John Crawford Walker (1787 - 1844)

Born 1 Jun 1787 in Northumberland Co., Pennsylvania, USA

Ancestors

Husband of Frances (Allen) Walker — married 20 Dec 1812 in Hartford, Dearborn Co., Indiana, USA

Descendants

Died 1 Aug 1844 at age 57 in LaPorte, LaPorte Co., Indiana, USA

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Biography

John Crawford Walker. Born 1 JUN 1787 Northumberland Co., Pennsylvania, USA. Died 1 AUG 1844 LaPorte, LaPorte Co., Indiana, USA. He was the son of Benjamin Walker and Ann Crawford.

He married Frances Allen. Born 3 MAR 1792 Montgomery Co., North Carolina, USA. Died 28 MAR 1846 La Porte, La Porte Co., Indiana, USA.

Siblings of John Crawford Walker

1. James Walker. Born 14 JUN 1789 Northumberland Co., Pennsylvania, USA. Died 24 JUN 1876 Havana, Mason Co., Illinois, USA. 2. William Walker. Born 12 AUG 1792 . Died 1810 New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, USA. 3. Rosanna Walker. Born 14 SEP 1794 . Died 1872 California, USA. 4. Maria Walker. Born 17 OCT 1796 North Bend, Hamilton Co., Ohio, USA. Died ABT 1852 . 5. Benjamin Walker. Born 24 JUL 1798 Dearborn Co., Indiana, USA. Died 9 SEP 1860 Ohio Co., Indiana, USA. 6. Henry Harrison Walker. Born 20 DEC 1799 Ohio or Indiana, USA. Died 22 MAR 1876 Aurora, Dearborn Co., Indiana, USA. 7. Robert Walker. Born 17 MAR 1802 Dearborn Co., Indiana, USA. Died Ohio Co., Indiana, USA. 8. Elizabeth \ Eliza Walker. Born 15 NOV 1803 Dearborn Co., Indiana, USA. Died 22 JUL 1851 Dearborn Co., Indiana, USA. 9. Samuel Walker. Born 22 OCT 1808 Laughery Creek, Dearborn Co., Indiana, USA. Died 17 DEC 1892 Half Moon Bay, San Mateo Co., California, USA.

Note:

HISTORY & BIOGRAPHY.

Walker-Seminar Paper by Ron Hamilton. In 1984, historians John Lauritz Larson and David G. Vanderstel wrote an article for the Indiana Magazine of History describing pioneer Hoosier Indian trader William Conner, and men like him, as. heroic individuals who struggled with harsh conditions and succeeded. through extraordinary personal exertion; they were agents of the. advancing empire, outriders for an advancing culture. These words also describe John Crawford Walker. Walker was a builder, land speculator, businessman, and transportation entrepreneur in pioneer Indiana. Born in the west Pennsylvania county of Westmoreland on June 2, 1787, he came to southeastern Indiana with his family in 1797. Rising from humble pioneer beginnings through diligent hard work, he became the largest landowner in Indiana by 1836. Before he died on August 1, 1844, he helped found four Indiana cities that became county seats, built part of Indiana's Michigan Road, sponsored Indiana's first railroad line, and amassed a huge fortune. John Walker knew and communicated with not only Indian trader William Conner, but also many other pioneering giants of Indiana, including Indian agent John Tipton, Indiana governors James Brown Ray and Noah Noble, Indianapolis attorney Calvin Fletcher, and eventual vice-president of the United States, Thomas A. Hendricks. Walker maintained a personal correspondence with Henry Clay, a very important national political figure of early nineteenth-century America. With his restless energy and ambition, Walker played a pivotal role in advancing the line of Indiana's frontier. The circumstances surrounding the immigration of John Walker and his parents, Benjamin and Ann, to Indiana are singularly interesting. Benjamin Walker achieved some notoriety in western Pennsylvania as a result of a tragic episode in which he was forced to leave his wife and children on Pine Creek while he set out alone to survive on the frontier. In 1782, while Benjamin Walker was away fighting Indians during the Revolutionary War, his parents and three sisters were brutally massacred by several Seneca Indians, who were allies of the British. When he returned after the war, he discovered that he and his two brothers, John and William, were without parents and sisters. Eight years later, in 1790, the same Indians who had perpetrated the grisly murders drunkenly boasted of it in the village, unknowingly in front of the three surviving Walker brothers. The Indians mockingly related the story and bragged of the murders. They gloated while describing the hideous burning of the Walkers, and gave vivid details describing how each had begged in vain for their life. The three brothers were so enraged that they swore to exact immediate revenge. Two of the Walkers, Benjamin and youngest brother John, followed the Indians and confronted them. The guilty Senecas did not deny their involvement in the gruesome slaughters. A "frontier" fight ensued, with brandished knives and tomahawks, and the brothers killed the Indians and got their revenge. The citizens in the area, learning of the action, feared that the surrounding Indians would rise up and attack the settlers in retaliation for the Walkers' actions. Almost all the neighboring settlers felt that the Walkers were justified, but the Pennsylvania governor, seeking to placate the angered Seneca Indian tribe, issued rewards for their arrest and conviction. The three brothers hid in a cellar for nine days, and fled during a noisy and violent storm. They penetrated the deep woods and crossed the mountains of western Pennsylvania to the confluence of two rivers at Pittsburgh: the Allegheny and Monongahela. Here, at the origin of the mighty Ohio River, the three brothers went their separate ways. John fled to the Ohio Territory to start a new life, and William went to Virginia. Benjamin Walker, forced to leave his family and native Pennsylvania under a cloud of notoriety, paddled a dugout canoe hundreds of miles through the wilderness and down the winding Ohio River. He journeyed far from white