WALKER, Marshall M.

WALKER, Marshall M. (Dummerston, VT, 1832--Dubuque, Iowa, 1904). At the age of eighteen, Walker moved to Boston with an interest in pursuing a musical career. An interest in business, however, soon developed and he operated a confectionery at 88 Main Street in Charlestown, Massachusetts. In 1856 he came west and operated a sailing barge on the MISSISSIPPI RIVER north of Dubuque, transporting and trading. (1) In 1857 he became a partner in the firm of Fairbanks, Walker and Company, a dealer in wood and railroad ties.

In 1860 Walker started a wholesale grocery business with Noah C. AMSDEN. In 1869 Walker bought Amsden's interest in the business and renaming it the M. M. WALKER COMPANY. He incorporated the business in 1878 and reorganized with D.T. Smith ten years later. Walker's firm grew steadily from annual sales of $150,000 in 1869 to almost $1 million in 1886-- Iowa's largest such business, according to one source. That year he employed some 14 men, with two traveling salesmen.

He was the original operator of the Dubuque Tank Line, handling light oils. Associated with the STANDARD OIL COMPANY for twenty-five years, Walker began with consignments in five-barrel lots. When he sold his interest to the company in 1888, he was receiving a carload of oil daily.

From the home office on Iowa Street, Walker oversaw trade throughout Iowa and in Minnesota, Illinois, South Dakota, Wisconsin and as far south as New Orleans. Beginning in 1889, he operated a retail grocery outlet in the BISHOP'S BLOCK on the corner of First and Main, and he eventually opened branch offices in Chicago and Fort Dodge, Iowa.

When his five-year lease on the Bishop's Block was expiring in 1894, Walker constructed a three-story structure at 40-42 Main south of C. L. PRITCHARD AND COMPANY to house his growing volume of stock and function as the main office and retail outlet for the business. (2) This building was later used by the SCHROEDER-KLEINE GROCER COMPANY until its closing in 1941. From then until 1959 it was used by the DUBUQUE WHOLESALE GROCER until 1959.

For years Walker was a stockholder and director of the FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DUBUQUE and the DUBUQUE AND SIOUX CITY RAILROAD. He served as vice-president of the BOARD OF TRADE and then president in 1892 and 1893 and was an official of the YOUNG MEN'S LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. He was part owner of the Dubuque Times; a member of the Dubuque Jobbers' and Manufacturers' Union, of which he was vice-president in 1901; founder and director of ERWIN AND WOOD; and operated the KEY CITY BARREL COMPANY. (3) In 1899 Walker was one of several Iowans who organized the Copper river and Yukon Railroad Company and then asked the government to give them the right-of-way for a railroad and telegraph line from Valdes Inlet "as far as the mines extend." The bill the company submitted to Congress required that the road would be constructed at the rate of forty miles per year. (4)

Walker was one of the organizers, vice-president and a director of the Western Fruit Jobbers' Association; member of the National Credit Men's Association, and a member of the advisory committee of the National Business League; one of the organizers and vice-president of the first UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION; one of the promoters and officials of the DUBUQUE AND NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD later the Chicago & Great Western; and an honorary member of the DUBUQUE TRAVELING AND BUSINESS MEN'S ASSOCIATION. Walker was a member and one of the founders of the DUBUQUE CLUB and an active promoter of the old Dubuque county fairs and encampments. For years, he was an official and director of the Linwood Cemetery Association.

Walker was a trustee, supporter and tenor singer in the choir of the First Congregational Church (later the FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST) from its inception. He served on the city council for two years.

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Source:

1. Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, History of Dubuque County, Iowa. Chicago: Goodspeed Historical Association, 1911, p. 563

2. "Municipal Molecules," Dubuque Daily Herald, January 18, 1894, p. 4

3. "Erwin and Wood," Dubuque Daily Herald, December 23, 1893, p. 4

4. "Ask Subsidy in Gold Fields," The Herald, January 31, 1899, p. 4