BIO: W. Harrison WALKER, Centre County, Pennsylvania

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the 
Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing 
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 120-121

W. HARRISON WALKER, ESQ., junior member of the law firm of "Fortney & 
Walker," Bellefonte, Centre county, was born near Salona, Clinton Co., Penn., 
August 30, 1874, and is the youngest son of Samuel E. Walker, a sketch of 
whom appears elsewhere.
  Born and reared on a farm, his early education was received in the township 
schools. At the age of fifteen he was admitted to Class '94 of the 
Susquehanna University at Selin's Grove, Snyder Co., Penn., but was only in 
attendance at that institution for several terms. Then he went to Lock Haven 
and entered the Central State Normal School and pursued special studies for 
preparation for the legal profession. While at the latter institution he read 
law during his vacation, in the offices of T. M. Stevenson. Esq., of Lock 
Haven.

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.	121

  In the fall of 1894 Mr. Walker entered the Dickinson School of Law, at 
Carlisle, Penn., and also registered as a law student in the law offices of 
ex-Judge W. F. Sadler, of the same city, which gentleman manifested a great 
interest in Mr. Walker and his work. After two years of faithful study in the 
law department, together with the office work entrusted to him by his 
preceptor, Judge Sadler, he was graduated from the Dickinson School of Law, 
June 8, 1896, receiving the degree of LL. B., ranking very high in his class.
  Mr. Walker was a member of the Clionian Literary Society, and also of the 
Henry Clay Debating Club, of the Susquehanna University; of the Shakespeare 
Literary Society, of the Central State Normal School; and of the Dickinson 
Law Society and Moot Court Club, of the Dickinson School of Law, also of the 
Dickinson College Orchestra & Glee Club. He was the editor and business 
manager of "The Shakespearean," a paper published at Lock Haven, by the 
Shakespeare Society in 1893. He is also a member of the Dickinson Chapter of 
the Delta Chi Legal Fraternity, an organization exclusively for law students 
and lawyers.
  Politically, Mr. Walker is a Democrat. He took an active part in the 
campaign of 1896, and was considered one of the best young speakers in the 
field. He is a member of the Bellefonte Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and also of the Bellefonte Lodge of the Knights of the Golden Eagle.
  As a student in the law school, he was remarkably faithful to his duties - 
a painstaking and conscientious worker - and he commanded the esteem and 
confidence of both faculty and students. He is a gentleman of good moral 
character, of the highest probity, studious and energetic. He was admitted to 
the Cumberland County Bar at Carlisle, Penn., at the age of twenty-one, and 
to the Centre County Bar at Bellefonte, Penn., on the 20th day of July, 1896. 
On August 1, 1896, he joined in partnership, for the practice of his 
profession, with David F. Fortney, Esq., one of the leading members of the 
Bar, as well as one of the greatest educational leaders in the State, under 
the firm name of "Fortney & Walker."
  The subject of this sketch has laid a good foundation for legal knowledge, 
and his industry, ambition and perseverance, with his ability, justify us in 
the prediction of a brilliant future for him. He is a clear, eloquent and 
forcible speaker. Upon entering his professional life at the Centre County 
Bar we find in the columns of one of the leading papers published in the 
county, the following: "W. Harrison Walker, Esq., the junior member of the 
law firm of Fortney & Walker, has spent years in faithful study and 
preparation for the practice of the law. He comes to the Bar more thoroughly 
prepared than any young man who has been admitted in recent years."