{{Short description|American entrepreneur and magazine publisher}} {{other people||John Walker (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox person | name = John Brisben Walker | image = File:John Brisben Walker ca 1890.jpg | caption = Walker c. 1890 | birth_date = {{birth date|1847|9|10|mf=y}} | birth_place = near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1931|7|7|1847|9|10|mf=y}} | death_place = [[Brooklyn, New York]], US | occupation = [[Entrepreneurship|Entrepreneur]] | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Emily Strother |1871|1914|end=divorced}} * {{marriage|Ethel Richmond |1914|1916|end=died}} * {{marriage|[[Iris Calderhead]]|1918}} }} | children = 12 }}
'''John Brisben Walker''' (September 10, 1847 – July 7, 1931) was a magazine [[Publishing|publisher]], agricultural innovator, land developer, and [[Automotive industry in the United States|automobile entrepreneur]] in the [[United States]]. He led an extraordinary life as a "[[Polymath#Renaissance man|Renaissance man]]" whose careers spanned the military, high-stakes journalism, pioneering transportation, and massive [[real estate development]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=November 6, 2010 |title=Morrison History: John Brisben Walker |url=https://morrisonhistory.org/people/john-brisben-walker/ |access-date=January 20, 2026 |website=Morrison Historical Society |language=en}}</ref>
==Early years== Walker was born on September 10, 1847, at his parents' country house on the [[Monongahela River]],<ref name=":11">{{Cite news |last=Melrose |first=Frances |date=June 13, 1948 |title=John Brisben Walker IDEA MAN |url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD19480613-01.2.262&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA--------0------ |access-date=January 26, 2026 |work=The Rocky Mountain News}}</ref> near [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]]. On that river his grandfather owned a shipyard reputed to be where the [[keelboat]] used by the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition|Lewis and Clark expedition]] was built, although this is disputed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who Really Built the Lewis and Clark Keelboat? Part 1 |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/who-really-built-the-lewis-and-clark-keelboat-part-1.htm |access-date= |website=U.S. National Park Service |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Who Really Built the Lewis and Clark Keelboat? Part 2 |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/who-really-built-the-lewis-and-clark-keelboat-part-2.htm |access-date= |website=U.S. National Park Service |language=en}}</ref>
After a brief stint as a [[Georgetown College]] student, Walker transferred to [[United States Military Academy|West Point]] in 1865. In 1866 he was [[Court-martial|court-martialed]] for deserting his post as a sentinel in cadet barracks before being relieved, suspended for ten weeks, and set back a semester.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last1=United States. Adjutant-General's Office |url=http://archive.org/details/generalcourtmart00unit |title=[General Court Martial orders |last2=Townsend |first2=E. D. (Edward Davis) |last3=Nichols |first3=William Augustus |last4=United States. War Dept |date=1865 |publisher=[Washington, D.C.] : [G.P.O.] |others=Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Landers |first=James |title=The Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine |publisher=University of Missouri |year=2010 |isbn=978-0826219060 |volume=1 |pages=53–54}}</ref> In 1868 he was again court-martialed, this time for stretching a seven-day New Year's leave to seventeen days.<ref name=":4" />''<ref name=":5" />.'' After being convicted, he resigned from the Military Academy without graduating.
==China== Shortly thereafter, a family connection helped him find a place accompanying [[John Ross Browne|J. Ross Browne]], the newly named [[Envoy (title)|Envoy]] of the United States, to China,<ref name=":3" /> which was then recovering from a devastating [[civil war]], the [[Taiping Rebellion]].
