Evening Star Newspaper, September 13, 1931, Page 78

re e e A S S S THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SEPTEMBER 13, 1931.° When Maj. Walker Was Chief of Police BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. FEW mornings ago the writer had a delightful interview with Maij. Samuel H. Walker, who for about six months in 1886 was major and superintendent of the Metropolitan Police Force. The major, as many of course know, is getting along in years and rounded out on June 7 last just 8 full years. When the writer ealled on the venerable former chief of the police force he had ne intention of asking him anything about police matters pertaining to his term of office 45 years ago, but the irrestible desire for information on a present-day burning question led him to change his mind and to ask the major if the so-called third degree was practiced while he was superintendent, and he received in reply an emphatic “No!” For a man of his age Maj. Walker is doing about as well—if not a great deal better—than one might expect. He still retains the presi- dency of the Capital City Life Insurance Co. and seems not to have lessened his activities in a number of financial institutions in which he is also connected. He arrives at his office about 8 o'clock in the morning, and it was here that the writer found him transacting business with a mental grasp that denoted an unfailing mind. Indeed, a nearby town had sent him real estate tax bills in excess of his holdings and the major was straightening out the matter so that one of his sons might have the error rectified. Another party interrdpted our talk with a check for his signature, and incidentally suggested how it should be indorsed. He turned the check over, added his name, and replied in no uncertain manner: “The bank will know how to handle that.” Just where Maj. Walker would be today had he remained a little longer at the head of the Police Department is only conjecture. No doubt he would have passed away ere this, and though he did not say so, yet if he-were a younger man and were asked once more to assume the duties at the hecad of the Metropolitan Police, he undoubtedly would hold up his right hand and say: “Never again!” The major is a native of Washington and was born on the north side of K street, between Eighth and N:nth streets, opposite the Public Library. He mentions as neighbors in the same street Lem Towers, John T. Towers, R. L. May, a lieutenant, stationed at the Naval Observatory, and Thomas B. Entwistle, the building inspector. Washington Topham. writing of this vicinity, gives a more complete list of residents and im- portant buildings standing for the year 1860, which is interesting. He says: " MONG the more important buildings and residences which I recall in the sixties facing the Northern Liberty Market and what is now Mount Vernon Square, are the Southern Methodist or Mount Vernon Place M. E. Church, recently torn down to make place for the new building for the National Association of Ma- chinists. This church was built by Dearing and Morsell, then members of the same, 51 years ago, and I well remember its construction. After the church was finished and the burden of debt rather heavy, a way out was provided by these two Jiberal members in personally liqui- dating the final payment. Prof. Joseph Daniel, of public school fame, led the choir for many years. “Mr. W. W. Burdette lived north of the market, at No. 805 K street, Mr. George W. Knox at 803 K, Mr. Lem Towers at No. 807 K and Mr. Alexander H. Young, the grocer, at north- west corner of Eighth and K, and the residences of Maj. A. C. Richards and Mr. Jedediah Git- tings just above on Eighth. Between Seventh and Eighth streets on K, in No. 711, lived Val- entine Harbaugh, the druggist, and W. T. Grif- fith, & leading tailor for years, at 705; 713, Noble D. Larner; 717, Col. William G. Moore, and on the northeast corner of Eighth street George S. Gideon, at one time president of the Washington & Georgetown R. R. Co. W. D. Spignul's coffee store was on the northwest corner of Seventh and K streets; William Dunk- horst's tobacco store, on the northeast corner, displayed for years one of the familiar wooden Indians in front of the door; Ruppert’s rest- aurant on the southeast corner of New York avenue and Seventh; Gustav Hartig's hardware store, northeast corner Seventh and K streets. Directly in front of Mr. Hartig's store on what is now & most attractive public parking, and opposite the old market, small circus shows were given under a single tent. Afterward they were allowed to show west of the market, on the unoccupied part of Mount Vernon Square, & portion