Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 3 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 59

Walker Buckner was for many years one of the honored citizens of Wisconsin. Strong in his ability to plan and perform, strong in his honor and his good name, he left his impress in marked measure upon the history of the state and so lived his life that it reflected the utmost credit upon the history of a family whose ancestral record shows many distinguished names. For a long period he was Wisconsin representative at Milwaukee of the great New York Life Insurance Company and withal he was a courteous, cultured, Christian gentleman, who commanded and received the confidence and respect of all who knew him. .

His birth occurred at North Middletown, Bourbon county, Kentucky, October 11, 1838, his parents being Samuel and Louisa M. (Dodge) Buckner. The ancestral line is traced back to an early period in the colonization of Virginia, and first mention of the family on the records of that state is of John Buckner of York county, who patented a thousand acres of land in Gloucester county in 1667. He was classed with those men who left their impress upon the colonial history of the Old Dominion by reason of their progressiveness and their high standards of honor. Not only did he develop his extensive and valuable landed estate but also engaged extensively and profitably in mercantile pursuits. One of his sons gained the rank of major in the colonial militia and took active part in the Indian warfare of that period. Another representative of the name served under the command of Washington in the Revolutionary war, and the family has given to America not only many soldiers and patriots but also distinguished statesmen, clergymen, lawyers and merchants. This number included General Simon Bolivar Buckner. of Kentucky, who served as governor of his state and was vice presidential candidate on the national gold democratic ticket with General John M. Palmer of Illinois in 1896. The birth of Samuel Buckner, father of Walker Buckner, occurred in Caroline county, Virginia, November 18, 1801, and both he and his wife spent their last days in Independence, Jackson county, Missouri, where he departed this life in 1877, his wife surviving until December 25. 1880.

Their son, Walker Buckner, had the advantage of careful rearing amid the cultured and refined atmosphere of his parents' home, and throughout his entire career one was reminded of the old saying that "Blood will tell," for his record ever reflected credit and honor upon a distinguished family name. Because of the innate refinement of his nature, he avoided everything that was gross and common. While he held to high ideals he possessed, too, those practical qualities which make for success in business, and in 1866, at twenty-eight years, he entered the insurance field by becoming a local agent for the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company and for one or two fire insurance companies at Paris, Kentucky. Success attended his labors from the beginning and in 1869 he was appointed agent for the Equitable Life Insurance Company of New York, with headquarters at Kansas City, a position which he most creditably filled for a period of ten years.

On the 1st of September, 1879, Mr. Buckner was made manager for Wisconsin of the New York Life Company and such was the ability which he displayed in that responsible position that his territory was broadened after a few years to include South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. He remained as Wisconsin manager for the New York Life, with headquarters at Milwaukee, until the latter part of 1894, when failing health obliged him to retire and he was succeeded by his son Samuel O. He, in considerable measure, recovered his health, so that on the 1st of January, 1897, he was appointed general manager of one of the leading agencies of the New York Life Insurance Company at Chicago and continued thus to serve until he passed to the home beyond, at which time one of the newspapers of Chicago commenting upon his active and useful career said: "From a theoretical and practical standpoint Mr. Buckner had few equals and no superiors in the business of life insurance. The progressive record of his three sons, as well as of many successful agents of the New York Life who were instructed by him, amply testify to his marked ability as an educator of agents. Grown aweary of life's fitful battle. Walker Buckner lay down to rest at his home in Evanston, Illinois, on Monday, August 12, 1901, with his children by his bedside to minister lovingly to him in his last moments and make the transition from life to death as painless and peaceful as possible. Thus passed away one of nature's noblemen. A southern gentleman of the old school, Mr. Buckner was at all times the soul of politeness, and even during his last illness he displayed on more than one occasion that courteous trait of character that was inherent in him."

