John J. Walk
History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894
USGENWEB Montana ArchivesMay be copied for non-profit purposes.

John J. Walk, one of the leading citizens of Billings and 
prominent among the prosperous stock and mining men of 
Yellowstone County is a native of Indiana, where he was born, 
in Harrison County, in 1847, son of Joseph andOlive (Crandall) 
Walk. His father's ancestors were from Holland, but his 
grandfather, Abraham Walk, was born andreared in North 
Carolina, where he married, and in 1812, with his wife 
moved in a cart to the Territory of Indiana.He took part 
in the Battle of Tippecanoe under General Harrison. Joseph 
A. Walk, our subject's father, was born and reared in 
Indiana and reared a large family. Two of his sons, Andrew 
and Martin, served in the Federal army during the late war, 
in the Army of the Potomac, in the Third Indiana Cavalry. 
Francis M. served during the war in the Twelfth Indiana 
Battery, which was stationed for a time at Fort Negley. 
Later, he was transferred to a steam war vessel on the 
Mississippi River.John J. Walk grew to manhood in Indiana, 
where he received a common-school education. In 1866 he 
went to Kansas, where he was engaged for four years in 
farming and stock-raising. In 1870 he went to Colorado and 
decided to engagein stock-raising, but concluded first to 
secure a helpmate. Accordingly, February 16, 1871 he 
married Emma Davis, at Middletown Missouri. She was the 
daughter of Samuel Davis. Her father, a native of 
Pennsylvania was a farmer and stockman. He had two 
sons, Frank and James, in the Federal army and one 
(Hiram) a Lieutenant in the Confederatearmy under 
Sterling Price. Frank was shot from his horse and 
killed by a bushwhacker while the animal was drinking,
near Paris Missouri. The father still survives, being 
now eighty-four years old.Immediately after marriage 
in 1871 Mr. Walk and wife crossed the plains in a 
wagon and he purchased a lot and erectedon it a residence 
in Pueblo, Colorado, where he owned an entire block; but 
in December, that year, sold out at aprofit and located 
at River Bend on the Kansas Pacific Railroad; and that 
winter he and his brother-in-law Ephraim Davis killed 
650 buffalo for their hides and made considerable money. 
The following spring Mr. Walk purchased a smallherd of 
cattle and was soon extensively engaged in the cattle 
trade, which he continued with success until September
1879, when he sold out and went to Oregon where he 
purchased a large herd of cattle, which he drove to 
Montana, in 1880, locating them on White Beaver, 
Yellowstone Valley in the fall of that year. In the 
spring of 1881 he moved hisherd to Clark's fork. The 
winter of 1880-1 was severe and he lost thirty-five 
per cent of his cattle. In the fall of 1881 he 
engaged in butchering and supplying meats to the 
construction forces along the line of the Union 
Pacific Railroad, and conducted the business during the 
ensuing winter. In 1883 he purchased another large herd 
of cattle in Oregon, which he drove through the country 
and located on the Lake Basin range. The winters of 
1884-85 were mild,and his loss of stock light. The 
summer of 1886 was unusually dry, and there was but 
little grass and the cattleentered the following 
winter in bad condition and the winter proved to be 
the most severe before or since. The resultwas a 
fearful loss of stock, the average loss being about 
sixty-five per cent, from which stockmen have never 
fully recovered. In 1886 Mr. Walk had his cattle on 
the Crow Indian Reservation.In 1892 he sold his 
entire stock interest and engaged in mining in Boulder 
mining camp, Park County, where he nowowns free-milling 
gold quartz property. May 9, 1892 he began operating a 
stage line between Big Timber on the Northern Pacific 
Railroad and Boulder mining camp, a tri-weekly line 
on which he had a contract for carrying the mail. 
His coach was drawn by four horses, had a capacity 
for sixteen passengers and he had twenty-two head of 
horses to operate the line. In July he sold out to 
Dow Woln, of Boulder River, who is bound to fill all 
contracts until June 20, 1894. In October 1893 Mr. Walk 
decided to engage in the sheep industry, purchased 1400 
head and placed them on a ceded portion of the Crow 
Indian Reservation. In partnership with J.J. Nickey, 
he constructed the Grand Hotel at Billings, at a cost 
of $38,000, which had been in charge of Mr. Nickey for 
three years. In 1883 Mr. Walk erected his residence in 
the Foster addition, North side at a cost of $4,000. 
He and his wife have two daughters, now attending the 
Sacred Heart School at St. Charles Missouri. They are 
Edith E., aged eighteen years and Alice E, fifteen 
years.

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