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 The following biographical sketch was 
 writtt-n by Hon. James Gray, formerly 
 Mayor of Minneapolis. It was printed in 
 the annual number of the Minneapolis 
 Times, July 30, 1903, of which paper Mr. 
 Gray was Chief Editor. The specific items 
 of Mr. Walker's personal history were 
 taken from various biographical histories, 
 as well as from a personal acquaintance 
 and twenty 3^ears' citizenship from which 
 more or less of the facts and items and the 
 general estimate of character given by Mr, 
 Gray in this excellent sketch were gained. 
 
 MAR 3 ^yif 
 
Sketch of the Life of Honorable 
 Thomas B. Walker. 
 
 Minneapolis Business Man, Financier, Philanthro- 
 pist and Writer. Owner of the Greatest 
 Absolutely Free Art Gallery in 
 the World. 
 
 That the greatness of a city is in its men is an accepted fact. Just 
 as high as their minds soar, there is marked the limit of eminence 
 attained by the community of which they are an integral part — pro- 
 vided, of course, the soaring is practical. 
 
 Fanciful flights of imagination, Utopian theories which lapse in- 
 to film and vapor when brought into contact with the chill of prac- 
 tical appreciation, never marked the fast, up-hill route travelled in 
 the transition from log cabin to sky-scraper in the life of a city. 
 
 A big city must necessarily be the work of big-minded men — men 
 of many and varied qualities of energy, perseverance, tact and 
 business sagacity. In such men Minneapolis is rich. 
 
 From her pioneer days she has boasted of them. Through all 
 the years of her making they have been with her. 
 
 Her fortunes have been theirs and their fortunes have been hers. 
 
 To enumerate all of these giants of the business and professional 
 world would require many miles of type, but happily Minneapolis is 
 fortunate in having as one of her favored sons a stalwart citizen of 
 such sterling worth, versatility and breadth of character that he can 
 be accepted as a typical Minneapolitan, embodying all of the virtues 
 and characteristics most, commendable in his fellows and most no- 
 ticeable to the student of civic affairs. 
 
 His name is T. B. Walker, whose record and personality stand 
 isolated by their brilliancy in a setting that is even all brightness 
 itself; whose deeds have emblazoned his name inefifaceably on the 
 loftiest pinnacle of public opinion and whose quiet, modestly anony- 
 mous w-orks for Christianity and the human races have carved for 
 him a golden throne not for the eyes of this world. 
 
 In the pursuit of a vocation based on any one of his many accom- 
 plishments T. B. Walker would have been a success. Had he con- 
 fined himself to following any one of a score of lines which have 
 
contributed collectively to his fame he would still be a notable man. 
 Few instances are there recorded where so many paths of achieve- 
 ments have been followed by one man. 
 
 In this respect Mr. Walker may perhaps best be described as in 
 the class of which President Theodore Roosevelt and Kaiser Wil- 
 helm of Germany are such notable exponents. His has been the 
 strenuous life and the gentle, the useful and the adorning. Qualities 
 have manifested themselves in him from the time when as a boy he 
 first showed evidences of marvelous mathematical genius, which 
 stamp him as a paragon. 
 
 As an example to the youth of the nation he is worthy the atten- 
 tion of the historian for many generations to come. 
 
 A VERSATILE CHARACTER. 
 
 How many men in the world are there who can class rightfully 
 and by common verdict of their fellow citizens as well as the world 
 in general, as a captain of industry, philanthropist, patron of art, 
 scholar, scientist, litterateur, municipal expert, civil engineer, for- 
 estry expert, lecturer, preacher, student of economics, traveler, 
 lumberman and financier? 
 
 It is safe to say that few city directories in the world today con- 
 tain the name of such another man as this great Minneapolitan. 
 
 To narrate in all their picturesque detail all of the eventful fea- 
 tures of the career of Thomas B. Walker would be to enter into an 
 all too extended word-picture, more than is permitted in the brief 
 space here allotted. Therefore, in order that the story of the man's 
 life be presented in comprehensive outline it is taken up chrono- 
 logically. 
 
