Who was James Walker? He does have a street in Cochrane named after him. We’ll research his history to tell the story of one of Cochrane and Alberta’s early pioneers.
Born in Carluke, Upper Canada in 1846 James Walker was Superintendent with the North-West Mounted Police when he retired to take the Manager position of the Cochrane Ranche Company in 1881.
“In the spring of 1881, plans were made to purchase the first herd of cattle for the Cochrane Ranche* Major Walker was sent to Montana, where he obtained six thousand eight hundred head at an average price of eighteen dollars per head with the understanding that the Montana ranchers from whom they were bought would deliver them to the boundary”
After a couple of seasons of disastrous losses, he resigned in 1882 and was replaced by W.D. Kerfoot.
Walker purchased the Cochrane Ranche sawmill and moved it to Calgary who furnished the area with lumber. He later took his plant to Kananaskis.
“For the next three decades Walker’s contributions to the growth of early Calgary were incalculable. As an early proponent of mixed farming, he was one of the first serious agricultural experimentalists in the area. His Bow River Saw and Planing Mills was a major supplier of construction materials for the developing town, including its new NWMP barracks in 1883. A JP and notary public, he chaired the committee that pressed for town incorporation in 1884. The following year he was named first president of the Board of Trade, was the driving force behind the establishment of Calgary’s first school district, organized a home guard to protect the town during the North-West uprising, and installed the town’s first telephones, between his office and his mill two miles away. In 1886 Walker, the founding president of the Calgary District Agricultural Society, was instrumental in securing federal land for exhibition purposes. The first local supply of natural gas was discovered on his property in 1908, and he made use of it to heat his residence. Walker organized the Boy Scout Association of Alberta, served as its president, and played a formative role in the local cadet movement. In 1905 he had established the city’s first militia unit, the 15th Light Horse, and been appointed its lieutenant-colonel. For several years he was president of the Alberta Provincial Rifle Association. James Walker remained active to the end. Following his return to Calgary, he engaged in a variety of businesses. With his son, William James Selby, he ran an investment, insurance, and real-estate agency. As well, in the 1920s he was president or vice-president of three oil companies. He also maintained his military connections, being honorary colonel on the adjutant-general’s cadet committee in Ottawa and, from 1911, honorary lieutenant-colonel of the 23rd Alberta Rangers. His sudden death in 1936, just before his 90th birthday, marked the passing of the last officer from the historic Long March of 1874 and the longest-serving militia officer in the country. With his fine physique, military bearing, and practical intelligence, Walker was in many ways the quintessential frontiersman. He was a man of daring and courage, a natural leader who gravitated to what had to be done. In early Calgary, he represented an organizational focus for the building of fledgling institutions. To the hundreds who knew and respected him, he was “Major” and later “Colonel” Walker. To the natives with whom he dealt, he was Pee-tee-quack-kee – “the eagle that protects.” In 1975, he was named Calgary’s “Citizen of the Century,” a title well earned and well deserved."
Deep Dive
- The Capitalists
- James Walker search on CHAPs
- Biography of James Walker
- James Walker Trail Expansion, Town of Cochrane
