Thomas Barlow Walker (1840-1928) was born at Xenia, Ohio, to Platt Bayless Walker (1808-1849) and Anstis Keziah Barlow Walker (1814-1883). His father died in 1849 at Westport, Missouri, while on the way to the California gold fields in search of fortune. His mother married Xenia widower Oliver Barnes (circa 1800-1868) in 1854. The household included four other children: Oliver W. Barnes; Platt Bayless Walker II (1832?-1906), founder of the Mississippi Valley Lumberman magazine; Adelaide B. Walker (d. 1929); and Helen M. Walker (1842-1876?).
The family moved to Berea, Ohio (thirteen miles west of Cleveland) in 1855, where T. B. and his sister Helen attended Baldwin University, a Methodist-affiliated institution. In 1862 T. B. came to St. Paul with a load of grindstones to sell, where he made acquaintance with young James J. Hill, then a clerk on the wharf. Later that same year in Minneapolis Walker was able to secure a job as a chainman for surveyor George B. Wright, who was beginning a survey of a large tract of federally owned land. When this survey was completed, Wright conducted a survey for the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad. Employment with Wright was a fortunate move for Walker, as his work acquainted him with the locations of choice pine tracts in northern Minnesota--tracts which he later purchased as the basis for his fortune in the lumber business.
T. B. Walker was involved in several lumber business partnerships. He joined with Dr. Levi Butler and Howard W. Mills in Butler, Mills & Walker (1867-1869?), which originally was formed to purchase pine lands and sell stumpage, but which also became involved in the manufacture of lumber. Butler & Walker was established in 1869; was succeeded by L. Butler & Company (including O. C. Merriman, James W. Lane, Leon Lane, Butler, and Walker), which dissolved in 1871; and in turn was succeeded by a reestablished Butler & Walker (1871-1872).
Walker and George A. Camp established the Camp & Walker partnership in 1877, and that same year purchased the Pacific Mill in Minneapolis. (Its site was excavated by MHS archaeologists in 1986.) In 1887 the partnership was amicably dissolved.
Walker and Healy C. Akeley informally began their Walker & Akeley partnership in 1887; a formal partnership contract was drawn up in 1892. Akeley died in 1912. Three years later a nine-year lawsuit was begun by T. B. Walker against the Akeley heirs for an accounting and settlement of partnership affairs.
The Red River Lumber Company (RRLC) was organized in 1883 and incorporated in 1884. It built and operated lumber mills at Crookston, Minnesota (1883-1897), and at Grand Forks, Dakota Territory (1885-1888). During the 1890s, T. B. developed the town of Akeley, Minnesota, named for his business partner, and built a new mill there. The first log was sawed at the Akeley mill in 1899; the last in 1915.
T. B. Walker began exploring the California forests in 1889; he began his acquisition of northeastern California timberlands in 1894. Walker's California holdings eventually totaled a reported 900,000 acres. The Walker owned company town known as Westwood, California, was constructed in 1912-1913. The RRLC cut its first tree in California on September 10, 1912; its first California lumber was milled on October 1 of that same year. The construction of Westwood and its mill was more or less concurrent with T. B.'s retirement from active management of the RRLC and his relinquishment of control of the business to his sons--with whom he did not always see eye to eye (nor did they always see eye to eye with each other) in the management of the business.
T. B. Walker married Harriet Granger Hulet (1841-1917) on December 19, 1863. They had eight children: Gilbert M. (1864-1928), Julia A. (1865?-1952?), Leon B. (1868-1887), Harriet (1870-1904), Fletcher L. (1872-1962), Willis J. (1873-1943), Clinton L. (1875-1944), and Archie D. (1882-1971) Walker. Harriet died in New York in 1917, while accompanying her husband on a business trip.
T. B. built his first house in Minneapolis proper in 1870, at Ninth Street and Marquette Avenue. In 1874 he constructed his first mansion, at 803 Hennepin Avenue; the house stood some forty years until it was demolished to make way for the State Theatre/Walker Building complex. In 1915 Walker purchased the Thomas Lowry house, at #2 Groveland Terrace. This house, which was located adjacent to the present Walker Art Center/Guthrie Theatre complex, was demolished around 1932; an office building for the North American Life Insurance Company was later constructed on the site.
Walker began collecting paintings in about 1874. In 1879 he began to admit the public into his house to view his growing art collection. Walker built at least four additions to the house at 803 Hennepin in order to house and display his collection of art objects. By 1915 his gallery reportedly consisted of 14 rooms, and was visited by about 100,000 people annually. In 1926 Walker completed a new gallery building on the site of the present Walker Art Center; this building was opened to the public in 1927. The 1926 gallery building stood until the late 1960s, when it was demolished and the present structure erected. Walker Galleries, Inc. was incorporated in 1924. The T. B. Walker Foundation, Inc., was incorporated in 1925 to own and manage the collection and gallery after the city of Minneapolis refused to accept the collection as a gift.