 Thomas Barlow Walker belongs in that illustrious brotherhood of 
 men who have won their way from a small beginning in the face of 
 difficulties — that galaxy of indomitable spirits that has given to 
 Ohio her wonderous place as the native state of presidents, states- 
 men and leaders in the world of industry. 
 
 He was born in Xenia, Green county, February 1, 1840, the third 
 child of Piatt Bayless and Anstis Barlow Walker. His parents 
 were in circumstances considered comfortable in those days of the 
 development of the western reserve. His father was by trade a 
 shoemaker, but by instinct and practice he was imbued with those 
 characteristics which in these later days of strenuous development 
 make a man the successful promoter of great enterprises. 
 
 Thus does Thomas B. Walker come naturally by his wonderful 
 btisiness sagacity and acumen. When the boy Thomas was but nine 
 years of age there came into his life an event fraught with sorrow 
 to his mother but of double significance to the child, whose tender 
 youth obviated the realization of its meaning. 
 
 His father having amassed sufficient working capital to embark 
 in a venture which for those times was one of magnitude, invested 
 all his means in a wagon train of merchandise with which he start- 
 ed on the Long and perilous overland route to California, for this 
 
^vas in the year 1849 — that historic epoch-making period marked by 
 the gold fever of the virgin west. 
 
 Hardly had the expedition reached the gateway to the western 
 plains when its chief was stricken with cholera, which was then 
 sweeping the country. Death overcame him on the plains near 
 Warrensburg, Mo. Now came the blow which, seemingly greater 
 than the grief-stricken widow could bear at the time, was perhaps 
 pregnant with greater force in the making of the orphaned boy's 
 character than could be given to the child or woman to grasp in the • 
 hours of their affliction. The merchandise train was carried 
 through to its destination and the goods sold at the enormously in- 
 flated prices which then prevailed in the new-found El Dorado of 
 California. But not a penny of the proceeds ever reached the 
 widow and her fatherless babes. 
 
 HIS MOTHER'S MAINSTAY. 
 
 Then began the mother's brave battle against adversity and the 
 children's pitiful efforts to console and aid her and to contribute to 
 the family's little store. Spurred on by the beacon light kindled 
 by his noble and devoted mother, young Thomas began to bend his 
 efforts toward fitting himself to take up the battle which his mother 
 was thus obliged for a time to bear alone. His opportunities for 
 schooling w-ere few indeed, but his mother's teachings so developed 
 his mind that at the age of sixteen he was enabled to matriculate at 
 Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio. 
 
 There he remained in nominal attendance on his classes for sev- 
 eral years, winning a term's instruction, perhaps, each year by de- 
 voting the remainder of that period to the avocation of a commer- 
 cial traveler. While on the road as a salesman he continued his 
 studies, devoting every moment he could snatch from his business 
 to the development of his mind. 
 
 His school books he kept constantly with him, the heavier of his 
 two valises being a library from which he drew the knowledge 
 which in later years served him in such good stead. The stum- 
 bling block of his school days became the foundation stones of his 
 studious habits, for then did he acquire the custom of adding to 
 the storehouse of his knowledge new insight into subjects which 
 have gone to broaden and expand the scope of his remarkable 
 career. 
 
 During his roamings as a commercial traveler he gained w-ide and 
 valuable knowledge of business, which caused him to give much 
 thought to the opportunities open to young men bent on making a 
 fortune. In casting about for a larger field of endeavor he decided 
 to follow in the footsteps of his father and become a contractor. 
 
 He took his first contract at the age of nineteen years. It was 
 for providing cross ties and cordwood to a railroad having its 
 terminus at Paris, 111. 
 
 This he followed for eighteen months, successfully, so far as his 
 efforts were concerned, but as events turned out, disastrous from 
 a financial point of view. The company failed and he received 
 
nothing lor his long term of toil. Feeling, however, that the ex- 
 perience he had gained in the woods was a valuable asset, he de- 
 cided to make a study of forestry and pursue it in search of fortune, 
 if at some later day he failed to find the golden fleece in other 
 fields. 
 
 The fact that this knowledge eventually brought him the nucleus 
 of his present fortune is worthy of passing comment. 
 