civilization into Indian territory until he found a stopping place near the mouth of Laughery Creek in southeastern Indiana. This was part of an area recently opened for white settlement by the Ordinance of 1787 and would later become part of Dearborn County in the state of Indiana. Benjamin Walker lived alone on Laughery Creek for several years. He built a crude shelter, learned to coexist and trade with the local Miami and Delaware Indians, and built a saw and grist mill on the south side of the stream. He and other white settlers platted a small village they called Hartford, and he bided his time until he thought it would be safe to send for his family. Eventually, enough white settlers filtered into the area that he decided to make it his permanent home. He sent secret word for his wife, Ann, and their three children, John, James, and William, to join him. After selling the family's Pennsylvania holdings, Ann Walker and the three children rafted down the Ohio River to Cincinnati through hostile Indian territory under the protection of a detail of the Federal army. Abandoning the army's protection, Ann Walker and the children employed a trustworthy frontier guide and found passage one hundred miles downriver to the point where Laughery Creek empties into the Ohio River. There, Benjamin and his family had what must have been a joyous reunion, for this was the first time they were united in several years. The father took his family upstream to Hartford and proudly showed them his grist and saw mill. In 1797, John Crawford Walker, son of Benjamin and Ann Walker, spent his tenth birthday in the forbidding and impenetrable forests of southeastern Indiana. Although his new home was primitive and surrounded by often hostile Indians and wild animals, he was happy because his family was united again. He received his only education from his mother and helped his father operate the saw and grist mill near the new and growing settlement. The Walkers were among the first white families to settle in what would become Dearborn County, Indiana. The area had recently been ceded to the federal government by the Miami Indians as part of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. This treaty opened Ohio and the extreme southeastern slice of Indiana, known as "the Gore," for white settlement. The Walkers lived on the extreme edge of the frontier, only miles from Indian territory. The family's first crude shelter consisted of "a few poles set up on forks and covered with bark." Howling and shrieking predatory animals surrounded them day and night, kept away by torches and campfires and the skilled use of powder and lead. The local Indians "occasionally stepped in and murdered the whites and stole horses," often combining threats and intimidation to dominate the white settlers and scurry off with their provisions. John Walker grew to manhood in this harsh environment. He learned to be resourceful, industrious, self-reliant, and independent. Like most young men on the frontier, he learned the importance of handling firearms and became quite skilled. Indian dangers existed until the end of the war with the British in 1815. Walker defended local settlers against Indian raids by joining the frontier Indiana militia during the War of 1812. At this time in his young life, John Walker earned the reputation as "one of the best hunters in the Indiana Territory, as good as any Indian, which was high praise." Once, after shooting a deer, an Indian intervened and tried to claim it. "Walker drew his musket and told the Indian not to move his rifle. He then warned the Indian to keep his rifle pointed at the ground and to move on quickly. This was done immediately.". Although he was not physically imposing, Walker learned to be fiercely competitive and to defend himself. The only physical description which exists of him states that he was a "short, heavy-set man." Those who knew him, however, soon learned that he was not a man to be trifled with, and the early Indiana frontier honed his sense of democracy and fair play. At age 25, John Walker fell in love with Frances Allen. She, along with her family, had immigrated to the Dearborn County area from Virginia. They were married in Hartford on December 20, 1812. He continued to enlarge his father's milling enterprise and expanded the business by trading the surplus in market towns on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Walker often floated crude but solidly built flatboats loaded with meat, flour, and other staples down to the New Orleans markets. He was aided in these venturesome and dangerous undertakings by two of his wife's brothers, Peter and Claiborne Allen. This became a very profitable business, and he accumulated the capital whereby he engaged in later land speculations. The location of the business on Laughery Creek was very favorable, for the flatboats could be moored on the Ohio and filled by means of smaller craft floated down the creek. The trip to and from New Orleans took at least four months and demanded a hardy man to complete. After the goods were sold there, the rafts were also sold for the lumber they contained. Walker and his crew then had to make the return journey back to Indiana on foot, carrying their profits and facing constant dangers of thieves along the way. John and Frances lived and prospered on Laughery Creek until 1823. Six of their ten children were born during this time: Anne C. (1813), Frances A. (1814), William J. (1815), Benjamin P. (1815), Mary J. (1821), and Eliza C. (1823). In 1813, the citizens of Dearborn County showed their appreciation for John Walker's honesty and strength of character by electing him Justice of the Peace. Three years later, after helping his father build a