Siskiyou
County
Biographies
W. E. WALKER
For sixty-seven years W. E. Walker has been a resident of
the Sacramento valley and has long been recognized as one of its sturdy and
dependable citizens. He has been a hard worker and a good manager and has been
reasonably successful in his affairs. He was born in Missouri, on the 26th
of August, 1860, and is a son of W. B. and Elizabeth (Head) Walker, the
former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. Mr. Walker went to
Kentucky in young manhood and there farmed until 1863, when he came across the
plains to the coast with a train of about a dozen wagons. They got through
without serious trouble with the Indians, traveling by way of the Oregon trail and Salt Lake City, and Mr. Walker first located
in the Shasta valley. About thirty days later he came to the Scott valley and
rented the Holtzsierer ranch, on which he lived for
one year. During the following two years he was on the Simmons ranch adjoining,
and in 1866 came to the present homestead farm, comprising five hundred acres
of good land. He had two hundred and eighty acres under cultivation, the
remainder being pasture land. Mr. Walker was a veteran of the Civil war,
having served in the Union Army two years. He died March 16, 1878, and was
survived many years by his widow, who passed away in 1911, at the age of
eighty-three. Of their twelve children the following are living: Joseph, of
Etna, where he was formerly engaged in the livery business; Addie, who is the widow
of the late Charles Abbott, and lives in Portland, Oregon; Ellen, the wife of
Albert E. Domey, fish commissioner at
Sacramento; W. E.; and Lizzie, who is the wife of Charles Reynolds, a
rancher.
W. E. Walker received his education in the public schools
of his home neighborhood and has spent practically his entire life on the home
ranch. He gives considerable attention to fattening beef cattle, keeping from
sixty to one hundred head, and he raises good crops of hay and grain, which he
feeds, instead of selling for cheap prices. He assisted his father in former
years in developing the home ranch, which he has maintained at a high standard
of cultivation and is regarded as one of the progressive farmers and stockmen
of this district.
In 1888 Mr. Walker was united in marriage to Miss Sarah
Davis, a daughter of Lewis and Sarah (Evans) Davis, the former a native of
Wales and the latter of Welch descent. Mrs. Walker was born in Scott
valley, not far from her present home. They are the parents of three children,
namely: Bernard, who remains on the home ranch; R. A., who is in the Scott
Valley Bank, at Fort Jones and is married and has a son, Vernon; and Amie, who
is the wife of Herbert Luce, a shoemaker at Ft. Jones.
Mr. Walker gives his political support to the republican party but has never held or sought public office.
He has for the past forty-six years been a member of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows at Ft. Jones. He was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, to which he gives generous support, though not a member. He has always
been too busy to give much time to sports, but takes a wide interest in all
passing events, being a close reader and a keen observer, so that he is a well
informed man.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
02 June 2010.
Source: Wooldridge, J.W.Major
History of Sacramento Valley California, Vol. 2, Pages 150-151. Pioneer Historical Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Marie Hassard..
Golden Nugget Library's Siskiyou County Biographies