William Wallace Walker

FOSTER, MCFEE, MITCHELL, WALKER, WHITNEY

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 10/14/2005 at 14:25:35

William Wallace Walker, cashier of the Macksburg National Bank and well known in local financial circles, was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, on the 23d of April, 1857, a son of John Wallace Walker, who was born in that state in 1816 and devoted his life to teaching and farming. He passed away in the Keystone state in 1883, when about sixty-seven years of age. His wife, who was in her maidenhood Miss Mary Foster, was born in Pennsylvania in 1817 and died in 1909, while on a visit to a daughter in Adair county, Iowa.

During the days of his boyhood and youth William W. Walker remained under the parental roof and attended the public schools in the acquirement of an education. Later he was a student at the Illinois State Normal school at Normal, Illinois, thus fitting himself for more efficient work as a teacher. He had previously taught in Pennsylvania and was for some time a teacher in Illinois and Iowa. He was married in the Prairie state in 1880 and subsequently engaged in the mercantile business at Twin Grove, Illinois. Although he has always voted the republican ticket he was made postmaster of that place under Cleveland through the solicitation of Congressman Rowell. Upon the expiration of his term in that office he became foreman of a lumber business in Des Moines and remained in that connection for three years. Subsequently he removed to Adair county, Iowa, where he purchased two hundred and forty acres of land and for five years his energies were devoted to its cultivation. He then went to Colorado and represented a Kansas City lumber firm for two years. He returned to his farm and remained there until 1904, but on the 1st of March of that year he was made cashier of the Macksburg National Bank, just seven months after it had received its charter as a national bank. During the eleven years that he has had the general supervision of the affairs of the bank the business of that institution has shown a steady growth and its policy has won the approval of the community. He is not only discreet and judicious, but he is also invariably courteous, which trait has proved a factor in his business success.

Mr. Walker married Miss Sarah McFee, a native of Illinois, and they have three children: Stella, the wife of H. D. Mitchell, who is operating the home farm in Adair county; Nell, now the wife of F. H. Whitney, of Cumberland, Iowa; and Ralph, who is manager of the Fullerton Company at Macksburg.

Mr. Walker is a republican and has always taken a keen interest in all matters closely connected with the good of the public. He is willing to give his aid to any cause that he believes will further the civic, commercial or moral advancement of his community, and in the eleven years that he has resided in Macksburg he has been a forceful factor in its progress.

Taken from the book, “The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915,” by Herman Mueller.