Walker, Robert J. Dr. 1869-1944

10 in

8 in

Fair

the color has substantially faded and the emulsion is covered in horizontal cracked as if the image had been rolled.

from https://sdhistoricalsociety.org/publications/NLHist/P93-96.php Dr. Walker is remembered as a fine doctor with a rather gruff bedside manner. In 1933 a man robbed the Fennville bank and was shot in the jaw by a posse during his capture. Dr. Walker was called to Fennville and tended the injured citizens before tending the robber. He poured disinfectant on the wound and the robber yelled. Dr. Walker snapped, "Well, you've got guts enough to rob a bank, you've got the guts to take this."

Text written by Kit Lane for the 2009 Summertime exhibit: Robert J. Walker had just received his medical degree from Trinity Medical College, Toronto, Canada in 1895, when he received a letter from the pastor of the Congregational church , in Saugatuck, a Reverend W. Lindsay, asking him to set up a practice in Saugatuck because the doctor serving the area was an atheist. Although the new Dr. Walker was about to open an office in Adelaide, Ontario, he agreed to come to Saugatuck. It is not known whether he, like the pastor, was concerned with the spiritual well-being of the people, or whether there was something else about the community or the financial arrangements which made the offer more enticing. His new position ran into a glitch when he went to the train station to buy a ticket. Train officials in Canada had never heard of Saugatuck, and couldn’t locate it on their schedules because it didn’t have a train station. He was routed out of his way, one story has it that he was sent to Saginaw, before he finally got near enough that someone knew what he was talking about. Dr. Walker arrived in Saugatuck on June 3, 1895 -- by stage coach.