great stone house, he built his own frame house east of his father and put up an "overshot" mill on the creek, which he ran by himself. In 1816, Indiana achieved statehood and the Dearborn County area was fully organized and settled. Two years later, under the New Purchase Treaty of 1818, the Miami Indians ceded a vast area of central Indiana to the United States. The Miamis were given a period of three years to leave before the land was surveyed, sold, and opened for white pioneer settlement. As the state of Indiana grew, John Walker's ambition turned westward and his interest in land speculation intensified. His mill business and extensive river trade had generated the means by which he hoped to capitalize on Indiana's expansion. Walker attended the land sale at Brookville, Indiana, on October 9, 1820, and purchased many acres of land in Decatur and Shelby counties. He donated part of his Decatur County lands for the county seat of Greensburg on June 12, 1822. Two days later, the town was officially accepted as the seat of justice for Decatur County by state commissioners. Walker had a more personal interest in the Shelby County land purchases. In the summer of 1822, he built a log cabin on the Blue River in central Shelby County, and moved his family there in February of the following year. He set about immediately to improve the land. He built the first saw, grist, and flour mill, taking full advantage of the valuable water power at his disposal. The availability of a mill was of supreme importance to the early settlers on the frontier. Walker dug a mill race, and several times rebuilt, enlarged, and improved his business. He engaged the help of local Indians and "was obliged to provide for them a bountiful repast before he could persuade them to work. He soon built a permanent homestead, "an old fashioned frame house, with fireplaces in all the rooms." The Walker home on Blue River was built so close to the mill that at night the deep rumble of the grinding stone and groaning creak of the waterwheel were distinctly heard while the family tried to sleep. During the early 1820s, there were no good roads and scarcely a blazed trail in Shelby County or the surrounding area. The county to which Walker brought his family was an unbroken wilderness for forty miles in every direction. All roads in southern Indiana consisted of old Indian paths, barely wide or smooth enough to allow for ox wagons. The Indiana legislators had, in 1821, enacted a bill for the establishment of several state roads in southern Indiana, but these were merely slightly improved Indian paths and of very poor quality. Like many settlers to this area, Walker brought his family to Shelby County over the "Whetzel Trace." This was no more than a path carved through the dense forests by ax-wielding pioneers in 1818. It began in Franklin County, just north of Dearborn County, and went west across the Blue River in Shelby County, ending at White River Bluffs south of present-day Indianapolis. By 1824, the Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis state road was available. Although it was only a dirt path through the thick forests, Walker often traveled it alone on horseback, returning to Hartford in Dearborn County to visit family and friends. He was particularly close to his mother, and continued to support his father in any way he could. During Walker's first years in early Shelbyville, the last four of his ten children were born: Maria L. (1825), John C. (1828), Harriet B. (1830), and Martha M. (1834). Through industry, thrift, and hard work, Walker prospered in the new area to which he had brought his family. John Walker, like his father, was very much involved with early Indiana Freemasonry. Much of what is known of Walker's activities in the Indiana Masons comes from William Hacker, a former Indiana Grand Master Mason (1863-1864) and Official Mason Historian. Hacker was "probably the best-versed man in Indiana in the literature and jurisprudence of Masonry." He knew John Walker personally and was convinced that the discreet and pervasive web of the Free and Accepted Masons played an important role in abetting the escape of the Walker brothers from the clutches of the Pennsylvania authorities. It was also rumored that the Masons were involved in the protection of Benjamin Walker and his family during their perilous journeys westward. John Walker joined the Masons at Rising Sun Lodge No. 6 in Dearborn County on October 7, 1818, and became a Master Mason on March 10, 1819. "The principles and teachings of Masonry were so in accord with the bent of his own mind and temperament that he at once conceived a warm attachment to the order.". During 1821 and 1822, John Walker cleared the new land in Shelby County, built his mill, and made preparations to bring his family out to the area. He soon met four other white settlers in the vicinity and the five pioneers discovered their mutual Masonic connection. They held frequent informal meetings from 1822 through 1824 in order to share their beliefs. They were Walker, David Tracy, Justice Ferry, Joseph Adams, and Percy Kitchell. By the summer of 1824, they organized the Shelbyville lodge. On January 7, 1825, they officially established Lafayette Lodge No. 28 in Shelbyville and John Walker was named Senior Deacon Pro Tem and elected to the important office of Lodge Secretary. Colonel Abel C. Pepper, Indiana Grand Master Mason, was John Walker's preceptor and taught him his first lessons, which laid the foundation of his zeal in the order. "A warm and sincere attachment developed between Pepper and Walker that was never interrupted for a moment during their natural lives." After Walker's death, Pepper admitted that he had granted "special favors