Shelby  County,  Indiana
Biographies

Harry  H. Walker

          Harry H. Walker, whose ancestors came to Shelby County and took up Government land more than a century ago, has spent most of his life in commercial affairs and is president and founder of the Walker Wholesale Grocery Company of Shelbyville.
          This very progressive and prosperous institution was organized in 1912.  Closely associated with Mr. Walker at that time was his son.  The firm was incorporated in 1917.  The business organization has a fine reputation among the larger houses over the country and has built up a splendid business in its normal territory, comprising about six counties around Shelbyville.  The company had a modern new building, with fireproof warehouse, affording over 27,000 square feet of floor space.  Twelve persons are employed in the business, on the inside and outside, and a fleet of motor trucks are used for deliveries to the retail stores in Shelbyville.
          Mr. Walker was born in Shelby County, July 24, 1860.  His grandfather, Francis C. Walker, was born in New York State, of Scotch ancestry, a son of  Francis Walker, Sr., who came to America with his brother shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war.  His brother settled in Pennsylvania.  Francis C. Walker came to Indiana in 1820 and settled on a tract of Government land in section 13 of Addison Township, Shelby County, and the records of this agricultural community have been impressed by members of the Walker family ever since.  Francis Walker became one of the large land owners of the county.  Henry R. Walker, father of the Shelbyville merchant, was also born in Shelby County, and married  Elizabeth Woodard, of that county, whose family came here in the early 1820s.
          Harry H. Walker was the oldest in a family of six children.  He attended the public schools of Shelby County, and his first business after leaving school was farming and dairying.  He was in the dairy business until he was twenty-nine.  In 1888 he moved his home to Shelbyville and was a retail grocery merchant in that city until 1911.  In addition to his wholesale grocery business he is a director and vice president of the Union Building Association and a director of the First National Bank.  He is a member of the Wholesale Grocers Association.
          During the World war he was active in all the drives for the sale of bonds and raising of funds for the Red Cross and other purposes.  He is a Republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a past grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, member of the B. P. O. Elks and Improved Order of Red Men.  He served a term or two as a member of the City Council.
          Mr. Walker first married  Vanie Pollick, who died in 1880. Afterwards he married  Grace Barron, of Cass County, Indiana, whose people were in Indiana before the close of the territorial period.  Her grandfather acted as an interpreter between the famous Chief Tecumseh and  Gen. William H. Harrison  after the battle of Tippecanoe.  Mr. Walker by his second marriage has two children:  George M., a graduate of DePauw University, now general manager of the Harry H. Walker Wholesale Grocery Company, married  Mary F. Messick, of Shelby County; and  Ruth E. is the wife of  J. Frank Deitzer, a Shelbyville business man, and has a daughter, Patricia.  George M. Walker  was secretary of the Rotary Club in 1926, is a Phi Beta Kappa of DePauw University, member of the Masonic fraternity, and is a past exalted ruler of the B. P. O. Elks.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT,  Vol. 3,  By Charles Roll, A.M., The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

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