Some of T. B.'s other business involvements and ventures included the Crookston Boom and Water Power Company, the International Lumber Company (Minneapolis), the Metropolitan Trust Company (Minneapolis), the Minneapolis Central City Market Company, the Minneapolis Esterly Harvester Company, the Minneapolis Land & Investment Company, the Minnesota and Dakota Elevator Company (Minneapolis), the National Lumber Convention (Washington, D.C.), the Northern Minnesota Log Driving & Boom Company, the Northwestern Elevator Company (Minneapolis), Pacific Investment Company, and the Waland Lumber Company Walker served as president of the Flour City National Bank (Minneapolis) from 1887 to 1894. He was a president of the Minneapolis Business Union, and was involved in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco (1915).
Walker was also a trustee of the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church (Minneapolis), a member of the Executive Committee of the Methodist Episcopal General Conference (Minneapolis), and a president of the Minneapolis Methodist Church Extension Society. He was a member of the executive committee of the See America League, a president of Walker Galleries, Inc., president of the library board of the City of Minneapolis from 1885 to 1928, a president and a trustee of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, president of the Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences and its successor, the Minnesota Academy of Science, and a trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of the City of Minneapolis.
T. B. Walker died at his home in Minneapolis on July 28, 1928. He is buried at Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis.
Harriet Granger Hulet Walker (1841-1917) was born in Brunswick, Ohio, on September 10, 1841. She was the daughter of Fletcher Hulet (1803-1882). Siblings included Clara S. Hulet Wheeler, Gilbert Hulet (circa 1836-1854), Margaret Hulet, Marshal F. Hulet (circa 1846-circa 1927), and Martha W. Hulet Lyon. The family moved to Berea, Ohio, circa 1847. Harriet attended Baldwin University, a Methodist-affiliated institution located at Berea. She married T. B. Walker on November 10, 1863. The Walkers had eight children: Gilbert, Julia, Leon, Harriet, Fletcher, Willis, Clinton, and Archie. Harriet died in New York on January 13, 1917, while accompanying her husband on a business trip there.
Harriet was president of Northwestern Hospital, originally a Minneapolis hospital for women and children, from 1862 until 1917. (Northwestern Hospital merged with Abbott Hospital in January 1970; Abbott-Northwestern Hospital Records are held by MHS as a seperate collection). She was associated with the Bethany Home Association, a Minneapolis home for unwed mothers and their childer, from 1874 until her death; for several years she was its president. The Bethany Home was succeeded by the Walker Methodist [nursing] Home, circa 1945. Some of Mrs. Walker's other involvements included the Women's Council of the City of Minneapolis, the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church (Minneapolis), the Nonpartisan National Women's Christian Temprence Union, and the Minneapolis Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women.
Gilbert Marshal Walker (1864-1928) was the first child of T. B. and Harriet G. Walker. He served as vice president of the Red River Lumber Company (RRLC) from around 1887 until his death in 1928, making his home in Minneapolis. Information in the papers suggests that Gilbert suffered a nervous breakdown in 1899, and that he was subsequently relatively uninvolved in Red River affairs until 1914 or later. Like his father, he seems to have advocated caution and moderation, particularly as his brothers Willis and Fletcher sought to expand the company's California operations. Gilbert died five months after his father, on December 28, 1928.
Gilbert married Susan M. ("Suzie") Rogers (circa 1866-1951) in 1887. She was born in Carlinville, Illinois to Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Rogers, came with her family to Minnesota, and attended Hamline University until her marriage to Gilbert. Gilbert and Susan had no children. Susan was survived by a sister Martha Rogers (Mrs. Jesse W.) Shuman; a nephew, John Rogers Shuman; and a niece, Susan Mary Shuman (Mrs. Richardson B.) Okie.
Julia Anstis Walker Smith (circa 1865-circa 1951) was the second child and the eldest daughter of T. B. and Harriet G. Walker. She married Ernest Frederick Smith (d. 1936) in 1895. Julia became president of the Bethany Home Association (Minneapolis) in 1917 after the death of her mother. She served for many years as a director of the Red River Lumber Company (RRLC), although she apparently took little or no active part in its business affairs or in formulating its policies. Julia was also a member of the Walker Associates family partnership; treasurer of the Pacific Investment Company (circa 1935); and secretary, treasurer, and a trustee of the T. B. Walker Foundation, Inc.
Family memorabilia in the collection indicate that Ernest F. Smith was a son of Dietrich C. (d. 1914) and Caroline ("Carrie") Pieper Smith (1844-1923), natives of Pekin, Illinois; he was also a brother of Arthur Pieper Smith (d. 1952), a Minneapolis dealer in mortgages and insurance. Ernest was a partner with L. W. Zimmer in Smith & Zimmer, Minneapolis manufacturers and jobbers of farm implements, buggies, and bicycles, circa 1893-1900. He served as president of the Hennepin Lumber Company (Minneapolis), circa 1905-circa 1919; president of the Lincoln Trust and Savings Bank (Minneapolis), circa 1920; vice president of the Lincoln National Bank (Minneapolis), circa 1922; president of the Lumbermens Finance Corporation, circa 1923-circa 1927; treasurer of the Arthur P. Smith Company, Minneapolis dealers in insurance and mortgages, circa 1924-circa 1925; president of Smith & Son Company, a Minneapolis real estate holding company, circa 1935; and president of Smith & Sons Investment Company and its predecessor organizations, circa 1926-circa 1935.