to Walker upon the belief in his integrity and he had not been deceived.". Walker was advanced to Junior Warden in May 1826, Senior Warden and Worshipful Master in 1828, and Steward of the Lodge from 1828 to 1831. In 1832, and again in 1835, he was elected Secretary and often opened his own private residence for the accommodation of the lodge. In 1830, 1833, and 1834 he represented the Shelbyville lodge in the Indiana Grand Lodge and was elected Grand Treasurer all three times. Even though his business interests eventually took him to permanent residence in La Porte, he remained a member of the Shelbyville lodge in regular standing until his death. For these reasons and more, John Walker earned the honorary title of "Founder of the Lodge" in Shelbyville. Along with helping to organize the Masonic lodge in early Shelby County, Walker actively participated in local government. Typically in a new country, the first residents figured prominently in the formation of civil government and Walker was no exception. He was among the few early settlers of Shelby County who donated land to plat the county seat of Shelbyville. The commissioners of the state legislature met for four days in early July, 1822, at various sites in the county. At last, they gave the award to the offer tendered by John Walker and two others. Walker's strong and honest character was recognized early on by the local population and he became very well liked. At a time when the county sheriff was the major law enforcement officer in pioneer America, Walker was elected to serve as sheriff of Shelby County from 1826 until 1830. An incident occurred in the county during 1824 which bore witness to the true character of Walker. Early Indiana suffered periodic plagues of army worms, which "literally swept small grain and grass out of existence." In 1823, Shelby County suffered such an outbreak, followed the next year by a tremendous squirrel invasion. "Countless numbers of squirrels were to be found in the woods, and unceasing vigilance was required on the part of the settler to protect his corn fields from their ravages." The invasion was caused by failure of the mast crop, forest acorns and hickory nuts, which usually composed the diet of the squirrels. The settlers' corn was ruined, and one observer noted that "twelve of the animals destroyed as much corn as one hog.". Fruit and forest trees were stripped bare. "They covered the land, came into the houses and bedchambers, came just as fall crops began to ripen, and consumed all that the army worms had not eaten." Walker was able to hire some young boys to protect his growing crops, while other settlers were not so fortunate and lost everything. Walker possessed the only surplus corn in the county, and corn was vital to the survival of the early pioneers. Soon, two strangers happened by his mill and expressed interest in purchasing all his grain. Walker soon realized that the plan of these two outsiders was to gain a monopoly on the area's available grain by purchasing his supply at the normal price, and selling it to the hungry, impoverished, and devastated settlers at an enormous profit. Walker refused to sell them a single bushel of corn at any price. He hinted, quite strongly, that they had better get out of Shelby County as soon as possible. He did not mince words in warning them, saying "if your scheme should become known to a few of the settlers, you might find yourselves dangling from the limb of that tree," and pointed to a large sycamore on the bank of the Blue River. The shady grain speculators mounted their horses and left in a hurry. Walker saved part of his surplus grain, and made it available to his destitute neighbors. He charged his neighbors the bottom price, and sold much of it on long-term credit. He tried to give some of his grain away, but most settlers were too proud to accept charity. Many of his neighbors were thus saved from starvation during the long and severe winter. The people in the county never forgot this expression of generosity and goodwill by Walker. Placed in a situation in which he could have taken supreme advantage, he instead thought only of the welfare of his neighbors and refused to profit at their expense. During this early period in Shelby County, several rivers were considered navigable and reliable citizens were entrusted with the responsibility of keeping sections of these streams in good shape for this purpose. Walker was in charge of Big Blue River in the vicinity of Shelbyville and continued to use the river to transport his surplus goods. He sent two rafts loaded with produce on a journey down the river to New Orleans. For his mill race he constructed a dam across the Blue River between present-day Noble and Hamilton streets, and created a ford, called Walker's Ford, below the dam at the end of Noble street. Walker continued actively to involve himself with the community of Shelbyville. He became a strong advocate of education and in 1829 accepted appointment as one of the trustees for a school district in the county. He became an ardent Whig, and was active politically in the 1830s. He served in the Indiana House of Representatives (1835-1836) and in the state Senate (1836-1839). While in office, he consistently pushed for progress in internal improvements. He well represented his constituency during this important era in our nation's history. In the course of his political experiences, he found a kindred spirit and intimate friend in Indiana Governor Noah Noble. His advocacy of internal improvements led to a close friendship with prominent United States Senator Henry Clay. John Walker also advocated public education in Indiana. His strong and powerful speech in the Senate at Indianapolis caused an