The Past
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~ City Hall
~ Fire
Department
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~ Justice of
the Peace
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~ Newspaper
~ ~ The Enderby
Commoner
~ ~ H.M. Walker
~ ~ Commoner
destroyed by fire
~ ~ Francis
Samuel Rouleau
~ Police
Department
~ Post office
~ Telephones
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H.M. Walker
Mr. Walker came here in 1903. He
started a newspaper. Walker was a health enthusiast. He bought some property on Mable Lake
and called it his "Health Haven". He sold the property for $200 per lot.
Walker was a very strong Conservative - he didn't mind saying what he thought about people
and made many enemies this way. He was very conscientious and good with his ideas too. One
time, while curling, he got in an argument with another skip, and was thrown out an open
window.
Walker did see what the future of Enderby was and was instrumental in its incorporation.
He was not given enough credit for this. He really worked hard, and wrote an editorial
pushing to get the town incorporated. In those days, to be incorporated as a city, you
only had to have 1000 people. The town did not have this many people at this time, but
Walker promoted the town until there were enough people. Even after that he did a lot to
get people here and to encourage business. People arrived by riverboat. When the railway
came in, the riverboat was no longer used.
Walker made the telephone directory which included Vernon, Enderby, and Armstrong. This
included the yellow pages. He was a very fine man because he tried his best to benefit
Enderby. He fought many things in the government, which may have been a drawback in many
ways. Walker's newspaper building contained equipment that was state of the art at this
time. He was really, a big asset to the town. He wrote two or three books, that, although
they didn't go over very well, contained some good ideas. Walker's newspaper then,
resembled Enderby's newspaper now, somewhat. It was only a weekly newspaper. It was a very
nice newspaper. It was called the Edenograph at first.
Interview with Ted Peel
on H.M. Walker
Keith Fichter, Kyle Wright, Davin Larsen
ALF School 1989