Ernest and Julia had four children; Walker (b. 1896), Dana C. (b. 1898), Hulet P. (b. 1900), and Justin V. Smith (1903-1979). The family moved from Minneapolis to Pasadena, California around 1926. The Smith sons took an active role in RRLC affairs, in addition to carrying on the business of Smith & Sons Investment Company.
Harriet Hulet Walker (1870-1904), also referred to as "Hattie" and as "Harriet Jr.," was the fourth child born to T. B. and Harriet G. Walker. She married Frederick ("Fred") Opal Holman (1857-1897), pastor of the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church (Minneapolis), in 1893. Holman left the active ministry in 1894 because of failing health, and he and Harriet, who evidently was also in poor health, spent the next several years travelling in the Southwest in a horse-drawn wagon and camping out in a tent in an effort to alleviate their suffering. Fred Holman died in 1897, apparently of tuberculosis. Harriet spent the final two or three years of her life at Pasadena, California, where she died of "heart trouble" in 1904. The Holmans had no children.
Fletcher Loren Walker (1872-1962) was the fifth child of T. B. and Harriet G. Walker. He became treasurer of the RRLC in 1898, and its vice president and treasurer circa 1930. He supervised the mill at Akeley, (circa 1899-circa 1915. (Hanft, p. 36), and seems to have spent a good deal of his time there in the early 1900s. He was the Walker family representative on location in Westwood, which became his home beginning in 1912; he was there when the town was platted, the houses located, the mill constructed, and the first logs cut. Described in 1933 by [Jack Clayton?] as "a mechanical inventive genius" (RRLC Subject Files: Winton), Fletcher continually advocated expansion and modernization of the operation, manufacturing and product line diversification, the investment of more money in the plant, and the purchase of additional equipment and machinery-- frequently in the face of objections from the Minneapolis office. Fletcher resigned as vice president, treasurer, and director of the RRLC in 1950.
Fletcher was married to Eveline Van Winkle Sammis (1871?-1964). They had four sons: Theodore S. (b. 1901), Fletcher Jr. ("Cub," d. 1929), Kenneth R. (b. 1906), and Norman B. Walker.
Willis J. Walker (1873-1943) was the fourth son of T. B. Walker. He was directly responsible for the Walkers' Minnesota logging operations during the time they were centered in Akeley (circa 1899-circa 1915). (Hanft, p. 36.) He also served as cashier of the RRLC prior to his years as a vice president (circa 1915-circa 1929) and president (circa 1929-1933). A management shake-up precipitated by the Walkers' Minneapolis and San Francisco bankers resulted in Willis' replacement as president by his brother Archie, he being named instead vice president and chairman of the board of directors (1933-1943). Willis lived in Minneapolis until about 1915, when he relocated in San Francisco and headed the company's office there.
Willis was vice president of the Barlow Realty Company (circa 1936), and was involved in some of the other family-owned Minneapolis property management businesses, including the Pacific Investment Company and the Walker-Burton Company He was also involved in the Four Walkers and the Walker Associates family partnerships; the Federal Lumber Company, the International Lumber Company (Minneapolis), the Waland Lumber Company, and the Walker Hovey Lumber Company; the Canby Railroad Company (owned by the Waland and Walker-Hovey companies); the Minneapolis Esterly Harvester Company (St. Louis Park, Minnesota), the Minneapolis Jarless Spring Carriage Company (St. Louis Park), and the Thompson Wagon Company; the Minneapolis Land and Investment Company; the Hennepin Paper Company; the Lassen Electric Company (Susanville, California); the Minneapolis Central City Market Company; the Northeastern Ry. Company (Minneapolis), the Northern California Railroad Company, and the Piute Railroad; the Sugar Pine Sales Company; and the Westwood National Bank. Willis was also a trustee of the T. B. Walker Foundation, Inc. (Minneapolis).
Willis married Alma Brooks (1875-1981), a sister of Della Brooks (Mrs. Clinton L. Walker), in 1897. They had one child, Leon Brooks Walker (1899-1965).
Clinton Lee Walker (1876-1944) was the fifth son of T. B. and Harriet G. Walker. He graduated in 1898 from the School of Mines at the University of Minnesota. He worked from 1898 to 1913 for T. B. and the RRLC in northern California, where he was involved in topographical and railroad surveys, timber estimating, mapping, ranching, ditch surveying and construction, the search for a site for the sawmill and town that would eventually become Westwood, and sawmill drafting. For one season (circa 1912-1913) he was resident manager at Westwood during the construction and early operation of the new mill and town.
