John Allen Walker was born in Arkansas on 1862. His father was a lieutenant in the Confederate Army, serving with a unit from Northern Virginia. He was killed in the Battle of Antietam.
Walker attended both Baylor and Vanderbilt Universities, and although he received certificates of distinction, never graduated. He left school due to “eye weakness.” In 1886, he married Mary Elizabeth Peacock, and in 1889 they had a daughter.
In 1894, he and a partner founded the Temple Grocery Company in Temple, Texas. In 1899, they purchased the Ramey-Smith Company in Brownwood, which was the first business in Brown County whose entire business was wholesaling goods. That business continued under the name Walker-Smith Company. They operated it until they died. At the time of Walker’s death in 1942, they had fifteen branches around west Texas and one in New Mexico. Their headquarters remained in Brownwood, along with a subsidiary canning plant.
Walker had many business interests over the years. He was the vice president of First National Bank in Brownwood, and of First National Bank in Ballinger.
In 1896, a small switchboard was installed in Brownwood, and lines to Goldthwaite, Ballinger, Coleman, Cisco, and Dublin were built. Another exchange provided local service in Goldthwaite, Coleman, and Ballinger. A merger of these exchanges in 1904 formed the West Texas Telephone Company, of which Walker was president for several years.
In 1916, Howard Payne College (HPC) was recognized by the State Department of Education, and became a member of the Texas Association of Colleges. Walker gave HPC its first endowment, with a gift of $30,000 in the 1920s. He served as a member of the HPC board for many years, as well as the boards of both Simmons University (now Hardin-Simmons) of Abilene and Baylor University of Waco. Through the course of his life, Walker contributed about $200,000 to HPC. In addition to this, he secretly assisted financially countless individual students, widows, and orphans.
Walker and his wife were active members of First Baptist Church in Brownwood. Walker has a medallion on his grave stone saying he was a “member of the Sons of the American Revolution.”
Walker’s wife, Mary, died in 1936 at 73 years old. She was a vice-regent of the Texas Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She died in New York while visiting her daughter.
Walker was quiet and retiring by nature, and enjoyed strolling through the thriving city that he helped grow from a small pioneer town.
Walker had not been in good health for some time when he died. He had been in his office on Monday as usual, but died in his sleep early Tuesday morning . John Allen Walker died on December 15, 1942 at the age of 80.
In his obituary in the Dallas Morning News, Walker was called “Brownwood’s greatest philanthropist” and it stated that he was reputedly Brownwood’s wealthiest citizen. -Freda