appropriation to be diverted from another purpose to the support of the educational system of the state, and "through this the public school system of Indiana was greatly aided.". Major John Hendricks, younger brother of Indiana Governor William Hendricks, also lived and prospered in early Shelbyville. His son, the future governor and eventual vice-president Thomas A. Hendricks, grew up playing with John Walker's children and a natural bond developed between the families. John Walker, the original Shelby County miller, made a lasting impression on the future vice-president of the United States. Later in life, in a speech to a convention of millers, Hendricks said of Walker: As a boy, I was acquainted with the miller, and I thought him a great man. When he raised the gate with such composure and confidence, and the. tumbling waters drove the machinery ahead, I admired his power. That. miller, standing in the door of his mill, all white with dust, is a picture ever. upon the memory of this generation. John Walker and John Hendricks, two active and far-sighted men, cooperated in building a schoolhouse in Shelbyville in 1829. There were no public funds available for school construction, so Hendricks and Walker "headed a subscription, and with some aid from others, erected a small brick building of two stories." They also worked together to charter a seminary of advanced learning in Shelby County in 1831. Walker was extremely interested in transportation development and internal improvements during the 1820s and 1830s. He and John Hendricks cooperated in another venture that made history, the first railroad in Indiana. It became known in Shelby County as "Walker's Railroad," and was the principal topic of rumor and speculation for citizens in the area from 1832 to 1836. On February 2, 1832, Governor Noble signed into law a public improvements bill, part of which incorporated a great "railroad company." It was the Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis Railroad, later known as the Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad. John Walker, representing the company, was instrumental in procuring the charter for this first railroad built in the state. The Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis Railroad was authorized to borrow $500,000 on credit from the state, secured by a mortgage on real estate owned by the company. Among the incorporators were John Walker, John Hendricks, Judge William J. Peaslee, prominent Indianapolis attorney Calvin Fletcher, and others. Walker proposed that Indianapolis, Shelby County, Decatur County, and Lawrenceburg assume the responsibility for reimbursing the company in five years. The road was to be started in three years or the charter would be revoked. The railroad was not without controversy, but "there were men of progress in Indiana who took hold of the enterprise with a will.". The railroad company was organized, the books were opened, and the stock was sold. Workmen followed the surveyors and commenced operations. Things moved slowly, however, for money was scarce. The hopes of the proprietors rose and fell as the stock was talked up and down. It was alternately taken as payment for debts, and then refused. "The stock was eagerly subscribed and contemptuously trifled away--as the hopes of the people rose and fell.". John Walker threw himself into the promotion of the railroad and never lost faith. He used every means to build up the public confidence in the enterprise so that the stock would be quoted at an encouraging figure and the work be pushed as fast as possible. People wanted to see results, something tangible. "They could see the railroad on maps, but like the equator, they couldn't see it anywhere else.". By 1834, Governor Noble, a strong advocate of the railroad, was ending his three year term and, as yet, nothing existed of the railroad but a long line of embankment in Shelby County. Walker declared that he would have the railroad running by the Fourth of July of 1834. But as the days went by and the Fourth of July approached, there was no steam engine heard. Walker built, from his own Shelby Mills, a one and a quarter mile-long stretch of wood track on the east side of Shelbyville. He also built a wooden car to be pulled on the tracks by one horse, which towed the car out the distance to a picnic at the end of the line. At this picnic, he arranged for "plenty of good things to eat and drink, good music, good speeches, pretty girls, strong and handsome boys, and all the old settlers of the county and surrounding region.". Walker charged a twenty-five cent fare, and the "railroad" ran all day and into the night. It was a handsome promotional effort, and attracted dignitaries from around the state. It was a topic for local discussion many years afterwards. Walker maintained a keen interest in the development and expansion of railway facilities the rest of his life. (See sketch next page.). The railroad was not successful, and soon most transportation entrepreneurs suffered failure due to the financial bankruptcy of the state after 1837. Indiana had passed the Mammoth Internal Improvement Act in 1836, in which the state tried to do too much, too soon, and without proper planning and financial organization. Embarrassing financial ruin was the result for the state, and many of its entrepreneurs. Walker had many other business interests besides the Shelby Mills and the Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis Railroad Company. He and a partner, David Thacher, owned and operated a mercantile store in Shelbyville during the late 1820s and early 1830s. As a businessman, Walker had occasion to meet many influential people in early Indiana history. For example, he was well