History of Michigan, / by Charles Moore. [Vol. 3]

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

1347

New York, was for a number of years engaged in the lake transportation service, and died in Toledo in 1893 at the age of sixty-three years.
As a very young man he saw service as an American soldier in the
Mexican War. The mother was educated and was married at Adrian,
Michigan, and is still living in Toledo at the age of seventy years.
William T. Walker after finishing the grammar and high schools at
Toledo, entered the University of Michigan, and was graduated from
the engineering department in I904. On leaving college he found
employment at Detroit in the Olds Motor Works for one year, and then
went with F. F. Van Tuyl of Detroit, later being sent to Toledo to take
charge of the office force in that city. After six months with the Van
Tuyl concern, he spent two years in the Timkins Roller Bearing Works,
and then came to Flint. In Flint, Mr. Walker was first associated with
the Weston Mott Company, and started in the engineering department,
and five years later on resigning, was assistant general manager of the
plant. Mr. Walker left the last named concern to engage in business on
his own account with Fred J. Weiss. They acquired the business which
they have since conducted as the Walker-Weiss Axle Company, of which
Mr. Walker is general manager and vice president.
Mr. Walker is popular in social and business circles, is a Master
Mason and a Republican in politics. He was married at Owosso, Michigan, October 24, I906, to Miss Maud Gale, a daughter of Charles W.
Gale, and of a well known family at Owosso. Mr. Walker as a college
man has affiliations with the Theta Delta Chi fraternity.
JOSIAH CROSBY RICHARDSON. One of the leading business men of
Jackson, where he has had his home for forty years, actively identified
with municipal affairs, and the present postmaster, Mr. Richardson's
position in his home city takes on additional interest from the fact that
he is the owner of the historic "Under the Oaks," as his home. "Under
the Oaks" will always be regarded as a shrine of the Republican party,
and Mr. Richardson himself has long been one of the vigorous exponents
of that political faith in Michigan, and the old landmark is certain to
be preserved with tender regard as long as he keeps it in his ownership.
Mr. Richardson was born in the town of Alstead, Cheshire county,
New Hampshire, a son of Edward P. and Eunice (Crosby) Richardson.
Four years old when his mother died, and he lost his father four years
later, so that he was deprived of many of those attentions and much of
the home training which ordinary boys receive. He lived with his stepmother until he was eleven and from that time forward was compelled
to face the world alone. Among strangers, he proved his usefulness
even with his boyhood strength, and from the age of eleven until eighteen
worked on a farm in his native county. This not only gave him a thorough knowledge of farming, but at the same time he was laying the basis
of a sound training and was getting some education by attendance at the
country school. At the age of eighteen he became a clerk at Keene in
Cheshire county and spent three years in one store. Such'were his abilities during that time that at the age of twenty-one he was made a partner
in the firm of Gerould, Son & Company. His experience as a New Hampshire merchant continued for several years, and in I873 he came west and
located in Jackson, Michigan, which has been his home for forty-one
years.
From I873 until I885, Mr. Richardson was engaged in the wholesale and retail millinery business, following which for two or three years
he managed the Jackson Corset Company. In I889 he established the
Reliance Corset Company at Jackson, and that has since continued to be