Show THE JAY GOULD OF UTAH JOSEPH n WALKER WHO IS VISITING VISIT-ING SAN FRANCISCO The Call Gives a Sketch oZ the Salt Lake Bankers Career and a Brief Interview With Him The San Francisco Call of Sunday publishes the following article regarding regard-ing Joseph R Walker who Is termed the Jay Gould of Utah Joseph R Walker of Walker Bros Salt Lake probably the bestknown man between San Francisco and the eastern base of the Rocky mountains is at the Occidental He is worth many millions and has been called the Jay Gould of Utah His life is a 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 in their exuberance of spirits and full of youthful enthusiasm persuaded their mother to go to the west which then 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 Their i oxen gave out and they had 10 rest them and get along as best they could They made the long trip from Green River to Salt Lake through a savage i I Indian country absolutely alone There I was not even another wagon with them They camped wherever they could find a patch of green grass for the oxen At old Jim Bridgers they were out of sugar coffeE and some other supplies sup-plies though they yet had flour They laiid 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 valley val-ley and started a small store in Gold canyon This was before the discovery of the Comstock He flourished and he established a packtrain from Placer ville 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 Ion I-on their business career together by I taking a stock of goods over to old Camp Floyd where Johnsons army had their headquarters This was seven miles from the present big mining min-ing camp of Mercur By the early sixties the firm had made so much money that they opened a 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 a the saying has it The brothers began mining in 1S70 In 1S72 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 eightystamp mill has long been running They also own five ether mines at Butte or Walkerville near I there a 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 Salt Lake is quite prosperous now said Mr Walker yesterday We have albouit 65000 people there Business is abowt 6500 good in the city and the farmers about there are comfortable and independent They are welltodo 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 a state now and have advantages we never had before I think something ought to be done by congress for silver because be-cause we ihave as a nation never had such prosperity as when there was plenty of silver in circulation The new gold camp at Iercur fifty miles from Salt Lake is attracting great interest There are about 2000 I people in the district and a number of mines have been discovered two of hem very big We have two trains a day from there > o Salt Lake and hundreds hun-dreds of our people go out there each morning and back at night Mr Walker is accompanied by Ms wife and ion and he will probably stay in California several weeks i |