 His versatility manifested itself at this point, however, and he re- 
 turned home and taught school for a year. Then he resumed for a 
 time his original calling of commercial traveler, meanwhile con- 
 stantly maintaining his pursuit of knowledge. His "line" was 
 grindstones, Hon. Fletcher Hulet having commissioned him to 
 create a wholesale market for him at Berea. 
 
 During his travels in Wisconsin, in 1862, he was surprised to 
 learn that his reputation as a student and apt mathematician had 
 preceded him, and that he was spoken of as the probable recipient 
 of an ofifer from the state university of Wisconsin to fill the chair 
 of mathematics in that institution. Not to overlook any opportu- 
 nities, the young traveling man promptly made known to the regents 
 of the university his willingness to accept the professorship. Their 
 dignified dilatoriness in the matter, however, was too much for 
 his ardent, progressive young spirit. 
 
 By the time the chair was properly warm for him, he was flitting 
 on his way again, selling grindstones along the upper Mississippi 
 at a rate they had never been sold before. 
 
 Fate directed his travels to McGregor, Iowa, where the chance 
 remark of a casual acquaintance changed the whole course of his 
 life and guided his footsteps into that brilliant pathway of success 
 from which he never thereafter swerved. 
 
 The man who thus unconsciously builded so well for Minneapolis 
 and the great northwest was J. M. Robinson, of Minneapolis, 
 Mr. Robinson told of the glories of the embryo city by the Falls 
 of St. Anthony. He painted in brilliant colors the prospects and 
 possibilities of the coming metropolis. Won by his word pictures, 
 this budding captain of industry within the hour was on his way to 
 the city of golden promise. He closed up his afifairs as a commer- 
 cial salesman and connected himself immediately with a govern- 
 ment surveying party under the leadership of George B. Wright. 
 
 SEES MINNESOTA. 
 
 Quick to grasp the splendid opportunities for the development of 
 the metropolis, afforded by Minneapolis' magnificent water power, 
 with his usual prompt decision he wrote back to his Ohio home 
 to his affianced wife: "I have found the spot where we will make 
 our home." For a romance had sprung up during his college days 
 in Berea, Ohio. A young woman awaited the word which would 
 tell her of the successful outcome of her fiance's quest of fortune. 
 
 Later in the following season Mr. Walker dropped for the nonce 
 his business cares. He returned to his parental home. There on 
 
December 19, 1S63, he was united in wedlock to Harriet G., young- 
 est daughter of Hon. Fletcher Hulet, his former employer. 
 
 Mr. Walker's former college president, Rev. J. Wheeler, D. D., 
 was the clergyman who linked the lives of these two for a union 
 which has since been a partnership for the uplifting of mankind and 
 for the rearing of eight children born to them. 
 
 Their home in this city of the west soon became the rendezvous 
 of Minneapolis culture. In 1874, when fortune had smiled upon 
 the house of Walker, a palatial residence was erected at the corner 
 of Eighth Street and Hennepin Avenue, where the family has since 
 made its home. 
 
 To this home Mr. Walker brought his affectionate mother and 
 there his countless deeds of filial affection were performed until 
 1883, when death claimed the noble woman who gave to the world 
 one of the men who werfe born to serve humanity and whose prog- 
 ress far exceeded her fondest dreams. 
 
 But one other sorrow has come to this happy home. Mr. Walk- 
 er's second son, just as life had begun to mature into the promise 
 of a successful business career, was suddenly striken with fever 
 and in one brief week the family was bereft of one tenderly loved 
 and whose cherished memory will live forever in each heart of the 
 Walker fireside. 
 
 There was more Indian fighting about the surveying expedition 
 upon which Mr. Walker embarked on first reaching Minneapolis 
 than there was surveying, however. The little party of sixteen was 
 constantly beset and harassed by the red men, who had just then 
 started on that path of massacre which dyed with blood the prairies 
 and forests of Minnesota. 
 
 After three days of peril the band reached Fort Ripley, which 
 they helped to defend for some time. 
 
 Mr. Walker's experience in the government survey service lasted 
 nearly three years, after which he engaged for a year in the survey 
 of the St. Paul & Duluth Railway. Here his knowledge of forestry 
 opened his eyes to the possibilities of the lumber industry in the 
 country which he traversed, and resulted in his becoming the pio- 
 neer of Minnesota lumber magnates. 
 