In China, Walker found a use for his military training. Through the influence of [[Anson Burlingame]], a recently retired former U.S. minister to the [[Qing Dynasty|Qing Empire]], Walker entered the Chinese Army, where he served for two years<ref name=":3" /> advising local commanders on the reorganization of infantry units.<ref name=":5" /> The experience left a strong impression on Walker, prompting him to say years later that if China ever modernized its military system, "it will not be long before the Yellow Dragon will be the most formidable battle ensign on earth."<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 16, 1894 |title=GENERAL AND PERSONAL |url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD18940916-01.2.241&srpos=1&e=--1894---1895--en-20-RMD-1--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA-%22john+brisben+walker%22-------2------ |work=The Rocky Mountain News}}</ref>
==West Virginia== In 1870, Walker arrived in [[Charleston, West Virginia]], founded a weekly newspaper called the ''Charleston Herald'', and hired [[David Hunter Strother]] to be its editor.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Steelhammer |first=Rick |date=November 2, 2013 |title=Charleston's West Side story began with plantations, slaves |url=https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/charlestons-west-side-story-began-with-plantations-slaves/article_15736ea9-b9a4-5b4f-9fcc-de1630c6457f.html |access-date=January 18, 2026 |website=Charleston Gazette-Mail |language=en}}</ref> Strother had experience as a writer and illustrator for ''Harper's Monthly'' under the name Porter Crayon.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cuthbert |first1=John |title=David Hunter Strother |url=http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/615 |accessdate=October 24, 2016 |website=e-WV |publisher=West Virginia Humanities Council}}</ref> In 1871, Walker married Strother's daughter, Emily, "the prettiest girl in the valley of the Virginia,"<ref name=":2" /> (with whom he would have eight children<ref name=":0" /> before their divorce 33 years later). [[File:Charleston's West Side (35024354856).jpg|thumb|left|Charleston's [[West Side (Charleston), West Virginia|West Side]] in 2017]] When the West Virginia capital was first moved from [[Wheeling, West Virginia|Wheeling]] to Charleston, Walker seized on the opportunity.<ref name=":11" /> With local financial backing, he purchased land extending from the [[Elk River (West Virginia)|Elk River]] west to a line that ran from the [[Kanawha River]] near the end of the present Delaware Avenue to about the end of Fayette Street at West Washington Street, and extending from the Kanawha River to the present West Washington Street. This he designated as the "J.B. Walker addition to the City of Charleston"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Slavery & Glenwood evolution |url=https://www.marshall.edu/graduatehumanities/files/Peyton-PowerPoint.pdf |access-date=January 18, 2026 |website=Marshall University Graduate Humanities Program}}</ref> (it is now the core of the city's [[West Side (Charleston), West Virginia|West Side]] neighborhood).<ref name=":1" /> Walker laid out this section into a town site, with streets running in one direction and avenues in another. He named the streets for West Virginia counties, and the avenues for other states.
Walker's original plans, with a few changes in names, but little other variation, are still the plans of that part of the city.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Brisben Walker |url=https://www.mywvhome.com/1900s/walker.htm |access-date=1 February 2022 |website=My West Virginia Home In Photos}}</ref> He made his first fortune developing the property as a residential and industrial community, only to lose everything in the [[Panic of 1873]] when various railroads went bankrupt, causing the failure of the banks that had financed them.<ref name=":1" />
==Washington, D.C.== After his real estate venture collapsed, Walker was asked by the editor of the ''[[Cincinnati Commercial Tribune|Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette]]'' to do a series of articles on the mineral and manufacturing industries of the [[Western United States|West]] and their future prospects. Walker travelled throughout the West to do the necessary research and the articles were well received by the reading public. Walker was then offered and accepted the job of managing editor of the ''[[Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph|Pittsburgh Telegraph]],'' which led to him being hired in 1876 as managing editor of the ''Washington Chronicle'''''.'''<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":9" /> He moved his growing family to [[Washington, D.C.]] and remained there until 1879,<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |title=America's Successful Men of Affairs |publisher=Tribune Press |year=1895 |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Henry |pages=694}}</ref> when he was appointed by the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] as a [[Commissioner]] tasked with determining agriculture possibilities in arid regions of the West.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=White |first=Sally L. |date=2005 |title=John Brisben Walker, the Man and Mt. Morrison |url=https://historicjeffco.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2005histjeffcov18-26.pdf |journal=Historically Jeffco |publisher=Jefferson County Historical Commission |volume=18 |issue=26}}</ref>
==Colorado== Walker moved his family to Colorado and, based on what he had learned as Commissioner, decided to try his hand at farming. He purchased 1,600 acres in north [[Denver]] and used what he knew about irrigation to grow [[alfalfa]] as a cash crop.<ref name=":2" /> This turned out to be a lucrative business, and within ten years, his Berkeley Farm<ref>{{Cite web |title=DENVER LANDMARK PRESERVATION COMMISSION / INDIVIDUAL STRUCTURE LANDMARK DESIGNATION APPLICATION |url=https://denvergov.org/files/assets/public/v/1/community-planning-and-development/documents/landmark-preservation/lpc/agendas-lpc/2024/06.18.2024/5086vrainst_designation_application.pdf |access-date=January 17, 2026 |website=City and County of Denver}}</ref><ref name=":9" /> was the largest alfalfa grower in Colorado, harvesting nearly 3,000 tons annually and containing nearly 200 miles of main and lateral irrigation ditches.<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 8, 1931 |title=John Brisben Walker [obituary] |work=Charleston Daily Mail}}</ref> With his farming profits,<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 19, 1905 |title=Started In Colorado |url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=MTE19050519-01.2.11&srpos=14&e=--1899---1905--en-20--1--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA-john+brisben+walker-------0------ |work=The Montrose Enterprise [Montrose, Colorado]}}</ref> he turned to [[real estate development]].