of which was the cattle market. An old three-story frame building occupied by George M. Barker's sash and door mill, known as Noah's Ark, occupied the end of the square at Seventh street, Massachusetts avenue and K street, razed long since to make place for the handsome brownstone and brick Home Savings Bank; here the public hay scales were located for years. On the southeast corner of Seventh street and Massachusetts avenue the ‘Oriental Restaurant’ of Augustus Coppes and several low gable-roofed frame buildings, replaced by the fine brick buildings of the Jackson Furniture Co., and on the southwest corner of Seventh and K streets the grocery store of Wilson & Schultz; Charles Dismer’s restaurant next on the west, and the paint store of Richard Rig- gles, W. F. Reamer’s furniture store on the corner of Eighth. A frame residence was op- posite, on the southwest corner of Eighth and K streets. “I well remember Burnett's old pottery, just 2 block below, corner of Eighth and I streets, adjoining the Hebrew Temple property. A grocery store was in the frame building at the southeast corner of Ninth and K streets, and on the southwest corner the brick residence of Mr. Charles P. Wannall, the yard inclosed by a high brick wall, running down Ninth street to the alley. This property was owned by Mr. John C. Some Early Recollections of the Metropolitan Police Force Back in the Eighties. An Interviezo With the Oldest Living Police Superintendent. Maj. and Mrs. Samuel H. Walker, shortly after their wedding in 1872. Harkness for many years. At the southwest corner of Ninth and K streets was the Sixth Precinct Police Station, Lieut. Kelly, and next the corner of New York avenue and Ninth one of the voting precincts, a good place to keep away from dur- ing election times in those days.” Maybe some old-timer will recall the private schools attended by Mr. Walker in his childhood days. Edward W. Farley was one of his early teachers, having his school at Massachusetts avenue and Fourth street northwest. Another school was on the rear of the lot of McKendree M. E. Church, Massachusetts avenue between Ninth and Tenth streets northwest. Still an- other was the school taught by Dick Willlams, which stood on the rear of a lot on Fourth street northwest north of M. Subsequently he attended Columbian College, which then stood above Florida avenueto the west of Fourteenth Street, and which is now George Washington University. McKendree Church, according to Maj. Walker, was erected by Zephaniah Jones, John C. Hark- ness and Jonathan T. Walker, and was organized in the latter's carpenter shop, northwest corner of Eighth and K streets, by Rev. French S. Evans, in 1844, Mr. Jones then lived on Ninth street between L and M streets; Mr. Harkness on the south side of New York avenue between Ninth and Tenth streets and Jonathan T. Walker on K street, as before stated. The American ancestry of Maj. Walker is in- teresting, and his family connection include some of the oldest families in Washington. In 1883, nearly half a century ago—when he was comparatively a young man—this thoughtful ‘Washingtonian set about to preserve some of the records of his family and, therefore, today we are able to tell considerably more about it than otherwise we should have been able to do. In his own words he says: llDUR!NG the earlier years of the eighteenth century, from 1715 to 1746, Scotland was much agitated by the different attempts of the ‘pretenders,’ James and Charles, to obtain a foothold upon the soil ‘and recognition as the Maj. and Mrs. Samuel H. Walker in 1922, when they celebrated the fiftieth an- Savonry of s idi crowned heads of England and Scotland, in place of the Elector of Hanover, who, a German, had been crowned as George I, King of England. “This foreign substitution, for the native-born house of Stuart, was revolting to the sensitive sensibilities of many Scottish chiefs, and they raised the standard of rebellion, hoping, while England was entangled with European wars, consequent upon the accession of a German to the throne, to secure recognition from the powers of Europe and support from the nation for the house of Stuart. After many disastrous encounters with the power of England, sup- ported by the Hollanders, in which they suf- fered great loss of life, the remainder sought safety from the wrath of the King and fled to foreign soil. Of those who were taken many were executed, others were banished, while those who eluded pu:rsuit were for three years published both at home and in the colonies as rebels and felons, with large rewards offered for their heads. “Isaac Walker and his brothers Charles and Nathan were thus