acquainted with noted Indian agent William Conner. Both men's assistance was sought by John Tipton to examine and appraise goods that the federal government provided the Indians as part of treaty stipulations. Also, as early as 1834, William Conner was a subscription agent for the proposed Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis Railroad. In 1826, however, an event occurred which changed the life of John Walker forever. Indiana began steps to build the famous Michigan Road. As early as 1818, future Governor William Hendricks had addressed the state legislature on the need for a good road from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River. The War of 1812 against the British and their Indian allies had demonstrated the extreme importance of a road transportation network in the Northwest Territories. Water routes were unreliable, often frozen in winter, and dried up or choked with vegetation in the summer. More importantly, the prospering settlers of Indiana needed good transportation routes along which to convey their growing surplus goods out of the state and to the water transportation arteries of the Great Lakes and Ohio River. On October 16, 1826, the United States commissioners, John Tipton, Lewis Cass, and Indiana Governor James Brown Ray, concluded a treaty with the northern Indiana Pottawatomie Indians, who ceded to the state a sufficient amount of land that could be sold to finance the construction of a public highway from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River. The Indians further added a section of contiguous land for every mile of the proposed road. Where the land did not belong to the Indians, south of the Wabash River, the state could select a section of unsold Indian land for every mile of road. The Indiana legislature held much acrimonious debate as to the final route of the Michigan Road, for the road's location through the state meant life or death to a community. The route of the northern section of the road was decided first. To avoid the Kankakee Swamps in the northwestern part of Indiana, the legislature decided that the road would go from a point on Lake Michigan in La Porte County, called Trail Creek, east to South Bend, then south through Rochester, Logansport, and on through the new state capital of Indianapolis. The southern route engendered the hottest debate. Since almost every community along the Ohio River wanted to be the southern terminus of the Michigan Road, each river town lobbied loudly and tirelessly to get the highway. Madison was the eventual winner in the contest, and the debate then shifted to the route from there to Indianapolis. One influential faction of Indiana capitalists and legislators favored the route from Madison, north through Columbus and Franklin, and on to Indianapolis. Another important group favored a route going almost due north from Madison to Napoleon in Ripley County, and then following the old Lawrenceburg State Road northwest through Greensburg and Shelbyville to Indianapolis. John Walker, of course, favored the latter. Walker's friendships with influential state legislators were instrumental in the ultimate decision. In December 1829, the Indiana Senate passed a bill establishing the Michigan Road route through Shelbyville and Greensburg, and the letting of contracts for construction of the road. (See map next page for route.). Walker, one of Indiana's "agents of empire" and ever actively involved in helping to advance the line of Indiana's frontier, entered into contracts with the road commissioner for the clearing of certain sections of the right of way in southern Indiana. For this work, he and others received "scrip." These were certificates or vouchers issued by the state and were to be exchanged for the purchase of government land in the northern part of the state. Many southern Indiana citizens became common construction laborers on the road, and working under contractors such as Walker, received 33 and 1/3 cents a day. Contractors were paid more because they supplied the tools and organized the manpower for the projects. To men like Walker fell the responsibility of doing the jobs right and on schedule, and the blame if they were not completed on time. After the road was cleared, it had to be grubbed and graded. Contracts for construction of the bridges were let during 1832. Walker, having the advantage of owning a sawmill, also contracted to build puncheon bridges on the southern sections of the Michigan Road. Through his work on the road, he received much scrip payment, which he later used to purchase thousands of acres of land in northern Indiana. In the 1831-32 sales of the northern Indiana Michigan Road lands at South Bend and Logansport, Walker purchased more than 5,250 acres for $6,594. He paid for this land with scrip earned from his many Michigan Road contracts. He also purchased 5,120 acres of land in 1836 through the Government Land Office in La Porte and these purchases made him the largest landowner in the state at the time. In northern Indiana, Walker found another area in which he could help to advance Indiana's frontier. He owned the land where La Porte was platted in 1831-1832 and influenced the early history of that town. Walker and nine other men formed a corporation, visited La Porte County, and then purchased 400 acres of La Porte land at the Logansport land sales in October, 1831. Their intention was to lay out the town of La Porte and make it the county seat. Walker purchased land on the site of the largest and most valuable water power in La Porte County's Michigan Township and built the first sawmill. In October 1832, the state commissioners met in La Porte County to make the decision as to the location of the county