In 1913 a disgruntled Clinton severed his official ties with the RRLC and struck out in pursuit of other interests, principally the invention of automotive parts and accessories. Around 1915 he formed a partnership with Edward J. Pennypacker, another inventor, in the Pennypacker Company, based in San Francisco; Clinton was president, Pennypacker was general manager. In 1917 Clinton applied to join the Engineer Officers' Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army. He served also at this time as "special negotiator" for the Great Western Power Company, San Francisco. He invested in land of his own, and later (circa 1928) in motion picture making. After 1913, Clinton occasionally did work for his father and for the RRLC on a job-by-job basis, although he seems to have devoted most of his time to his inventions.
By 1930, Clinton and his son Brooks were working together as "Automotive and Aviation Development Engineers," with laboratories and an office at Clinton's home at Piedmont (near Oakland), California. By this time Clinton had also rejoined the RRLC as a vice president ("2nd vice president" until 1933, "vice president" afterwards), which post he evidently held until his death in 1944.
Clinton was a bit of a maverick, and frequently found himself in conflict with his father (whom he claimed favored his brothers over himself) and with his brothers, particularly Willis. Resentment, suspicion, and jealousy between T. B.'s sons, particularly between Willis and Clinton, is evident throughout both this section and the others. The continual bickering and infighting came to bear significantly upon the sons' careers and upon RRLC affairs.
Clinton was married (circa 1901) to Della Brooks, a sister of Alma (Mrs. Willis J.) Walker. They had three children: son Brooks Walker (1902-1984), and daughters Harriet E. Walker Henderson (1904-) and Alma Virginia Walker Hearst McKeever (1908-). Della later married James Van L�ben Sels.
Archie Dean Walker (1882-1971) was the youngest and longest-surviving child of T. B. and Harriet G. Walker. He graduated from Minneapolis Central High School in 1901. He began his higher education at the University of Minnesota's College of Engineering, but by 1904 had transferred to Cornell University. He served as Minneapolis-based secretary of the Red River Lumber Company from 1908 until July 1933, when he replaced his brother Willis as company president in a management shake-up to appease the Walkers' banker/creditors. Archie served as president until at least 1956, through the company's sale of Westwood and liquidation of its other assets.
Archie was president of the Barlow Realty Company from the 1930s until the 1960s, and was also involved in other of the family's Minneapolis property-management businesses, including the Industrial Investment Company, the Pacific Investment Company, the Penwalk Investment Company, the Walker-Pence Company and its subsidiaries, and the Walker-Burton Company He was also involved in the Four Walkers, the Walker Associates, and the Walker Brothers family partnerships; the Foote Lumber and Coal Company (Minneapolis), the Globe Lumber Company, the Waland Lumber Company, and the Hennepin Paper Company; the Lincoln National Bank and the Lincoln Trust and Savings Bank (both Minneapolis); the Minneapolis Central City Market Company, the Minneapolis Land and Investment Company, the Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern Railway Company, the Northwest Warehousing Company, the Superior Land Company, the Kicherer Motor Company, the Lake Hassel Gun Club, Inc., the Northome Improvement Association, and Northome Private Roads, Inc.
Archie's Minneapolis civic involvements included membership in the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Association and the Hennepin Avenue Improvement Association; president of the city library board; chairman of the board of trustees of Hennepin Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church (1955-1958); president of the Walker Methodist Home; and trustee and president of the T. B. Walker Foundation, Inc. (from 1929). He and his wife established the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Foundation.
Archie married Bertha Willard Hudson (1882-1973), a daughter of Minneapolis jeweler Josiah Bell Hudson, on June 7, 1906. Archie and Bertha had six children: Hudson D. (1907-1976), Louise (b. 1915), Phillip H. (1917-1969), Stephen A. (b. 1910), Walter W. (b. 1911), and Archie D. Walker, Jr. (b. 1920).
Clara W. Nelson, a Minneapolis schoolteacher and free-lance writer, labored for nearly forty years in an attempt to write A Lifetime Burning, a biography of Thomas Barlow Walker. Nelson began work on the project in 1943 under a Regional Fellowship from the University of Minnesota; a tentative completion date was originally set for September 1, 1945. The first twenty-three of a projected fifty chapters were in relatively final form by 1950; Nelson continued work on additional chapters until her death in 1974. Maureen Koelsch was later hired by Walker's granddaughter, Louise W. McCannel, to edit and to bring together the various pieces of Nelson's unfinished work, and to combine these with the first twenty-three chapters (which she also edited) into an essentially complete manuscript, basically in accordance with Nelson's organizational outlines. The fifty-two chapter Nelson-Koelsch manuscript was completed in 1986.
The Red River Lumber Company (RRLC) was organized in 1883 and incorporated in 1884. Incorporators included T. B. Walker, Simcoe Chapman, Andrew B. Robbins, Watson S. Taylor, and Edwin C. Whitney. Lumber mills were constructed at Crookston, Minnesota, in 1883, and at Grand Forks, Dakota Territory, in 1885. The Grand Forks mill was completely destroyed by fire on August 16, 1888; it was not rebuilt. The mill at Crookston was sold in 1897 to the Thomas H. Shevlin interests, who, as the Crookston Lumber Company, continued to operate the plant for several more years.
