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Francis J. Walker |
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FRANCIS J. WALKER. The Walker Lithographing and Printing Company, of which Francis J. Walker is founder and president, not only represents one of the great industries of Erie, but one of the leading establishments of the kind in the country. Mr. Walker’s mastery of the art and business of printing, which lies at the foundation of his note-worthy success of today, had its beginning thirty-six years ago and his career as proprietor of a plant (modest though the original was) dates back more than a quarter of a century. So that his continuous progress has never been a chance affair, but the legitimate result of honest labor, sound judgment and well-considered enterprise. Born in Erie, October 28, 1859, Mr. Walker is the son of James and Jane (Johnson) Walker, his father emigrating from his native Scotland as a boy and finding early employment on the old revenue cutter “Michigan” (now the “Wolverine”), which, under its new name, is still Uncle Sam’s only marine representative on the great lakes. At a considerably later date he became a contractor in Erie; subsequently purchased a farm in Harbor Creek township and, after residing upon it for a number of years, returned to that city, where he met his death by accident in 1895. At one time he was interested with his son, T. W. Walker, in the Erie Paper Company. In 1873, when he left his public-school studies at the age of fourteen years, Francis J. Walker became an apprentice at the printer’s trade, and in 1883 opened a small job office on Park row. Four years later he purchased the property at the northwest corner of State and Fourth streets, running back on the latter thoroughfare for half a block, and, with the sale of this property, erected a brick building on land adjoining with a Fourth street entrance. This was the location of his printing office for the two succeeding years, when he purchased the F. Walker Tool Works property, still further to the west, increased his building area, and in 1892 added a lithograph department to his business. This was the pioneer venture of the kind in this part of Pennsylvania, and has been so successful from the first that it has become the leading feature of the great industry. The entire plant now covers about half of a city block, and since 1906 has also been engaged in the manufacture of printing inks. In the prosecution of the entire business about two hundred skilled workmen and artisans are employed, some of the latter standing especially high in the profession and commanding salaries of from one hundred to one hundred and forty-five dollars per week. Not only does the company turn out the finest designs in bonds. checks, tablets and stationery heads, but artistic posters of every description; so that not only skilled engravers and workmen are required, but real artists. In 1905 the Walker Lithographing and Printing Company was absorbed by the lithograph syndicate, in which Mr. Walker is the managing director of the Erie establishment. In February, 1908, the Courier lithographing plant of Buffalo, New York, was absorbed by the Erie company, new buildings being erected by the latter to accommodate the additional machinery thus acquired. Mr. Walker is also secretary and treasurer of the Walker Grape Products Company, a sketch of which enterprise is elsewhere given in this biography. Mr. Walker married Miss May L. Walker, daughter of C. C. and Elizabeth
(Cummings) Walker, and, although the family name is the same, no direct
genealogical connection has been traced. Her father was born at Harbor
Creek, Erie county, in 1822, and was a son of Samuel and Sarah (Case)
Walker, natives of New York who located in Harbor Creek township two years
before the birth of C. C. Walker. The children born to Mr. and Mrs.
Francis J. Walker were as follows: William H. Walker is a native of Erie, born on the 14th of September, 1882; graduated from the city high school in 1902, after being president of his class for four years, and completed his collegiate course at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1904. While a University student he made a particularly brilliant record as a debater, winning the Frazier prize from one hundred contestants and being an active member of, the university debating committee and of the team which met the select orators of Columbia University in the intercollegiate contest. He served as the president of the Wharton School Association and in the freshman year of his course won the highest prize for class standing. From 1906 to 1909 Mr. Walker was secretary and treasurer of the Walker Lithographing and Printing Company, resigning to become president of the Grape Products Company. This enterprise, which is developing into one of the most important in this part of the state, had for its inception the purchase of the McCarter farm by F. J. Walker, Sr., in 1905. On this fine piece of property, located seven miles east of the city, were sixty acres of grapes, which suggested to Mr. Walker their utilization in the form of pure manufactured products and placing on the market a soft, healthful temperance drink, to meet the sentiment and demand of a growing element. He therefore organized the Walker Grape Products Company, with an authorized capital of five hundred thousand dollars, and his sons and himself in the offices already given. The plant is located on a ten-acre site opposite the depot of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, just south of the Nickel Plate. The grounds front twelve hundred feet on the tracks of the roads mentioned, and the main building of reinforced concrete is 500 feet by 106 feet. In the basement and subcellars are the storage vaults, the structure above is three stories in height and an ornamental stack one hundred feet high rises above the power house. When under full headway the company not only manufacture grape juices, syrups and jellies but like products from berries, apples and other tree fruits; and several carbonated beverages will be turned out as special summer drinks—all under the Pure Foods and Drugs act and according to the most modern antiseptic methods. The entire cost of the plant is estimated at some $300,000, exclusive of the site, and the company has already expended a large part of an additional $50,000 for sanitary appliances. The storage vaults have a capacity of two million gallons, and the statistician of the company figures that when the plant is in complete operation it will receive one ton of grapes every ninety seconds during the five or six weeks of the grape harvest. Francis J. Walker, Jr., vice president of this enterprise which means so much to the standing of Erie along the line of special industries, is a native of the city, born February 13, 1887, and is a graduate of the Erie high school (class of ‘06) and the University of Pennsylvania. A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1909, pages 450-452. More Erie County History Books Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors. View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file! Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.
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