seat. Michigan City and La Porte were quite competitive as to which community would be granted this economic boon. Walker offered to donate every other lot, the proceeds of the sale of which would be used for the purpose of erecting the county buildings, if La Porte were chosen over Michigan City. After pondering the matter for several days, "the commissioners finally decided upon La Porte. The gentlemen interested in La Porte outnumbered those interested in Michigan City." Walker was a man of strong personality, and the state commissioners no doubt felt a strong personal persuasion. The La Porte site, however, had the advantages of central location and lovely surroundings. In 1833, he cooperated in erecting the first schoolhouse in La Porte County's Michigan Township, and in 1834, he busied himself cutting planks in La Porte to use on the Michigan Road. He applied the planks where the road crossed low spots and sand hills, and took a personal interest in the quality of the state's all-important north-south transportation artery. He also cut planks for the floors of the early settlers' cabins. Pioneers had used puncheon flooring, which allowed much moisture into the cabins. This made for unhealthy living conditions. He sawed lumber for some of the first frame houses built in Michigan City. As the years passed, Walker became the owner of extensive tracts of land in the central portion of La Porte County. He at one time owned the land on which the eastern and southern portions of the city of La Porte now stand. "His excellent business ability and indefatigable labor secured for him a handsome competence.". Much evidence exists which shows that, during the 1830s, Walker's courage, strength, shrewdness, and boldness never failed him. He traveled alone on horseback countless times, back and forth from his business interests in Shelby County to La Porte County, on the Michigan Road. The route was nearly two hundred miles, usually in very poor shape, and at times impassable. He was forced to stay many nights in seedy taverns along the way. Only a man of incredible health and strength could have accomplished such a feat. At the land sales in Logansport in 1832, Walker was described as a "man of great force of character and much shrewd business ability. He always seemed to know and select the best timber land in the county." A bystander who attended the 1832 Logansport land sales recounted an incident that left him very impressed with the forcefulness of Walker's character. When Henry Clyburn [sic] gave Mrs. Benedict's bid for her land, which. was $1.25 per acre, some land speculator who was present bid $1.26. John. Walker stepped forward and asked who it was that dared to bid against a. widow and the first settler of her township, and said that if anyone would. point him out, he would shoot him. The greedy land speculator gave it up,. and Mrs. Benedict got her land at government price, while others had to. pay in some cases $5 and $6 per acre. Walker's blusters and warnings were apparently not idle threats, for in October, 1835, he and another man were arrested in La Porte for "fighting together in a public place to the great terror of the citizens of Indiana!" His rough-hewn frontier morals and mannerisms stayed with him throughout his life. In May, 1836, John Walker added his name to the history of yet another Indiana county when he and southern Indiana capitalist J.F.D. Lanier formed the Portersville Land Company in Porter County. They then donated land for the county seat which was named Portersville, later called Valparaiso. By 1838, Walker had such increasing business interests in La Porte County that he contemplated moving there with his family. He became lonely and homesick on the long trips to the north, and realized his wife could not endure the rugged journeys with him. Slowly, he began liquidating his Shelbyville assets and sold many of his interests. He sold his milling business to Indianapolis attorney and businessman Calvin Fletcher. Walker's mother passed away in 1836, and his aged father, Benjamin, lived around among his children, spending a month or two with one then going to another. The old man often traveled on horseback and sometimes his journeys required days. He would put up at a country tavern and have a grand time talking over the old days, refighting the Indian wars with other aged and grizzled veterans and Indian fighters. Sometimes a week or two would slip away and there would be a tavern bill to pay. These were uniformly made out and forwarded to John Walker to settle, which he cheerfully did. He considered it a great privilege to add to the enjoyment and pleasure of his father. In the fall of 1839, Walker finally decided to move his family to La Porte. He lived again in the woods on a tract of land three miles east of Michigan City. He built a beautiful home, which he called "Oak Grove," and remained there until his death. This majestic structure became part of St. Rose Academy twelve years after his death. The home stood on the site of the present-day Civic Auditorium. (See next page for photo.). John Walker became the principal proprietor of La Porte. He spent the years 1839 to 1844 engaged in further land speculations, banking, and most importantly to him, promoting his dream of making La Porte the site of a valuable railway connection. He wanted to make the town a grand junction of the railways of the northern part of Indiana, with facilities for the shipment of lumber and grain arriving on vessels by way of Lake Michigan. The future was to show that such a hope was not to be realized, as Chicago became the center and La Porte was thrust aside. But his plans were far reaching and well founded. The move to northern Indiana was perhaps