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1851 – 1887
Elias D. Jones platted West Troy on 14 December 1854 — the first town plat on this ground, two years before Walkerton's — and is the founder of the town's western half, the railroad junction part, on Howard's record. Nothing more of him stands in the sources read; he is printed at plat strength.
William C. Hannah platted Walkerton itself on 20 June 1856, in the southwest quarter of section 24 (Howard). He is the town's proprietor of record.
Jacob Rupel — met above as a settler of 1835 — is the proprietor of the town's growth: Burk's addition to West Troy had been platted 27 April 1860 (the record gives the surname only), and Rupel's five additions to Walkerton run from 1868 to 1884, a thirty-year course of a settler subdividing the town he had helped people. Dixon W. Place platted his first addition to Walkerton on 3 September 1887 (Howard), the last of the founding-era platters named.
C. W. N. Stephens kept the ground's first post office: "The post office was designated as 'West York', and was situated one-half mile south of Walkerton. It was kept by Mr. C. W. N. Stephens, who had established it in 1851, and was the first appointee" (the town's page). Five years before the town was platted, the federal government's man on this ground was Stephens, and the settlement's mail — and its church's name, the West York Mission — ran through his office. Walkerton's own post office has been in operation since 1860, on the standard postal record.
Sources:
- Howard, Ch. IX §5, pp. 317–318 — the plats and additions, with their dates.
- Town of Walkerton, official history page — the West York post office and Stephens.