William H. Walker

Dr. William H. Walker

National Park Service

Quick Facts

Significance:

Childhood Mentor to President Herbert Hoover

Place of Birth:

Springfield, Ohio

Date of Birth:

April 21, 1841

Place of Death:

West Branch, Iowa

Date of Death:

June 5, 1928

Place of Burial:

West Branch, Iowa

Cemetery Name:

West Branch Municipal Cemetery

How many of us have had a person in our youth who helped encourage a hobby or interest? One West Branch resident whom Herbert Hoover said inspired him was Dr. William H. Walker, the town dentist.

Dr. Walker began practicing in 1871, and his office above the bank gradually became a place of wonder for young Bert and others. It was full of unusual house plants, singing canaries, books, and a collection of interesting things like a saw fish’s blade, shark’s teeth and many examples of interesting rocks. Dr. Walker was an amateur geologist, and by his recollection, Hoover would come to the office and they would look at rocks and talk about them.  Walker recalled,

“Bert was just a nice loveable boy… not greatly different than others, he did have a mental hunger to understand things, I had a lot of mineral specimens in my office, and he used to come in and look at them and ask me questions about them and listen while I told him all I knew, for hours at a time.”

Dr. Walker’s unique life is chronicled in the pages of the West Branch Local Record and later the West Branch Times. Aside from geology, he was interested in bee keeping, poultry raising and gardening. The paper often reported on some prize vegetables that Walker had brought to its office to show off. His windows were so full of plants that some took to calling it a “hanging garden.”

In addition to making and selling his own “tooth powder” Walker also sold house plants and roses and, at one time, owned a West Branch restaurant. He petitioned the Iowa legislature to create a school of dentistry at what is now the University of Iowa and attended the school once it was founded. Apparently, he was always attending dental conferences, reading up on developments in dentistry, or installing a new gadget in his office – all noted in the newspaper.

Also noted in the paper– you must love a small town– were some of the doctor’s more extreme procedures. The March 8, 1883 issue of the West Branch Local Record reported for example, “A few days ago Dr. Walker extracted 25 teeth for Mrs. Joseph Coombs, some of them being nearly sound. She endured the operation without the application of any anesthetic agents, and almost without flinching.”

In his last years, Walker enjoyed talking about his memories of the Hoover family. Walker reconnected with Hoover who, upon learning that the retired dentist was having financial problems, discretely sent him money. When Walker died, it was reported that he was buried wearing a suit paid for by Herbert Hoover.

Walker left his geology collection to Hoover, who kept a few rocks for sentimental reasons and then donated the rest to the West Branch School as a joint gift from him and his old friend. Unfortunately, this collection seems to have gone missing in the decades since.

• Early Interest in Geology

  
  

  For a curious and enterprising Bertie Hoover, the railroad tracks east of Downey Street brought a fascination with geology.

  Credit / Author:

  NPS

  Date created:

  06/22/2010

  Audio Transcript

  (sound effects: click-clack of train wheels; whistle in the distance) By 1874, five railroads had spread across the Iowa countryside. Distant farms and small towns were now connected by miles of timber and track, bringing with it new jobs, new products, and new markets for harvests & livestock. For a curious and enterprising Bertie Hoover, the railroad tracks east of Downey Street brought something else - a fascination with geology. In his memoirs, published in 1951, Herbert Hoover wrote: (actor) “I have mentioned the Burlington track. It was an aspiring place. It was ballasted with glacial gravels where, by hard search, you discovered gems of agate and fossil coral, which could, with infinite backaches, be polished on the grindstone. Their fine points came out wonderfully when wet, and you had to lick them with your tongue before each exhibit.” The railroad no longer rumbles through West Branch, but a few of those semi-precious rocks may still be found along the tracks that once inspired and encouraged the dreams of a future President.