In 1880, Walker bought 550 lots in Denver near the [[Platte River]] and over the ensuing years developed an amusement park on this property. In 1887 more than 20,000 people came to the opening of River Front Park. It featured a racetrack, medieval castle, baseball park, toboggan slide, an exhibition hall, and a grandstand with a capacity of 5,000 people in which Walker staged Denver's first rodeo. A showboat on the river put on performances every evening during the summer, but the Sunday shows were cancelled after the manager and company were arrested and fined for violating [[Blue law|Sunday blue laws]]. Walker also bought waterlogged tracts in the Platte River valley that he devised a means of reclaiming. His investment is these tracts was said to be $100,000 and they were bought by railroads for a price reputed to be $1,000,000.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite news |date=July 8, 1931 |title=J. Brisben Walker [obituary] |work=Charleston Gazette}}</ref>
==Acquisition of ''The Cosmopolitan'' and move to New Jersey== [[File:CosmopolitanMagazineMarch1894.jpg|thumb|left|March 1894 cover of '''The Cosmopolitan''']] In 1888, Walker returned to his journalistic pursuits. He sold his Berkeley Farm to a group of investors, and in 1889 used part of the proceeds to buy for $360,000 [[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|''The Cosmopolitan'']], an insolvent monthly magazine with a circulation of 16,000.<ref name=":7" /> He would transform it from a nondescript literary magazine into America's leading general-interest magazine, using it to promote a progressive, reform-minded agenda to an educated, middle-class audience.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=The Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine |url=https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/the-improbable-first-century-of-cosmopolitan-magazine |access-date=January 20, 2026 |website=Library Journal}}</ref>
To undertake direct management of the magazine he moved himself and his family back East, to [[Orange, New Jersey]].
Shortly after buying the magazine, Walker, on a ferry on his way to his office, read in the ''[[New York World]]'' that its star reporter [[Nellie Bly]] was about to embark on a round-the-world trip in an attempt to complete it in less time that the 80 days in had taken the hero of [[Around the World in Eighty Days|Jules Verne's popular novel]] published 16 years earlier. Six hours after Walker arrived at his office, his 28-year-old literary editor, [[Elizabeth Bisland]], was on a train to San Francisco to begin a race around the world in the opposite direction of Bly. The [[Around the World in Seventy-Two Days|race between Bisland and Bly]] was covered by newspapers across the United States and was a boon to the country's gambling houses. Both completed their journey in under 80 days. Bly won by four days, finishing in 72,<ref name="Ruddick, Nicholas 1999, p. 4">Ruddick, Nicholas. "Nellie Bly, Jules Verne, and the World on the Threshold of the American Age." ''Canadian Review of American Studies'', Volume 29, Number 1, 1999, p. 4</ref><ref name="marksbook">{{cite book|author=Marks, Jason|title=Around the World in 72 Days: The race between Pulitzer's Nellie Bly and Cosmopolitan's Elizabeth Bisland|publisher=Gemittarius Press|year=1993|isbn=978-0-9633696-2-8|url=https://archive.org/details/aroundworldin72d0000mark}}</ref> but the race achieved the object of giving a boost to circulation of ''The Cosmopolitan.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Goodman |first=Matthew |title=Elizabeth Bisland's Race Around the World |url=https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/elizabeth-bislands-race-around-the-world/ |access-date=January 20, 2026 |website=The Public Domain Review |language=en}}</ref> It climbed to 100,000 by 1892<ref>{{cite web |date=2014-03-20 |title=The Cosmopolitan, Volume 29, Schlicht & Field, 1900 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=62hAAQAAMAAJ |access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2010-07-08 |title=The Cosmopolitan, Volume 14, Schlicht & Field, 1892 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=67dPAAAAYAAJ |access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref> (and would reach 300,000 by 1897).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schneirov |first=Matthew |title=Dream of a New Social Order: Popular Magazines in America 1893-1914 |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0231082907}}</ref>
In 1893 Walker increased his wealth by selling River Front Park to the city of Denver,<ref name=":2" /> shortly before the [[Panic of 1893]] that might have lost him his fortune for a second time.
