Walker Grocery Company Account Books

Obadiah Johnson Walker was born in Ferrisburg, VT, on January 6, 1828, and entered the grocery store business at the age of 15 in the Burlington store of his uncle, Solomon Walker. In 1856, Walker helped found Van Sicklen and Walker and remained with that firm until about 1877, when he left to buy out E.W. Peck and Co. and establish O.J. Walker and Brothers. From their store at 170 College Street, the Walker brothers (O.J., William W. and Hiram) built a large wholesale grocery business, with annual sales of over $500,000 in the mid- 1880s. The Walkers moved their operation to 164 College Street in 1895, when they added several of their sons to the partnership and changed the name to O.J. Walker and Co. Obadiah Johnson Walker died on March 28, 1897, and William W. Walker and Hiram Walker on February 22, 1899 and August 5, 1899 repectively. Despite the loss of the founders, however, the business went on under the title Walker Grocery Company, incorporated on March 28, 1899. The corporation continued operations into the early years of the twentieth century, but only as an estate venture to benefit the heirs of the three founding Walker brothers. By 1907, the Walker Grocery Company was out of business, and its property and stock bought up by other local grocery wholesalers.