Hiram Walker

Hiram Walker

Hiram Walker, distiller, businessman (b at East Douglas, Mass 4 July 1816; d at Detroit, Mich 12 Jan 1899). Though Walker lived in Canada for only 5 years (1859-64), he built a distillery, a new town and a major railway line. In 1856 he began buying land around what became Walkerville (now part of Windsor, Ont) and in 1859 built the Windsor Distillery and Flouring Mill, which produced high-quality, refined, branded whiskies. By 1910 Walker's Canadian Club Whisky, introduced in 1884, had become Canada's top export whisky. Walker's business interests included wheat and flour trade with the US, hog and cattle fattening and the development of the Lk Erie, Essex and Detroit River Ry, completed in 1885 and providing transportation for Essex County produce and lumber to the American market.