unfortunate for him. The strong northerly winds which usually prevail near the lake in prairie country were evidently too severe for him in his advanced years. Almost immediately after moving to La Porte County, his usual robust health began to fail and he gradually declined until the end of summer, 1844. He died on August 1, 1844, at the age of 57 and is buried at Walker-Patterson Cemetery in La Porte. It was the first cemetery in the area and holds the remains of many of La Porte's earliest settlers. His sons, William J. and Benjamin P., continued his work and identified themselves with the community. John Walker made an indelible impression on the history of pioneer Indiana. As the country expanded westward, so did Walker's ambitions and energies. Everywhere he went, he built. He left his name forever linked to the early histories of six Indiana counties: Ohio, Dearborn, Decatur, Shelby, La Porte, and Porter. (See map next page.). Walker's business acumen, land speculations, tireless and courageous energies, and transportation entrepreneurship made him an important factor in pushing the frontier ever westward. He was indeed an "agent of empire and an outrider for the advancing pioneer culture.". - - - - - - - - - -. Sources: John Lauritz Larson and David G. Vanderstel, "Agent of Empire: William Conner on the Indiana Frontier, 1800-1855," Indiana Magazine of History, LXXX(December, 1984),303. Charles M. Andrews, "The Ancestors and Descendents of John Walker of La Porte, Indiana: 1749-1914"; unpublished manuscript from Yale University Library, a microfilm copy of which is available at the Indiana State Library Genealogical Division. G.R. Tredway, Democratic Opposition to the Lincoln Administration in Indiana (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau,1973),159. William Hacker, "Pioneer Sketches," Shelbyville Daily Republican, 30 June 1885. F.E. Weakley, History of Dearborn and Ohio Counties, Indiana, from Their Earliest Settlement (Chicago: Weakley & Co.,1885),99. Judge A.J. Cotton, Cotton's Keepsa<i>ke<u> (Cincinnati: Applegate & Co., 1858), 370. Shirley Keller Mikesell, <i>Early Settlers of Indiana's "Gore," 1803-1820</i> (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, Inc., 1995), 5. Shelby County Deed Book A, 37. J.H. Beers, <i>Illustrated Atlas of Decatur County, Indiana</i> (Chicago: Beers & Co., 1882), 5. George Pence and Nellie Armstrong, <i>Indiana Boundaries: Territory, State, and County</i> (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1967), 320. Edward H. Chadwick, <i>Chadwick's History of Shelby County, Indiana</i> (Indianapolis: Bowen & Co., 1909), 316. Hacker, "Pioneer Sketches," <i>Shelbyville Daily Repubican</i>, 20 July 1885. Marian McFadden, <i>Biography of a Town: Shelbyville, Indiana, 1822-1962</i> (Shelbyville: Tippecanoe Press, 1968), 32. William Wesley Woollen, <i>Biographical and Historical Sketches of Early Indiana</i> (Indianapolis: Hammond & Co., 1883), 507. Hacker, "Pioneer Sketches," <i>Shelbyville Daily Republican</i>, 27 July 1885. Shelby County Deed Book A, 93. J.H. Beers, <i>Illustrated Atlas of Shelby County, Indiana</i> (Chicago: Beers & Co., 1880), 7. Dorothy Riker, ed., <i>Executive Proceedings of the State of Indiana: 1816-1836</i> (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1947), 597. Hacker, "Pioneer Sketches," <i>Shelbyville Daily Republican</i>, 27 July 1885. Gayle Thornbrough et al, eds., <i>The Diary of Calvin Fletcher</i>, Vol. 1, 1817-1838 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1971), 88. Hacker, "Pioneer Sketches," <i>Shelbyville Daily Republican</i>, 27 July 1885. Keith Sheldon, "John Walker and Indiana Schools," <i>Indiana Magazine of History</i>, LVIII (Spring, 1948), 289. <i>Biographical Directory of the Indiana General Assembly<i>, Vol. 1, <u>1816-1899<u> (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1980), 405. John W. Holcombe and Hubert M. Skinner, <i>Life and Public Services of Thomas A. Hendricks</i> (Indianapolis: Carlon and Hollenbeck, 1886), 48. <i>Laws of Indiana</i> (1835-1836), 6-21. Thornbrough et al, eds., <i>Diary of Calvin Fletcher</i>, III: 185. Nellie Armstrong Robertson and Dorothy Riker, <i>The John Tipton Papers</i>, Vol. II, 1828-1833 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1942), 101. <i>Indianapolis Journal</i>, 29 March 1834. Logan Esarey, <i>History of Indiana: From Its Exploration to 1922</i> (Dayton, Ohio: Dayton Historical Publishing Co., 1923), 292. Obituary of Hiram Cotton, <i>Shelbyville Democrat</i>, 13 February 1896. Geneal Prather, "The Construction of the Michigan Road, 1830-1840," <i>Indiana Magazine of History</i>, XL (September, 1944), 262. Paul Wallace Gates, "Land Policy and Tenancy in the Prairie Counties of Indiana," <i>Indiana Magazine of History</i>, XXXV (March, 1939), 17. Chas. C. Chapman, <i>History of La Porte County, Indiana</i> (Chicago: Chapman & Co., 1880), 616. Rev. E.D. Daniels, <i>A 20th Century History and Biographical Record of La Porte County, Indiana</i> (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1904), 187. Gene McDonald, "The Old Mills of La Porte County" (1968), unpublished manuscript found at La Porte County Library, 1-3. <i>State of Indiana v. John Walker</i>, October, 1835. Cause number 131, La Porte County Circuit Court Records. Hacker, "Pioneer Sketches," <i>Shelbyville Daily Republican</i>, 27 July 1885. Author unknown, <i>La Porte, Now and Then</i>, 1982-1832 (La Porte, Indiana: La Porte Sesquicentennial Commission, 1982), 156. this material kindly supplied to the author by Fern Eddy Schultz,. Historical information about Walker-Patton Cemetery compiled by Fern Eddy Schultz, La Porte County Historian.

Buried Walker Cemetery, LaPorte Co., Indiana, USA.