Mr. Buckner was married September 2, 1858, at Pleasant HiU, Cass county, Missouri, to Margaret Ann Tully, whose birth occurred March 18, 1837, her father being Dr. David O. Tully, an eminent physician and surgeon of Kentucky. Mrs. Buckner died July 12, 1885, her death being an irreparable loss to her family. Mr. and Mrs. Buckner had five children. The eldest, Katherine Louisa, was born December 16, 1860, and died in Biltmore, North Carolina, February 13, 1909, having gone there for the benefit of her health. Samuel Owen Buckner, the next of the family, is mentioned at length on another page of this work. Thomas Aylette Buckner, born in Bloomington. Illinois, January 18, 1865, was largely educated in an academy at Independence, Missouri, of which his uncle, William Aylette Buckner, was president. On the 7th of April, 1880, at the age of fifteen, he became office boy in Milwaukee for the New York Life Insurance Company and gradually won promotion until he became a solicitor for the company and later cashier in the company's office at Kansas City. Subsequently he was made a director there and on the 15th of February, 1892, was appointed general inspector of agencies. On the 12th of December, 1900, he was elected fourth vice president of the New York Life Insurance Company and on the 13th of May, 1903, was elected vice president, while since April 10, 1901, he has been a member of the board of trustees of this great corporation. He was married June 4, 1889, to Myrtle Lewis, and they make their home in New York and are the parents of two children, Thomas A., Jr., and Mary O. Tully Scott Buckner, the third son of Walker Buckner, was born December 2, 1866, and became one of the organizers of the junior department of the Milwaukee Young Men's Christian Association, of which he was serving as president at the time of his death, which occurred in St. Paul, Minnesota, September 22, 1886. Walker Buckner, Jr., the youngest of the five children of the family, was born in Independence, Missouri. March 16, 1871, was graduated from the public schools of Milwaukee at the age of fourteen and became identified with the New York Life Insurance Company, with which the family has been so closely associated for many years. When nineteen years of age he was given charge of the company's business in Minnesota and for four years made his headquarters at St. Paul. He was then transferred to St. Louis as inspector of agencies and in 1904 was sent to Paris, France, as superintendent of agencies, being placed in charge of the business of the New York Life in Europe. In 1911 he was made second vice president of the company and retained his residence in Paris from 1904 until after the outbreak of the World war, when he returned to New York, where he is now living. While in Europe he reorganized the entire agency system of his company on that continent and made a record that won for him the highest praise of the officers of the corporation. He was married December 11, 1894. to Eva May Orton, of Milwaukee, daughter of John J. Orton, a prominent pioneer lawyer of this city, and four children were born to their marriage, Tully Orton, Walker Thornton, John Jay and Lewis Probasco. While in Paris Mr. and Mrs. Walker Buckner, Jr., were active members of the American church and, interested in art and music, their home was continually open to American students in Paris, it becoming their custom to entertain forty or fifty of these on Thanksgiving and Christmas. In January, 1913, Walker Buckner, Jr., received a telegram from the Italian minister of commerce and agriculture saying that the Order of Commander of the Crown of Italy was conferred upon him by the king of that country and this information was confirmed by the following letter received on the 25th of the same month. "I take pleasure in announcing to you that His Majesty, the King, deigning to adhere to the wish expressed by me, has appointed your good self, of his own free will. Commander of the Crown of Italy. I reserve to myself the forwarding to you of the relative Diploma after your good self will have returned the enclosed blank with the required data filled in, and in the meantime I am pleased to transmit to you the insignia of the Honorary distinction conferred upon you." The insignia referred to in this letter is a beautiful enamel and gold Maltese cross, about two inches in diameter. This order carries with it the privilege of wearing a small rosette in the button-hole bearing the Italian colors, red and white. The honor conferred upon Mr. Buckner by the king was a matter of great surprise to him and was an evidence of the satisfaction and appreciation of the Italian government of the negotiations which he had conducted in 1912 on behalf of the New York Life Insurance Company, which resulted in the business of that company in Italy being transferred to the Italian government.

The foregoing account of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Walker Buckner indicates how splendidly their records have upheld an honored family name. The sons, entering upon the line of business to which the father gave his attention and benefiting by the thorough instruction and guidance of the father, have risen to great heights in insurance circles, being now prominently associated as officials and executives with one of the oldest and strongest of the insurance companies in the entire country. When the father passed on Darwin P. Kingsley, who was then third vice-president of the New York Life and who later became president, said. "In the president's absence, I announce, with profound sorrow, the loss of a venerable and honored member of our Nyllc household. Few men, directly or indirectly, ever had or ever can have so great an influence on the destinies of the New York Life. For more than twenty years and for all the period of the company's great activity in the middle west, Mr. Walker Buckner was a leading figure and a faithful servant. His influence on the growth of the company is not measured by his individual service as general agent and manager. He has three sons in the service of the company — all successful men and all holding important positions. Mr. Buckner was a man of keen intelligence, refined tastes, unquestioned integrity and unswerving loyalty. He was one of the Old Guard. His example will remain as an inspiration and an object lesson to all our organization."

In his political views Mr. Buckner was always a democrat and one who closely studied the vital problems and issues of the country, never lightly regarding the duties of citizenship but at all times fully meeting his obligations in relation to the public welfare. He was a Knight Templar Mason, loyal to the teachings and purposes of the craft, and both he and his wife were consistent members of the Christian church. He found his greatest happiness at his own fireside, and his Joy in ministering to the members of his own household. He was kindly and generous to others as well and was continually extending a helping hand where aid was needed. Of him it might well be said,

"His life was gentle. And the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world, 'This was a man.' "

He left to his family the priceless heritage of an untarnished name and an example which should serve as an inspiration to all who knew him, while to the world he left a splendid legacy in his sons who have carried on his work, adding new luster to an untarnished family name.