 GOES INTO LUMBERING. 
 
 Although he was without sufficient funds at the time to embark 
 in lumbering on a large scale, his sterling business qualities com- 
 mended him to Dr. Levi Butler and Howard Mills, who took him 
 in with them and organized the firm of Butler, Mills & Walker. 
 The experience and knowledge which had cost him so dear in his 
 youth counted as his capital equally with their money. He managed 
 the business of the firm. He superintended the felling of forests 
 and he built the mills which transformed those forests into villages 
 of symmetrically piled lumber and into towns and hamlets in Minne- 
 sota's forests and prairies. 
 
 Personally he operated the camps, the mills and the lumber yards. 
 
After several years of continued success the firm was dissolved, 
 owing to the death of Dr. Butler and the departure of Mr. Mills to 
 California in search of health. 
 
 Mr. Walker, however, continued in the business, expanding it by 
 leaps and bounds. In some of his undertakings, he was associated 
 with Henry T. Welles, particularly in the purchase of pine lands 
 and timber. He spread his holdings over northern Minnesota and 
 Dakota. St. Anthony Falls whirled the wheels which were now 
 turning out his fortune. 
 
 He purchased and operated the J. Dean mill and after the plant 
 was destroyed by fire he rebuilt it. For many years he operated 
 it with Major George A. Camp under the firm name of Camp & 
 Walker. Later he organized the Red River Lumber company, his 
 business partner in this instance being his son, Gilbert M. Walker. 
 Two mills were established by the firm, one at Crookston, Minn., 
 the other at Grand Forks, N. D. 
 
 Mr. Walker is also associated with H. C. Akeley in the firm of 
 Walker & Akeley in the ownership of large tracts of pine land, 
 but they operate no mills. 
 
 Mr. Walker has not confined his attention solely to the lumber 
 business, however. He has been closely identified with the growth 
 of Minneapolis in every branch of its commercial development. The 
 Central Market and Commission row are his creations. The mar- 
 ket, designed to confine the wholesale commission business as well 
 as other wholesale lines, to the district north of Hennepin avenue 
 and west of Fourth street, is considered a model of its kind through- 
 out the country. It is largely due to the establishment of Commis- 
 sion row that the fruit and commission business of Minneapolis is 
 greater than that of any other city in the northwest. 
 
 Mr. Walker is largely responsible for the existence of St. Louis 
 Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, built upon a tract of land owned by 
 Mr. Walker, by the Land and Investment company. Mr. Walker 
 was the originator of the Business Men's Union, which for many 
 years was a potent factor in the development of the city. He is an 
 ardent patron of the Y. M. C. A., giving to it freely of his time and 
 money and enjoying the distinction of being a member of the na- 
 tional committee; for in the development of his career a trend 
 toward things religious and philanthropic asserted itself. With 
 his wife Mr. Walker has turned his attention to and dealt gener- 
 ously for the uplifting of the fallen and the needy. Were his place 
 in the world of trade not so firmly established, he might be known 
 of men for his good deeds alone. 
 
 Mr. Walker's career has been remarkable for originality of 
 method and strict business integrity. His word has always been as 
 good as his bond. Extremely liberal in the use of his wealth his 
 charities are unlimited; all classes have been more or less benefited 
 by his beneficence. At the time of the grasshopper visitation in 
 1875, by which the farmers of the western part of the state of Min- 
 nesota were reduced to a condition of poverty and semi-starvation 
 
pitiful to contemplate, Mr. Walker's efforts in behalf of suffering 
 humanity were untiring. 
 
 As soon as the grasshopper scourge had disappeared he organized 
 a scheme for the raising of a late crop that was of inestimable value 
 to settlers. He bought up all the turnip seed and likewise that of 
 buckwheat to be had in the twin cities and Chicago. 
 
 He visited the afflicted sections. He made up the seed into paper 
 packages and hiring teams he conducted a systematic distribution 
 over many townships. The season was so far advanced that only 
 these late crops could be attempted. 
 
 News of his free distribution of seeds spread as if on the wing 
 and many farmers walked fifteen or twenty miles to meet the teams 
 and thus avail themselves of Air. Walker's beneficence. 
 