By 1892 T. B. Walker was developing the new town of Akeley, Minnesota, in Hubbard County, as a location for a future sawmill. Walker named the town for his business partner, Healy C. Akeley. The first log was sawed at the company's Akeley mill in 1899. The mill burned on November 22, 1909; it was subsequently rebuilt, and was operated until 1915.
T. B. began acquiring northeastern California timber land in 1894. Family land holdings in that state eventually totaled a reported 900,000 acres in Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, and Tehama counties. The RRLC began construction of its company town--Westwood--and its lumber mill at the "Mountain Meadows" site in southwestern Lassen County in 1912. The company cut its first California tree on September 10, 1912; the first California lumber was milled a few weeks later on October 1. The construction of the Westwood mill was more or less complete by 1918. By this time T. B. had relinquished much of his control of company management to his sons Gilbert, Fletcher, Willis, and Archie, and he seems to have become increasingly frustrated with his inability to completely control the business himself.
T. B.'s son Clinton left the company in 1913, although he rejoined it in the 1930s. T. B. died on July 28, 1928; and Gilbert died five months later, on December 28, 1928. This left the active management of RRLC affairs in the hands of Willis (San Francisco), who succeeded his father as president of the firm; Fletcher (Westwood); and Archie (Minneapolis).
By the early 1930s the RRLC found itself in dire financial straits; in particular, it was unable to redeem bonds which it had earlier sold and which were then coming due. Barlow Realty Company was organized in December 1932, for the purpose of acquiring and managing all of the real estate owned by the RRLC in the city of Minneapolis. This was probably done at the insistence of the family's Minneapolis bankers. The family was able to thwart a 1933 effort led by Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis president Edward W. Decker to install his son-in-law, David J. Winton, as manager or president of the RRLC. Instead, the Walkers managed to get Archie installed as its president, replacing Willis, whose ouster was apparently demanded by the Minneapolis banker/creditors. Later that same year, the company had to ask its bondholders to grant time extensions on bonds then coming due.
A chapter of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen (4-Ls), a trade organization headquartered in Portland, Oregon, was established at Westwood in 1933. Its newsletters characterized it as "an industry organization of employes[sic] and employers of the West Coast and Western Pine Divisions of the logging and lumber manufacturing industry promoting common interests." Around 1935, it was succeeded by the Industrial Employees Union, Inc. (IEU). In 1937, a majority of workers voted to replace the IEU with the CIO-affiliated International Woodworkers of America (IWA), which the RRLC refused to recognize. A March 1938, election sponsored by the National Labor Relations Board certified the IEU over the IWA as the workers' legal bargaining agent. Several episodes of strife between the two rival unions followed, most notably in July, 1938, when the company enacted a 17.5% wage cut, conducted a lockout at the Westwood plant, and carried out or supported the expulsion of IWA organizers and sympathizers from the town. The RRLC then invited the Lumber and Sawmill Workers, an established union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, to organize its workers as Local 2836. Early in 1939, Local 2836 called another strike and the company restored half of the 1938 wage cut. Finally, in May 1941, Local 2836 was certified as legal bargaining agent for Westwood workers in another NLRB-sponsored election. (Hanft, pp. 234-239.)
Willis Walker died in 1943, Clinton Walker in 1944. Perhaps in part because of these occurrences, the decision was taken to liquidate the RRLC. Westwood was sold to the Fruit Growers Supply Company, a subsidiary of the California Fruit Growers Exchange of Los Angeles, in a deal consummated in December 1944. Besides the mill and the company-owned town, the transaction included about 11,000 acres of timber land in the Light's Creek Tract (Plumas County), and about 85,000 acres of the Burney Tract (Shasta County). The purchase price totaled more than $11 million. Fruit Growers operated the Westwood mill until 1956, when it was closed down and both it and the town sold. The mill burned to the ground on November 8, 1956.
Unsold cutover lands in Minnesota were deeded to the Barlow Realty Company in the 1940s. California timber lands standing in the company's name were distributed to its stockholders (family members and a few key employees) over the years, beginning in 1941. Shasta Forests Company (SHAFCO), a Walker family cooperative corporation, was created to manage the lands on behalf of the stockholders, and to carry out any liquidation of the stockholders' or their agents' assets, particularly timber cutting. [See SHAFCO Records, for more information on the stockholder agencies.] SHAFCO did not manufacture lumber. Liquidation of the RRLC continued into the 1950s.
