Walker, Alphonso B. (1837-1924)

WALKER

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 1/26/2009 at 13:49:43

Alphonso Bliss Walker
(April 2, 1837 - March 13, 1924)

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.60, Council Bluffs)
A. B. Walker, real estate, Council Bluffs, came to Council Bluffs in 1871 as Steward of the Deaf and Dumb Institute, occupying that position until 1877, when he moved into the city. He then engaged in the real estate and abstract business as a member of the firm of Squire & Walker, continuing in that firm about two and a half years; then sold out the abstract business to Mr. Squire, and continued in the real estate business himself. In 1880, he began investing in mines in Utah and Colorado, assisting in organizing the Park Mining & Milling Company, Union Consolidated Mining Company and Lakeside Mining Company, the first two first of Utah and the last of Colorado. Mr. Walker was born in 1837 in Elkhart County, Ind., and at the age of two years came with his parents to Iowa, and located on a farm near Iowa City, Johnson County. He was educated in the public schools of Johnson County, and at Galesburg, Ill. When eight years of age, his father died, and when fifteen years of age, he went to live with an uncle in Madison County, Ohio, and commenced clerking for his uncle and remained there until he was twenty-one years of age. He then returned to Iowa City and engaged in the photograph business, which he continued until 1862. He was four months in the army in 1865. In 1858, he married Loraine Byers, of London, Madison Co., Ohio. After his marriage, he lived two years in Ohio, where his wife died, and he then returned again to Iowa. He was again married in 1876 to Abbie M., daughter of Rev. G. G. Rice, one of the earliest preachers of Pottawattamie County, and the first Congregationalist ministers in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Walker visited the Centennial at Philadelpia while on their marriage tour.