Sacramento County
Biographies
WILLIAM D. STALKER
WILLIAM D.
STALKER. The son of a Presbyterian
minister and a native of the state of New York, William D. Stalker was born
in Washington county August 11, 1837, and made his home in the Empire state
until 1852. His father, Duncan Stalker,
was born in Scotland
and received his education in his native country. Completing his education, he prepared himself
for the work of the ministry, to which calling he devoted the best years of his
life. In Scotland
he was married to Miss Agnes Strachan, who was also a native of that
country. His honorable and useful career
as a preacher of the gospel was brought to a close by his death in New York,
the field of his ministerial labors in this country, where his wife also passed
her last days.
William D.
Stalker received a part of his education in the public schools of New
York, and afterward attended the Argyle
Academy for a time in order to
round out his education. Leaving school,
he engaged in various occupations until 1855, when he went to Michigan
and took up carpenter work in Kalamazoo. In 1858 he started for California,
but upon arriving at Leavenworth he secured a position as
a teamster for the government and drove to Salt Lake City,
where he was discharged. From there,
with seven others, he again started for this state, arriving in Sacramento
November 1, 1858. For a time he worked
in a planing mill here, later becoming associated with
C. N. Hartwell and F. S. Hotchkiss in the manufacture of sash, doors, blinds,
etc., a partnership which existed until 1897, when it was dissolved. Mr. Hartwell having died and Mr. Hotchkiss
wishing to relinquish the business, Mr. Stalker purchased the interest of the
others and continued the business one year, when the plant was destroyed by fire. In 1875 and again in 1885 fire visited the
plant, the mill having been rebuilt on the original site; and in 1898 fire
again destroyed the plant. Mr. Stalker
later became manager of the Sacramento Planing Mill
and Furniture Company, and in 1904 was made foreman of the business.
In 1872 Mr.
Stalker was married to Miss Alice C. Morse, a teacher in the Perry Seminary, Sacramento,
and a native of Ohio. During her girlhood she went to Michigan
and later to California. One son and a daughter were born of this
union: William M., who is engaged in the
planing mill business at San Jose;
and Nina, who was drowned at Twin Lake
while fishing in 1893. Fraternally Mr.
Stalker is a member of the Knights of Honor; Capital Lodge No. 87, I.
O. O. F.; and Occidental Encampment No. 42.
He still owns the site of the original mill on Front and Q
street, where he carried
on a successful business for many years.
Transcribed
by Kathy Porter.
Source: “History of
the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley,
California” by
J. M. Guinn. Pages 666-667.
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1906.
© 2007 Kathy Porter.