Besides the mills at Crookston, Grand Forks, Akeley, and Westwood, the RRLC operated several smaller mills in northern Minnesota and in northeastern California. Smaller California mills included operations at Bella Vista (Shasta County) and at Susanville. At various times there were sales offices at Minneapolis, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. Distributing yards were located at Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Reno, Nevada. Although the RRLC was primarily a lumber manufacturer and wholesaler, there were some retail sales in the Twin Cities through the Foote Lumber and Coal Company, a RRLC subsidiary that operated retail yards in both Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Presidents of the RRLC were T. B. Walker (1884?-1928), Willis J. Walker (1928?-1933), and Archie D. Walker (1933-circa 1956). Vice presidents included Gilbert M. Walker (1887-1928), Willis J. Walker (1913-1928?), Clinton L. Walker (1930?-1944?), Fletcher L. Walker (1930?-1950), and Theodore S. Walker (from 1936). Secretaries included Watson S. Taylor (1884-1894), Charles B. March (1894-1908), Archie D. Walker (1908-1933), and Kenneth R. Walker (1933-1950). Watson S. Taylor was secretary-treasurer from 1884 to 1894, and Fletcher served as treasurer from 1898 until 1950. Willis served as chairman and vice president from the time of his 1933 ouster from the company presidency until his death in 1943. The above dates were taken primarily from company letterheads, and some are approximations.
Minnesota Timberlands
T. B. Walker apparently began his acquisition of Minnesota timberlands around 1870. Title was obtained in various ways, including the use of Chippewa scrip and soldiers scrip; land patents; and applications to enter public lands under the Treaty of February 22, 1855, with the Chippewa of the Mississippi (10 Stat. 1165). T. B. also purchased all of the timber owned by the estate of Levi Butler. Francis M. Campbell apparently was instrumental in carrying out much of the field work necessary to T. B.'s land acquisition program, such as getting deeds signed and acquiring scrip certificates. Walker was represented by Henry Beard, a Washington, D.C. attorney and land solicitor, as well as by the Washington, D.C. law firm of Curtis & Burdett, who specialized in land and mining cases.
Jens J. Opsahl, a Bemidji, Minnesota realtor, began selling cutover Minnesota land for the Walkers around 1900, continuing to do so for several decades thereafter.
At one time some of the lands in Minnesota actually belonging to the Red River Lumber Company were kept in the names of some of the Walkers as individuals. The records suggest that these lands were later quit-claimed by Gilbert, Willis, Archie, and possibly Fletcher to the RRLC, which eventually quit-claimed them to Barlow. Cutover lands initially belonging to T. B. Walker were also eventually deeded to Barlow. The RRLC had apparently let much of its Minnesota cutover lands go tax delinquent, except those with minerals or lakeshore. Family members later made attempts to redeem some of those lands.
T. B. Walker and Healy Cady Akeley (1836-1912), a Michigan lawyer and lumberman, first met in 1886 at Minneapolis when T. B. dissuaded Akeley from building a sawmill on the Mississippi River at St. Cloud, Minnesota. Instead, they began an informal business partnership to cut and sell logs. In March 1887, the men contracted to buy timber lands in northern Minnesota on joint account, Akeley furnishing the capital and Walker paying 5% interest on the money advanced in his behalf. In August 1887, Walker and Akeley entered into a new contract under which Akeley bought a half interest in a long list of Walker and Red River Lumber Company (RRLC) lands.
In 1892 the men drew up a formal partnership contract. T. B. Walker managed and administered partnership affairs out of the RRLC office at Minneapolis, apparently with the complete confidence of Akeley, who meanwhile occupied himself with his H. C. Akeley and Itasca lumber companies. Clara Nelson states that Walker & Akeley partnership lands evidently averaged about 200,000 acres; in time T. B. came to own a 45/64 interest in these lands, Akeley a 19/64 interest. Akeley eventually retired from active business and moved to California.
Akeley died at Minneapolis in 1912 while on a visit there. He was survived by his widow Clara (after remarriage, Clara Rood Smith) and one daughter, Florence Akeley Quirk (later Florence Akeley Patterson, following her divorce from Quirk). Walker spent the next three years trying to settle partnership affairs with the daughter, who was also the administratrix of her father's estate. Failing to get a settlement, he sued for an accounting in October 1915, in the district court of Beltrami County, Minnesota. Walker claimed that there was money due him from the partnership, asked to have the amount determined, and asked the court to order a sale of partnership lands to satisfy the amount that should be found due. Mrs. Quirk filed an answer, asserting similar claims against Walker. The Walker interests were represented by Minneapolis attorneys John R. Ware and C. J. Rockwood; the Akeley heirs by Minneapolis attorney Hugh V. Mercer.
The case was tried before Judge W. S. McClenahan. He heard part of the testimony and sent the case to referees to hear evidence. Nearly 6000 pages of typewritten oral evidence were taken and about 1500 exhibits were introduced. The bulk of the evidence was finished in 1921, four years after the suit was commenced; further evidence was taken in August 1922, and a small amount of evidence at a still later time. McClenahan filed his findings on May 1, 1924, sustaining Walker's position in nearly every particular. The RRLC was brought into the action as an intervenor, and its extensive business transactions with the partnership were examined and its rights adjudicated. One large claim was allowed against the intervenor in favor of the partnership, but in general the plaintiff and intervenor prevailed in the action. A motion for a new trial was heard November 1, 1924; the court issued an order in December 1924, denying the new trial. Judgment in the case was entered April 5, 1925. Florence Akeley Patterson filed two appeals, one from the order denying a new trial, and one from the judgment; she lost both appeals, which were argued before the Minnesota Supreme Court in December 1925 (see Supreme Court case file 24779, in the State Archives).
