to the present, works from practically all of the noted
artists have been gathered. There are works by Rem­brandt, Van Dyck, Hals,
Breton, Troyon, Dupre, Van Marcke, Andrea del Sarto, Corot, Claude Lorraine,
Jacques, Rousseau, Bouguereau, Schryer, Innes, Turner, and scores of others of
equal fame. Famous women of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are shown in
paintings by the masters.
"To preserve the history of the Indians in art, Mr. Walker collected one hundred
and three portraits of notable Indian chiefs, medicine men and warriors, and
twenty-four portraits of renowned Indian fighters, scouts and guides. The 'Hall
of Beautiful Jade' is one of the notable collections which will come to
Minneapolis through the gift. There are thirteen large cabinets filled with
sculptured jade stone, crystal, rose, blue and other varieties of quartz,
amethyst, chalcedony, lapis-lazuli, malachite, carnelian and other varieties of
agate and amber, all deftly carved by Chinese artisans.
"One of the finest collections of its kind in the world is the Chinese pottery
with examples from the Han dynasty, 201 B. C., down through the ages. The old
Persian ware, old wedgwood, carved ivories, bronzes, have all won fame for Mr.
Walker. On April 1, 1919, citizens of Minneapolis gave a dinner in honor of Mr.
Walker at . the Hotel Radisson at which the city publicly thanked him for his
splendid donation. Each speaker complimented Mr. Walker for this thoughtfulness
and civic spirit. At this dinner Dr. Marion L. Burton, at that time president of
the University of Minnesota, said that nothing means more to the coming
generation of the city than the acceptance of the gift.
"Several years before the library board was organized Mr. Walker constructed an
art building at Hennepin avenue and Eighth street on the site where stands the
present State theatre building. Works were added to the house for forty years.
Commenting on the donation of this gift to the city, John R. Vanderlip,
president of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, said: 'That the project which
Mr. Walker has through all of these years planned and has now made known, may
attain the splendid results which he has visioned, and may prove to be one of
those benefactions which will justly provoke enduring gratitude and will keep
his name in honored remem­brance, is a consummation devoutly to be wished and
one for which all connected with the Institute of Arts sincerely hope.' Joseph
Chapman, a member of the special committee of the Better Minneapolis committee,
said that the action of the Walker art gift is an important step in the
development of Minneapolis. 'People throughout the country would have thought
that we were a mighty queer city had the collection not been accepted,' Mr.
Chapman said. 'It is a gain for every class of people-some­thing that will help
in an educational way for all. The collection will make Minne­apolis a better
city.' E. C. Gale, member of the library board and art patron, said that the
action of the council 'practically assures' the city of the Walker gift. "'It is
one of the best things that has happened in Minneapolis for some time, and will
prove a great benefit to future generations.' "
Under the caption "Council's Acceptance Comes Five Years After Offer was
Announced" one of the local papers wrote in part: "The art collection of T. B.
Walker is saved for the city of Minneapolis. Funds will be made available for
the erection of a four hundred thousand dollar building on Lowry Hill to house
this collection as a result of action taken by the city council in authorizing
the sale of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of bonds for the library-art
gallery project.
The resolution provides that of this bond issue one hundred thousand dollars
shall be used to provide an addition to the main library building and one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars be applied to the cost of building the art
gallery. * * * It is understood that the plans for the building have already
been prepared at Mr. Walker's expense. The site of the art gallery is adjacent
to Mr. Walker's home and is directly opposite St. Mark's church. This site also
has been donated to the city by Mr. Walker."
From the character of his chief business operations Mr. Walker has naturally
given much thought, attention and study to the forestry question, and he has so
posted himself with reference to it that he is better prepared to discuss it
intelli­gently than almost any other man in the country. He is now deeply and
practically interested in the conservation of the forests we have left, and his
extensive experi­ence in the lumber trade, together with his judicious study of
the subject, has given him a grasp of it that no other man possesses. On this
subject he has delivered a considerable number of fine addresses and written
many articles for publication in the press and in pamphlet form. In these he has
set forth the only plan of conservation that is intended or expressed as a
complete one. And his plan will undoubtedly prove successful if public sentiment
and legislative enactments by the government and the timber states back it up.
He is striving earnestly to get it adopted and put in prac­tical operation, and
seeking to induce the authorities who are desirous of intelligent conservation
to join him in the movement.
Mr. Walker has also, for many years, been actively, intelligently and
effectively engaged in helping to promote agencies for the moral uplifting of
the American peo­ple. He has been deeply interested in the Young Men's Christian
Association in Minneapolis, at the State University and throughout this state;
and for years he has been the northwestern member of the national committee of
that organization, which is one of the most important and useful committees in
the country. He is also ar­dently and serviceably energetic in church work,
especially in connection with the Methodist sect or denomination. For a number
of years he has been the president of the Methodist Church Extension and Social
Union of Minneapolis, and through the agency and helpfulness of this
organization, and very largely by reason of his work and contributions,
Methodist churches in Minneapolis, particularly those of the common people, are
better established, freer from debt and more prosperous gener­ally than those in
any other city in America.
Mr. Walker has moral endowments as well as mental power of a high order. The
best principles of integrity and honor govern him in all his transactions, and
his word has ever been as good as his bond. He has a clear head and a strong
mind, and these have been cultivated throughout his long career by reading,
study and observation, and by constant intercourse with many of the best
citizens of his state and other localities, all of whom he numbers among his
friends. In the interesting and domestic character of husband and father he is
particularly amiable, enjoying the unbounded affection of his family, and as a
man he is just, generous and upright, ever eager to promote the welfare of his
fellowmen without challenging constant laudation by obtrusive benefits. In
manner he is cultured and refined, and is of a genial and sympathetic nature;
and as a Christian he lives a life full of good works and well worthy of general
emulation. His whole life, domestic and commercial, is marked by fixed
principles of purity and benevolence.
On December 19, 1863, Mr. Walker was united in marriage with Miss Harriet G.
Hulet, a daughter of Fletcher Hulet. They have five sons and one daughter
living. The living sons are Gilbert M., Fletcher L., Willis J., Clinton L. and
Archie D. They are all associated with their father in his lumber interests. The
daughter living is Julia, the wife of Ernest F. Smith, who has four children.
The son who died was Leon B., who passed away in 1887, and the daughter who is
dead was Harriet, who was the wife of Rev. Frederick O. Holman, pastor of
Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal church. Her death occurred in 1904.