forced to flee, with £500 of- fered for their heads, and found in France temporary secrecy and security. “Isaac Walker's wife, a Stuart, was informed of his intention to sail for America and made all her preparations to follow him, but was baffled for four years lest she should betray his hiding place in the forests of Maryland. He was afraid to communicate with her, and in- tended to return secretly to Scotland and bring back his wife, whom he had not seen for so long. By some kind Providence the day he intended to sail from Alexandria the very vessei he expected to return in brought his wife, and they met at the wharf. It was stated by Grandfather Nathan Walker that as his mother came up the hill from the wharf a parrot called out to her, calling her ‘Scotch’; when she ex- claimed, ‘Laird! how did the poor creature know?’ The brothers constructed a large white oak log house at the head waters of Bear Garden Branch, in Piince Georges County, about nine miles northeast of what was after- ward called Washington, D. C. “This house remained standing until about 25 years since, when some of the logs were used to repair the barn and granary, which are now standing, and a piece of which is the cane this day presented to Jonathan T. Wali-er by his grandchildren. They named the place Toaping Castle,” after their stronghold in the old country, and after they thought it safe to ace knowledge their identity and danger was over, February 5, 1754, the patent of the land was granted to Isaac Walker by Frederick, Absolute Lord and Proprietary of the Province of Mary- land and Avalon, Lord Baron of Baltimore, etc. “The original of this paper is now in the hands of Jonathan T. Walker. who still owns the homestead on which he and his ancestors were born, and is recorded in the land office at Annapolis (liber B. C. & G. S, No. 6, folio 496). Other grants were recorded, as is stated in the title hereto annexed. “Charles and Nathan removed from Toaping Castle and were afterward heard from as hav- ing, with their children. settled in Kentucky and thence to Mississippi.” Of the three brothers, Isaac, Charles and Nathan Walker, who came to this country from Scotland prior to 1754, Isaac and his wife, Elizabeth (Stuart) Walker, had three sons and one daughter—Isaac, Charles, Nathan and Kate. Tradition has it that William Bradley Walker, an early resident of this city, was descended from the first Charles. and that Richard Alfred, Thomas H., William T., Frank M., John C. and George F. Walker were of his children. Miss Annje Walker of Washington is a daughter of Richard Alfred Walker, and Mrs. Kathryn C. Holzbelerlein is a granddaughter of Thomas H. Walker. Isaac, of the second American generation, married & Miss Hamilton and settled in Balti- more County, Md., where they reared four sons, Samuel, Charles, Robert and Nathan. Regarding Charles, son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Stuart) Walker, Maj. Walker's notes state: " HARLES settled near Washington and was the father of Zachariah Walker, who lived near the U. S. Hospital for the Insane. His daughter, Mrs. Sarah Davis, died at 1010 1 street southeast at the extreme old age of 96 years, enjoying vigorous health of mind and body to the last. Charles, the son of Dr. Walter J. Hoffman, and Mary Davis, his wife, is the only direct descendant of this branch of the family, living at 222 E street northwest. Many of the facts of this history were gathered from Aunt Sallie Davis, who loved in her extreme age to narrate family history, daring deeds of the Wars of the Revolution and 1812. She said that the Walker brothers all entered the ranks and did valiant service during both wars, only ree turning home when victory had secured pere manent peace. The records of their company were lost by fire and they were unable to make any claim for pension or bounty for services rendered.” Kate” Walker, the sister, married into the Sheriff family near Washington. Nathan Walker, youngest of the three brothers, was born in Maryland in 1756, and died December 23, 1842, and was buried at “Toaping Castle.” He was the son of Isaac ‘Walker, one of the pioneers, and had as firs¢ wife Nancy Baggerly of Montgomery County, Md., and had issue: Henry B, Nathan and Elizabeth Ann. Of these Henry B., born August 31, 1779, died in Georgetown February 6. 1882. February 3, 1824, he married Rachael A Elizabeth Ann Walker married Rezin Beck, who for many years taught school at the corner of Sixth and G streets northwest. Of Nathan Walker, one of the sons of this marriage, no information; probably died young. Nathan Walker (son of Isaac), married as sccond wife Elizabeth Thomas of Charles