 For many years he was one of the managers of the state reform 
 school, laboring untiringly for the reclaiming of waifs on the 
 world's tide. 
 
 But as one settles on this phase of Mr. Walker's many sided 
 character and decides him preeminent for philanthropy, some other 
 bent stands out. Therein he is truly like the German emperor, 
 for hardly does the narrator turn to what he would term a distin- 
 guishing characteristic, than this noble-minded man stands forth 
 in the light of a student and writer. Then, as this talent looms out, 
 apparently distinguishing him from others, comes a hint of artistic 
 discrimination, and one delves in the depths of a love for the beauti- 
 ful, as manifested in the patronage of art, drawing inspiration for a 
 sketch of a man known far and near as a connoisseur. 
 
 INTERESTED IN THE LIBRARY. 
 
 Looking for a moment on Air. Walker's literary turn of mind, 
 his labors of love for his fellow man in the establishment of 
 libraries present themselves. For fifteen years or more Mr. Walker 
 worked systematically and persistently to build up the old Athe- 
 naeum — a joint stock company — into a fine public library, and 
 through the agency, assistance and good will of various other citi- 
 zens he succeeded in the great task. Recognizing his achievement, 
 the library board insisted on his acting as its president. 
 
 For many years he worked amidst the most persistent and deter- 
 mined opposition from various persons and was seriously misunder- 
 stood and misapprehended. The records of these years show 
 numerous communications, personal letters and criticisms and his 
 answers, regarding the part taken by him in the old Athenaeum in 
 his endeavors to change it from a rigid, close corporation into this 
 public institution, which is now a source of so much pride and sat- 
 isfaction to the people; 
 
 No man in the state has taken greater interest or a more active 
 part in any public institution than he has in this, expending a large 
 amount of time and money in working the desired transformation. 
 The magnificent library building of the city of Minneapolis may be 
 said to be a monument to his perseverance. It contains not only a 
 
splendid library but also is the home of the Minnesota Academy of 
 Natural Science, an institution with which Mr. Walker has been 
 identified for years and which he has helped more materially than 
 any other man. 
 
 In this building also dwells the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts 
 and its art gallery, which contains many choice paintings, is made 
 the richer by loans of some of Mr. Walker's choicest canvases. 
 
 In aiding to develop the public library Mr. Walker has not lost 
 sight of book collecting to gratify his personal, private tastes. On 
 the shelves in his home may be found scores of valuable volumes 
 dealing with science, art, theology and philosophy. 
 
 This retreat is his delight and in hours of ease he gives himself 
 up to the research and Study for which the mind of the youth in 
 college days hungered with little opportunity for gratification. 
 
 Here in his years of maturity his boyhood dreams are realized, 
 iciere he communes with the master minds whose teachings were 
 vienied him in his boyhood and from the erudition thus nurtured 
 and ripened he takes keen delight in giving to the world literary 
 works which mirror his talents and reflect the soul of a man who 
 has known God and held His image ever before him in his struggles 
 through the drear valley of cold, hard commercialism, too often 
 honeycombed by iniquitous pitfalls and glittering temptations of a 
 pathway paved with gold. 
 
 Turning his versatile mind from literature to art Mr. Walker has 
 for a score of years past been directing much of his attention to the 
 collection of paintings, bronzes, marbles and other works of art. 
 He bears a wide reputation of being a connoisseur of rare dis- 
 crimination. Yearly he searches the studios and ateliers for arti- 
 cles of virtu, for canvases enriched by the genius of old masters 
 and modern. 
 
 His collection today rivals that of the best eastern collector and 
 the owner himself is frequently surprised at the high comparative 
 rating given this collection by those who have seen the world's best 
 galleries and who do not hesitate to place this in the first rank. 
 These are the artists whose canvases line the walls of the Walker 
 gallery: 
 
 GEMS OF THE COLLECTION. 
 