The assets remaining at the time judgment was entered consisted of unsold cutover timber lands in Hubbard, Beltrami, and adjacent counties, and the unpaid balances on partnership lands sold.
Beginning in 1941 the RRLC and the Waland Lumber Company from time to time distributed timber lands to their stockholders (mainly family members). Each stockholder then held an undivided interest in these properties and, in order to liquidate his or her interest, disposed of them either independently or through an agent. The agents and principals in turn entered into agreements with SHAFCO whereby the company provided personnel, equipment, and supplies to carry on the liquidating operations and charged for these services at cost.
At the time of its creation, SHAFCO maintained a staff of about 40, including many former RRLC employees. The company consisted of four divisions: accounting, land, forestry, and surveys, under the direction of a general manager, who in turn reported to the company's officers. The Walkers, through SHAFCO and its successor, Red River Forests, continued for many years to manage much of their California timber land as a perpetual forest investment, practicing selective cutting, tree farming, and other conservation measures.
Dr. John E. Andrus (1841-1934) was a wealthy New York investor who subscribed to several hundred shares of the Waland Lumber Company. This company, a Minnesota corporation, was originally organized (circa 1905) to construct a mill (never built) in a tract of timber in Shasta County, California. In 1911, T. B. and Harriet Walker and the RRLC deeded lands in Shasta, Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen, and Plumas counties to the Waland in exchange for stock. It was largely a timberland holding company until 1926, when it began large-scale timber sales. Andrus' heirs and trustees continued to have an interest in several of the Walker family agency lands into the 1940s or later. There is information about the Andrus lands in the SHAFCO files.
The Minneapolis Central City Market Company was incorporated in 1891 by T. B. Walker, Harlow A. Gale, Gilbert M. Walker, Henry E. Von Wedelstaedt, and George A. Camp. Gale, operator of a retail farmers' market in downtown Minneapolis from 1876 to 1891, apparently persuaded Walker and Camp to donate the land for and finance the construction of a new, larger market building covering the entire city block bounded by Sixth and Seventh streets, and Second and Third avenues north. The new market building, which accommodated 300 gardeners and included several wholesale stores and retail booths, was opened in 1892; Gale retained an interest in the business and remained as manager. In 1894 this building was destroyed by fire. Camp died shortly thereafter, and the Walker interests built a new market building in the spring of 1895.
Originally intended as a retail farmers' market, the operation rapidly evolved instead into a wholesale market, grocers being the vendors' principal customers. The city initially provided tax exemption and free city water to the property, while ostensibly retaining rights of management and control over the market.
Walker and his associates were granted a 25-year franchise (from July 1, 1892) to operate their market, apparently a virtual monopoly of the farmers' market business in downtown Minneapolis. As the expiration date drew near, Alderman C. F. Dight and his aides mounted a challenge to Walker's market monopoly, calling for the establishment of curb markets in different parts of the city and for the creation of a central, municipally-owned and -operated food department store. (See the C. F. Dight Papers, also at MHS, for additional information.)
The Minneapolis Central City Market Company was dissolved as of October 30, 1937; its employees were absorbed into the Barlow Realty Company. There is additional information about the Market Company in Barlow Realty Company Records.
The Minneapolis Land & Investment Company (ML & IC) was incorporated on July 16, 1890, by T. B. Walker, C. G. Goodrich, L. F. Menage, H. F. Brown, Thomas Lowry, R. C. Haywood, G. G. Boshart, A. M. Allen, and George H. Christian; the same men also comprised the first board of directors. Walker was named president, Allen secretary, and Goodrich treasurer.
Development at St. Louis Park came to a standstill with the Panic of 1893. Many of the community's major businesses (in which Walker was a substantial investor) failed, and with those failures, many families left. At about the same time, Menage's Northwestern Guaranty Loan Company (Minneapolis) also failed, and Menage fled to South America. The Walkers apparently gained control of several of the failed St. Louis Park businesses in which they had invested, including the Minneapolis Esterly Harvester Company, the Thompson Wagon Company, the Minneapolis Jarless Spring Carriage Company, and the Minneapolis Malleable Iron Company (See T. B. Walker Papers for information about Esterly; and see Gilbert M. Walker Papers for Jarless and Thompson). In about 1917 all of ML & IC's assets were sold to the Pacific Investment Company, which in time became a subsidiary of the Barlow Realty Company. By 1948 practically all of the St. Louis Park lots owned by the Walkers had been sold or forfeited for taxes.
