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- He is the subject of an extensive biographical sketch in S308; I post it here, from pa-roots.org, because it was so hard to find on the site:
"JOSEPH COATES WALKER, president of the Gap National Bank, senior member of the well-known firm of Joseph C. Walker & Son, is not only one of the most substantial and reliable business men of southern Lancaster county, but is a leading citizen of Gap, his home, which through many years has benefited by his public spirit and liberal generosity.
Mr. Walker was born in Sadsbury township, Lancaster county, April 4, 1832, son of Asahel and Sarah T. (Coates) Walker, the former of whom was a native of Sadsbury township, and the latter of Caln township, Chester county. Asahel Walker was a man of substance and prominence, was an extensive farmer, owning some 300 acres of valuable land, and efficiently filled many offices of trust and responsibility in his locality, for many years serving as a justice of the peace. He was known in his vicinity for his conscientious opposition to the Masonic fraternity. He belonged to the Society of Friends, and was laid to rest in the shadow of the old meeting-house in Sadsbury township, his death occurring in December, 1856, when he was aged sixty-eight years. His widow, who was born in 1793, survived until May, 1869, and was laid by his side in the old Quaker cemetery. Their children were as follows: Anna married W. P. Cooper, and both have passed out of life; Susan (deceased) married Moses Pownall; Phoebe (deceased) married her brother-in-law, W. P. Cooper; Sarah (deceased) married Sylvester D. Limballe; Samuel (deceased) married Sarah L. Haines; Asahel C. married and died in New Mexico; Joseph C. is mentioned below; Mary A. is the widow of Alfred Ellmaker, of Gap; Margrette is the wife of Frank Pennock, of Philadelphia.
It is in a manner easy to attribute some of the qualities which have made Mr. Walker so estimable and useful a citizen to a most honorable ancestry, which the biographer finds was thoroughly identified with the religious and educational, as well as the commercial and agricultural, advancement of the sections in which they found a home. In 168o Lewis Walker, a man of parts, a friend of William Penn, came from England, where his religious views were interfered with, and permanently settled in Montgomery county, Pa., buying a large tract of the rich land lying in what was known as Great Valley. There he reared a family. He was succeeded by his son Isaac, who was also an extensive agriculturist, and whose large estate was left his heirs, one of whom was Asahel, the grandfather of Joseph C. Walker, of Gap.
Asahel Walker (1) married Anna Moore in 1770, in the old Sadsbury township meeting-house near her home, and they began life together in Adams county, Pa., returning in 1788 to locate in Sadsbury township. By trade he was a millwright, and he erected the first mill which was built in this part of the county, for his father-in-law, in 1765. This building still stands, the old stone mill near Christiana, Pa., being an object of historic interest in that locality. His later days were spent in agricultural pursuits, his farm consisting of 250 acres. He passed away in 1838, at the advanced age of ninety-four years, after a quiet, useful and benevolent life. His wife, born in 1749, died in 1823. Both were members of the Society of Friends, and he was a minister of the Gospel. Their children were as follows: Isaac; Anna, who married John Moore; Sarah, who married George Cooper; Mary, who married Andrew Moore; and Asahel, the father of Joseph C., previously mentioned.
On the maternal side, the grandfather of Mr. Walker was Samuel Coates, who carried on farming all his life in Chester county, and whose name was connected with much of the enlightened advancement of his section. He was a son of Moses Coates, who was of English extraction, and who long was a respected resident of Phoenixville, Chester county. He was a descendant of the Coates family who first settled in or near Baltimore, Maryland.
It has been more than once noted that a farm has been the early home of almost every prominent man in our country's history, and such was the case with Joseph C. Walker. Until he reached his majority he remained on the farm, acquiring his education in the district schools and at Unionville Academy, in Chester county. His first entrance into the business world was as a clerk in the employ of Baker & Hopkins, in Gap. Col. Joseph B. Baker, the head of the firm at that time, 1853, was the superintendent of the Philadelphia & Columbia railroad, then owned by the State, but now the Philadelphia division of the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad. There Mr. Walker remained for a period of two years, going then to Christiana, where he engaged for the two succeeding years in a general mercantile business, operating in this connection a business in grain and feed.
Upon his return to Gap, in 1857, where he decided to make his home, Mr. Walker embarked in the mercantile business, purchasing from his former employers their business plant, and he has the distinction of being one of the oldest merchants on the line of the Pennsylvania railroad between Harrisburg and Philadelphia. As years went on, through his public-spirited efforts, the hamlet grew to its present proportions and prosperity, and his business growth was commensurate with other advancement. In 1885 he erected his great brick grain elevator, and the bulk of the business done in this locality in grain, feed, coal and lumber is carried on by the well-known, reliable firm of Joseph C. Walker & Son.
In 1883 financial conditions seemed to assure the success of a properly managed National bank at this point, and Mr. Walker was one of its principal organizers. He was made its president, B. Maurice Herr its cashier, and from the bank's comparative statement of its condition on June 30, 1899, we find that its loans and discounts at that time amounted to $198,710.81; its surplus and net profits, $30,716.49; and its deposits, $159,645.50; while its suiplus and undivided profits were $30,716.44; the amount paid to stockholders in dividends, $35,500.00; and the total net profits from its organization, $66,216.49. This remarkable showing is a testimony to the careful and conservative yet successful course followed by its eminent president.
Aside from his duties already mentioned, Mr. Walker has found time to take a deep interest in all the public affairs and enterprises of his little city. In 1893 he was a member of the Pennsylvania Board of World's Fair Managers, Chicago, serving as chairman of one of the committees of that board. For four years he served as postmaster; for six years gave his time on the school board as one of the efficient and careful directors, with the result that no locality in the county has better school equipments; and for a period of five years served the good people of Gap as a just justice of the peace. For thirty-five years he has been an active member of the Commercial Exchange of Philadelphia, and has served on its board of directors. At the outbreak of the Spanish war he was appointed, by Gov. Hastings, on the Board of Commissioners of Pennsylvania to examine into the condition of fortresses and needs of defense on the Eastern Coast, acting with like boards from the other States. Mr. Walker is noted for his sterling personal as well as political honesty, his affiliation in the latter direction being with the Republican party. He is a man whom Nature endowed with extraordinary energy and business capacity, and in conjunction gave him the honesty of his Quaker ancestry.
In fraternal life Mr. Walker is connected with the Masons. He has long been a leading member of and liberal contributor to the Presbyterian Church, encouraging its spheres of usefulness in every possible direction. His manner possesses the polish of the social world, and he numbers his frieuds by the number of those who make his acquaintance. In Gap he has long been regarded in the light of a public benefactor.
On March 13, 1856, Mr. Walker was united in marriage with Miss Lucy H. Ellmaker, and children as follows have been born to this union: E. Enfield, who is his father's efficient partner in business, married Miss Nancy McCullough, and their two children bear the names of Joseph and Margaret; Miss Sarah W. and Miss Susan P. are both at home; Joseph C. is deceased; William J. L. is a student in college. Mrs. Walker is a native of Leacock township, a daughter of Esaias E. Ellmaker, and a sister of Watson Ellmaker, of Lancaster.
(Source: Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pa., Beers, 1903, pp. 308-9. Posted By: Carol Eddleman, April 25 2002) [3]
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