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1854 – 1877 · the founding record, with its conflicts printed whole
The plats: the town as it stands is, in Howard's words, "a combination of different towns and additions, all united under the name and government of Walkerton." The first of them was West Troy, "laid out by Elias D. Jones in the southeast part of the northeast quarter of section twenty-three, township thirty-five north, range one west," and platted by him on 14 December 1854 (Howard). "On June 20, 1856, William C. Hannah platted the town of Walkerton, which was laid out in the southwest quarter of section twenty-four, in the same township and range as West Troy." Against Howard's plat record, the town's own history page — reproducing the Chapman tradition — says Walkerton "would be laid out in March, 1857, by one Mr. Allen," and that West Troy "was laid out in 1856." Both tellings stand, unmerged: Howard writes from the recorded plats and gives dates and quarter-sections; the town's telling gives a different year and a different man's name, Allen, who appears nowhere in Howard's account.
The name: Howard: "The town was named from John Walker, the promoter of a railroad through the town, from Plymouth to Laporte, known at first as the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago railroad, but long since become a part of the Lake Erie & Western system." The town's own page: "The town of Walkerton was named for John C. Walker, a prominent citizen and member of the State Senate. He was at the head of the building of the railroad in Walkerton." The two accounts agree on the man and the railroad and differ on the initial and the office — promoter in the one, state senator in the other — and both are printed. A third version, that the namesake was a Joseph Walker, a railroad official, circulates in modern retellings; it is supported by neither of the two early accounts and is printed here only to be retired: on the evidence reached, the town is John Walker's, and whether he was John C. Walker the senator or John Walker the promoter — or both, a senator who promoted railroads being no rarity in 1856 — the legislative rosters and the railroad's corporate record are the settlers. John Walker himself never lived in the town that bears his name, so far as any record read shows; he is its namesake, and he stands at exactly that strength in the negatives roll below as well.
The incorporation: Howard again, at length: "After several fruitless attempts, Walkerton became an incorporated town June 8, 1877. The first petition for incorporation was filed with the county auditor December 2, 1873, and an election was ordered for the 22nd of the same month. By reason of irregularities in the proceedings, the commissioners refused to act favorably on the petition. A second petition was not filed until March 8, 1876, when an election was ordered for April 3, 1876. No further proceedings were had on this second petition. The third petition was filed with the board March 5, 1877, and an election was ordered for April 2nd following. The report of this third election was returned on June 8, 1877; and the board of county commissioners finding everything regular and according to law, an order was entered duly incorporating the town." The town's own page says flatly: "Walkerton was incorporated in 1876." The 1876 date is the second petition's election year — a proceeding Howard says went no further — and the conflict is printed whole: 1876 by the town's tradition, 8 June 1877 by Howard's reading of the commissioners' record, which is the settler named.
The township: Lincoln Township, the town's civil frame, was formed by order of the county board on 7 June 1866 — carved last of the county's townships out of the original three by way of Liberty Township — with boundaries unchanged since (Howard). Its population in 1900 was 1,599, including the town's; and here Howard disagrees with himself, giving the town's included population as 885 in the township section and "by the census of 1900" as 1,037 in the town section, with his informant Samuel J. Nicoles estimating 1,500 by 1907. Both figures stand as he printed them; the 1900 census volume is the settler. The town's modern size, for the frame: 2,144 in the 2010 census and 2,096 in 2020.
Sources:
- Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907), vol. 1, Ch. IX §5 (Walkerton), pp. 317–318; Ch. VIII §10 (Lincoln Township), pp. 290–291 — read in the book's digitized transcription.
- Town of Walkerton, official history page (walkerton.gov/history.html) — the town's own telling, headed as drawn from Chapman (1880) with the Walkerton Area Historical Society's materials.
- U.S. Census figures for the town, 2010 and 2020, as carried in the standard references.