The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-05
1.-THE JAY GOULD OFUTAH.
JOSEPH r. WALKER, WHO IS VISIT.
ING SAN FRANCISCO.
The Call Gives n Sketch of the Salt
Brief Interview With Him.

The San Francisco Call, of Sunday
publishes the following article regard
ing Joseph R. Walker, who is termed
1.-The Jay Gould of Utah.
Joseph r. Walker of Walker Bros.
Salt Lake. probably the best-knowr
man between San Francisco and tbs
eastern base of the Rocky mountains
is at the Occidental.
He is wonth many millions and has
been called the Jay Gould of Utah.
His life is strange story. In 1851
his father and two sisters died at st
Louis, then the home of the family
Four young boys and their mother
were left. The boys a year later, ii
their exuberance of spirits and full OF
youthful enthusiasm, persuaded theil
mother to go to the west, which ther
as now was full of attractions for those
of adventurous dispositions.
They set out in a wagon drawn by
two yoke of cattle, and were SIX
months in getting to Salt Lake. Then
oxen gave out and they had 10 resi-
them and get along as best they could
They made the long trip from Green
River to Salt Lake through savage
Indian country absolutely alone. There
was not even another wagon with
them. They camped wherever they
could find a patch of green grass fol
the oxen.
At old Jim Bridger's they were out
of sugar, coffee and some other sup
plies, though they yet had flour. They
laid in a little stock and resumed their
tireless journey. Reaching the valley
of Salt Lake at last, they located
there.
Four years later, or in 1856 Joseph r.
Walker went over into the Carson val
ley and started a small store in Gold
canyon This was before the discovery
of the Comstock. He flourished, and he
established packtrain from Placer
vile, Cal, to Genoa. He also ran the
first wagon train from Murphys, in
Calaveras county, to Genoa.
He made such a stake there in two
years that he went back to Salt Lake.
In 1859 he and his brothers. under the
firm name of Walker Brothers, started
on their business career together by
taking a stock of goods over to old
Camp Floyd, where Johnson's army
had their headquarters. This was
seven miles from the present big min
| ing camp of Mercur.
BY the early sixties the firm had
made SO much money that they opened
bank at Salt Lake, under the name
Of Walker Brothers, and the bank,
with its accumulated wealth, exists
now and is known, probably, wherever
the English language is spoken" as
! the saying has it.
The brothers began mining in 1870.
In 1872 they built their first quartz
mill in Utah. They now own a vast
number of mines and mills. One of
their biggest properties is the Alice, a
silver mine at Butte, Mont, on which
an eighty-stamp mill has long been
running. They also own five ether
mines at Butte or Walkerville, near
there, town named for them. They
also own a number of mines in Utah,
large areas of land and extensive
property of varied kinds in Salt Lake,
including the Walker house.
"Saft Lake is quite prosperous now, "
said Mr.. Walker yesterday. I'VE have
about Sc, 900 people there. Business is
| good in the city and the farmers about
there are comforta BILE and independent.
They are weIl-to-do and happy. Salt
Lake is very beautiful now with its
handsome new blocks. at is really the
gem of the mountains.
Utah is in better shape than it has
been for a long time. We are state
now and have advantages we never
had before. l think something ought
to be done by congress for silver. be-
cause we have as a nation never had
such prosperity as when there was
| plenty of silver in circulation.
''The new gold camp at .Mercur, fifty
miles from Salt Lake, is attracting
great interest There are about 1900
people in the district and number
of mines have been discovered, two of
them very big. We have two trains a
day from there 10 Salt Lake and hun
dreds of our people go out there each
morning and back at night"
Mr. Walker is accompanied by his
wife and son, and he will probably stay
in California several weeks.