 Achenbach, Anastasi, Anders, Barker, Benedictor, Berry, Bier- 
 stadt, Bogert, Bol, Bonheur, Rosa; Bonheur, August Francois; 
 Bothbouguereau, Boulanger, Breton, Brown, Busson, Cabanel, 
 Cazin, Cederstrom, Chaigneau, Cipriani, Glaus, Goomans, Gorot, 
 Grochepierre, Grome, Guyp, Dahl, David, De Brush, DeHaas, 
 Delphy, Demont-Breton, Deve, Diaz, Dupre, Ernst, Essenlins, 
 Faulkner, Ferrier, Foscari, Francais, Franck,'Frere, Froment, Gains- 
 borough, Gericault, Hamilton, Hamman, Hart, James M.; Hart, 
 William, Hermann, Hire, Hogarth, Ingres, Inness, Isabey, Jacque, 
 Jacpuin, Jazet, Jettell, Johnson, os, Julien, Kaufmann, Kaulbach, 
 Klombeck, Verboeckhoven, Knaus, Laurens, Lawrence, LeBrun, 
 LeGomptedu, Nuoy, Lefebre, Lefevre, Lely, Lemmens, Lerolle, 
 
Leveridgc, Lossow, Loiitherbourg, JNIaes, ]Marihat, Martaens, Alas- 
 sani, Mesgregny, Matsu, iMichel, Minor, Monticelli, Aloran, Morland, 
 Parrocel, Parton, Peale, Pezant, Phillippoteau, Plassan, Pokitanow, 
 Poole, Pyne, Rau, Richet, Riedel, Ritzberger, Rix, Robie, Rosier, 
 Rousseau, Ruisbael, Schandel,' Schenck, Schreiber, Schriner, 
 Schreyer, Schuch, Schusselle, Siiikel, Smith, Tait, Thorp, Turner, 
 Unterberger, Vander Venne, Van Marcke, Verboeckhoven, 
 Vernet, Veronese, Vibert, Buyllcfroy, Walker, Watson, Weisse, 
 West, Westerbeek, Wilson, Zanpighi, Zein, Beechey, Carpentire, 
 Coello, Cotes, Coypel, Harpignies, Holbein, Kauffmann, Laurence, 
 Max, Opie, Del Piombo, Pourbus, Raeburn, Raphael, Van Rijn, 
 Reni, Rigaud, Rubens, Van Dyck, Bercke-Heyde. 
 
 This list of names is incomplete, in that Mr. Walker is constant- 
 ly adding to his splendid collection. For the most part, it is hung 
 in his private art gallery, a spacious series of rooms which form a 
 part of his beautiful residence near the public library building. In 
 the latter structure are some half a hundred more of Mr. Walker's 
 paintings, loaned to the city that visitors to this home of culture 
 may feast their eyes upon its treasures. 
 
 And here again does Mr. Walker's ever-dominant philanthropy 
 assert itself. For not satisfied with giving to the eyes of public 
 library visitors the pleasure and profit of a view of his canvases 
 which he has loaned to the city, Mr. Walker throws his private gal- 
 lery open to the public, refusing to seclude from the public eye, as 
 does the selfish art collector, the treasures of his quest in painters' 
 retreats. 
 
 This private gallery is daily visited by lovers of art. It is one of 
 the well-known and much sought places of interest in Minneapolis 
 and to its doors are welcomed the man of lowly rank as well as the 
 traveler in search of a feast of art. 
 
 This, then, is the manner of man who is recognized as Minneapo- 
 lis' foremost citizen. A close glance at his character reveals a man 
 of strength — one with whom to plan is to execute and whose mar- 
 velous powers of grasping details and systematizing all of his under- 
 takings, combined with his unswerving tenacity of purpose, his im- 
 penetrable integrity, render him one who knows not what it means 
 to fail, once he sets out to accomplish a thing which his analytical 
 mind has told him is possible of accomplishment. He is an earnest 
 Christian, who strives to communicate to all with whom he comes 
 in contact in his daily life that God-fearing, hnmanitarian spirit 
 which has filled his soul to overflowing from the time he first lisped 
 his prayers at his mother's knee in the little Ohio home. Modest 
 withal, domestic in his tastes, he yet finds time to build for the bet- 
 terment of man and municipality, and when the feet of future gen- 
 erations tread the corridors of Minneapolis' hall of fame, first in 
 the niches of her sainted sons will be the noble figure of Thomas 
 Barlow Walker. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 016 085 449 2