WALTER DAY McKOY

Sacramento County

Biographies

WALTER DAY McKOY

WALTER DAY McKOY.--An eminently practical business man, inspired by high ideals, is Walter Day McKoy, proprietor of the Property Owners' Protective Association, with offices at R and Twenty-fourth Streets, Sacramento. A native son, enthusiastic for everything pertaining to the welfare of the Golden State, he was born at Georgetown, in Eldorado County, on November 9, 1869, the son of Gaudenchio Hubbard and Mary Frances (Day) McKoy, born in Scotland and Ohio, respectively, the former a pioneer who came across the great plains by means of the ox-team train in 1850. He went into the mines, but soon found a better prospect for getting gain in the transportation of freight, with a pack-train, from Sacramento to Georgetown. He also had several sawmills, which he ran with success. Both Mr. and Mrs. McKoy endured the usual privations of pioneers, sacrificing not a little in their work of helping to open up the new path of civilization; and it is pleasant to record that they are still living, in the enjoyment of a comfortable old age, making their home with their son.

Walter D. McKoy attended the public schools of Santa Cruz County, and supplemented his preparation with an excellent business college course. At the same time, he learned the carpenter's trade from his father, as also plastering and bricklaying, and for years followed these trades. In 1898 he located in Los Angeles, and besides engaging as a contractor plasterer he also handled plasterer's and bricklayer's material. Here he was burned out, and sustained a loss of $6,000, without insurance. He plastered the Lankershim Hotel, the largest job of its kind in Los Angeles up to that time. In 1900, he hung out his shingle at Long Beach, Cal., as a contractor; and five years later he removed to San Francisco, to continue the same enterprise there, and was settled and actively operating in that city when the great earthquake and fire caught him, while building three and four-flat buildings, and caused him a total loss, again cleaning him out, financially. He again went to work at his trade, successfully engaging in business as a contractor, and accumulated means with which to build an apartment building on a lot which he owned; and having sold this, he removed to Sacramento in 1908, and started over again. Here he also engaged in building, but confined himself to the construction of residences. He has built and sold no less than 400 houses in Sacramento--an exceptional record for any contractor, anywhere. He erected the Casa del Rey Apartments at the corner of Seventeenth and I Streets, the Oneida Apartments at the corner of Eleventh and F Streets, and many four-flat buildings of a superior type, all adding to the ornate appearance, as well as to the wealth, of the city, and affording to many additional comfort and safety. He is still engaged in the erection of buildings, all being, however, his own property. On June 21, 1921, Mr. McKoy established the lumber yard with which he has become more and more actively identified, and which on August 22 of the same year burned, compelling him to rebuild and restock. He is a large landowner, but in his business he is satisfied to sell at a fair profit, and much below the price exacted by "The Trust." He belongs to the Republican party, and in his attitude toward public questions stands always for progress. Mr. McKoy has two children: Mabel, the wife of Albert Wohlken, of San Francisco; and Alfred, a graduate of Heald's Business College, who is assisting his father in the management of his business.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 677-678. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.