Barlow Realty Company was organized in December 1932, for the stated purpose of acquiring and administering all of the real estate owned by the Red River Lumber Company (RRLC) in the city of Minneapolis, probably at the insistence of the Walkers' Minneapolis bankers.
Barlow eventually came to assume many of the functions of a holding company, overseeing most of the family's surviving Minneapolis-based corporations and partnerships, particularly after the liquidation of the RRLC in the late 1940s. It became a sort of umbrella organization into which many family interests gravitated over the years, including cutover Minnesota lands and unsold real estate at St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The company's records include files related to virtually every one of the Walker family corporations and partnerships.
Three key constituent and subsidiary real estate holding companies involved in the management of Barlow's Minneapolis properties-the Pacific Investment Company, the Penwalk Investment Company, and the Walker-Pence Company (originally called the Industrial Investment Company)-actually had their beginnings several years prior to Barlow's organization in 1932.
Barlow Realty Company was dissolved effective August 31, 1988. It was succeeded on September 1, 1988, by an entity known as Barlow Associates.
The Pacific Investment Company was incorporated in February 1917, by Trafford N. Jayne, Edward A. Chalgren, and H. M. Samuels; a few days later the incorporators sold their interest in Pacific to T. B., Willis, Gilbert, and Archie Walker and Julia Walker Smith. The company was apparently dissolved in 1950. The Mary Place Realty Company, a real estate holding company subsidiary of the Pacific, was incorporated in March 1916 by George K. Belden, W. W. Heffelfinger, and C. W. Elston. This company was dissolved in 1938; at the time of dissolution Pacific was its only shareholder. (Mary Place, a street in downtown Minneapolis, was later renamed LaSalle Avenue.) Another Pacific subsidiary was the Minneapolis Land & Investment Company (ML & IC), which was incorporated in 1890 to promote the development of St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb. Pacific purchased the remaining assets of the ML & IC, especially vacant land at St. Louis Park, in 1917; by 1948 practically all of the St. Louis Park lots had been sold or let go for taxes. (See also ML & IC Records.)
The Penwalk Investment Company was incorporated in April 1920 by James C., Platt B., and Archie D. Walker. Officers in 1936 included John D. Osborn, president; Dorothy Pence, vice president; Archie D. Walker, secretary; and Bertha H. Walker, treasurer; in 1950, Archie Walker was president and Bertha Walker secretary. The company's principal asset in 1959 was the Penwalk Building, which was built in 1922. Penwalk was absorbed by the Barlow Realty Company, effective July 31, 1972.
The Industrial Investment Company was incorporated in February 1917 by Jayne, Chalgren, and Samuels. On March 12, 1917 T. B., Gilbert, Willis, and Archie Walker were elected directors of the company, whereupon Jayne, Chalgren, and Samuels resigned as officers and directors. The name of the company was changed to Walker-Pence Company in 1921. Directors at the time of the name change were Harry E. Pence, Gilbert and Archie Walker, and Fred C. Malcolmson; stockholders included Gilbert, Willis, Fletcher, Clinton, and Archie Walker, Pence, Malcolmson, and Julia Walker Smith. Some of the firm's assets eventually included the Anthony Apartments (St. Paul), the Commodore Hotel (St. Paul), the Buckingham Hotel (Minneapolis), and the Walker Building/State Theatre complex (Minneapolis). The Barlow Realty Company absorbed Walker-Pence, along with Penwalk, in 1972.
The State Theatre Heating Company, a Walker-Pence subsidiary, was incorporated in 1921 by H. E. Pence, Archie D. Walker, I. H. Ruben, and M. L. Finkelstein. Its primary purpose apparently was to produce and sell steam heat from a power plant in the State Theatre Building[?] to adjacent tenants and property owners. In the 1960s and early 1970s Walker-Pence and the Minnesota Amusement Company (known as ABC North Central Theatres, Inc.) each owned half-interest in the company. In 1971 it was resolved to liquidate the company's assets; its affairs were declared completely dissolved on February 17, 1972.
Walker-Pence was also part owner of the Eighth Street Development Company, which was composed of a group of Minneapolis businessmen associated to promote business development along Eighth Street between Nicollet and Hennepin avenues in downtown Minneapolis. One of the group's projects involved buying real estate along Eighth Street owned by a Unitarian congregation, demolishing the church building, and constructing a building of its own on the site. The company existed as early as 1927; by 1941 it seems to have been more-or-less inactive. Some of the other owners and stockholders of this company included, over the years, S. T. McKnight, the S. T. McKnight Company, Thorpe Bros., J. H. Palmer, N. L. Newhall, A. D. Walker, G. N. Dayton, G. D. Dayton, and the Dayton Company.
The Minneapolis Central City Market Company was incorporated in 1891, and for many years operated a wholesale commission produce market in downtown Minneapolis. The company was dissolved in 1937 and its employees were absorbed into the Barlow Realty Company (See Minneapolis Central City Market Company Records.)
From the guide to the T. B. Walker and Family Papers., 1914-1990., (Minnesota Historical Society)
