MYSTERY, worked: which Walker named the town (GAP-W-NAME-1)

The question: Walkerton is named for a Walker — both of the town's best sources agree on the surname and the railroad — and they give two different men: John, a promoter of the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago (Howard, 1907), and James H., a banker of the Cincinnati, Peru & Chicago (the town's own history). What was tried, in order: the county histories first — Chapman (1880), nearer the event, does not decide it in the record reached; Howard (1907) gives John, flatly, with the road named. The town's own history next — James H., with the other road named. The corporate record next: the CP&C's charter of June 2, 1853 and the 1881 consolidation account in the Logansport Pharos Tribune prove both roads real and both ancestors of the line through town — which explains the conflict without settling it, since a Walker of either company is a plausible namesake and the record reached attaches the Christian name to neither. Modern reference works last: they repeat the surname and the honor without adjudicating the man. The blank: printed blank. The gap stands as GAP-W-NAME-1, and its settlers are named: the two railroads' corporate papers — officer and director lists of the Cincinnati, Peru & Chicago and the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago in the 1850s — where a Walker of either Christian name, in a promoter's or a banker's seat, would decide what two honest local records could not. A worked mystery is not a failure of the file; it is the file showing its work.

Sources

1. Howard (1907), pp. 316–317; Town of Walkerton, "History" (2012) via Hoganson (2019) — the two tellings.
2. Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of the Finances (1856), railroad table — the CP&C charter, June 2, 1853; Logansport Pharos Tribune, May 26, 1881 — the consolidation, via this build's Spine leg.