==Move to New York state and the Mobile Company of America== In 1894, Walker and his family moved to [[Irvington, New York]], a village on the shores of the [[Hudson River]] about 20 miles north of Manhattan that then had many of the wealthiest people in the country as residents. He promptly commissioned the construction of a new headquarters for his now thriving magazine, the [[Irvington, New York#Cosmopolitan Building|Cosmopolitan Building]]. To this day, the three-story stone [[Neoclassical architecture|Neo-Classical revival]] building remains the largest building in Irvington.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=November 17, 2024 |title=5 Westchester Landmarks That Have Been Repurposed in Exciting Ways |url=https://westchestermagazine.com/life-style/repurposed-westchester-landmarks/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251016224849/https://westchestermagazine.com/life-style/repurposed-westchester-landmarks/ |archive-date=October 16, 2025 |access-date=January 26, 2026 |work=Westchester Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> [[File:Irvington Cosmopolitan Building.jpg|thumb|left|The Cosmopolitan Building in Irvington, c.1900]] In 1895, he had ''The Cosmopolitan'' sponsor the second automobile race ever held in the United States. The magazine offered an aggregate of $3,000 in prizes to whoever first completed the 52-mile round trip from [[New York City Hall]] in [[Manhattan]] to the new [[Ardsley Country Club]] in Irvington, and back. On May 30, 1895, then called [[Memorial Day|Decoration Day]], six cars started up [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]] behind riders on horseback who cleared the road of pedestrians and onlookers for them. One rider was arrested mid-race for knocking a bicyclist off his bike. Only three cars made it out of Manhattan, and only two of them could make it up the hill by the Country Club under their own power; all had to be pushed by spectators. The two did manage to finish the race back at New York City Hall.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Auto Racing |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/auto-racing |access-date=January 20, 2026 |website=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=August 31, 2009 |title=Cutting Edge Technology in Hastings: The Automobile |url=https://hastingshistoricalsociety.org/2009/08/31/cutting-edge-technology-in-hastings-the-automobile/ |access-date= |website=Hastings Historical Society |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 1897, Walker devised a plan for a free [[Distance education|distance-education]] college called ''Cosmopolitan University'', modeled after [[Chautauqua]] schools.<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 31, 1897 |title=Andrews’ New Position |url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=VRD18970731-01.2.25&srpos=27&e=--1889---1906--en-20--21--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA-john+brisben+walker-------0------ |access-date=January 26, 2026 |work=Victor Daily Record |location=Victor, Colorado}}</ref> ''The Cosmopolitan'' would cover all expenses, requiring only a commitment to a set number of study hours.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Noonan |first1=Mark |date=2012 |title=The Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine by James Landers (review) |journal=American Studies |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=186–187 |doi=10.1353/ams.2012.0016}}</ref> When 20,000 students immediately signed up, Walker could not fund the school, so students were then asked to contribute $ 20 a year; however, the project still failed to survive in the long term.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gorton |first=Stephanie |date=March 30, 2020 |title=Editorial Visions |url=https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/editorial-visions |access-date= |website=Roundtable |language=en}}</ref>
Ever "an avid geek and prophetic thinker,"<ref name=":62">{{Cite web |last=Sternadori|first=Miglena|date=Summer 2011|title=Cosmopolitan’s Improbable History|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/773743/pdf|website=Journal of Magazine & New Media Research, V. 12, Number 2|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|doi=10.1353/jmm.2011.0007}}</ref> Walker had long been enamored with transportation innovations, reportedly offering his acquaintances, the [[Wright brothers]], room on his estate for their work.<ref name=":0" /> After one of the steam-powered cars made by the [[Stanley Motor Carriage Company|Stanley Brothers]] had set a new speed record of 27.4 miles per hour in November 1898,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Stanley Brothers |url=https://www.legendsofamerica.com/jh-stanleybrothers/ |access-date=January 20, 2026 |website=Legends of America}}</ref> he bought the Stanley Brothers company and patents for $250,000 in early summer 1899.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foster |first=Kit |title=The Stanley Steamer: America's Legendary Steam Car |publisher=Stanley Museum Inc |year=2004 |isbn=978-1886727076}}</ref> In this, he partnered with [[Amzi L. Barber]],<ref name=":10">{{Cite web |title=Automobile Company of America |url=https://www.virtualsteamcarmuseum.org/makers/automobile_company_of_america.html |access-date=January 27, 2026 |website=Virtual Steam Car Museum}}</ref> a fellow Irvington resident who made his fortune producing and selling asphalt used to pave roads around the country, including [[Pennsylvania Avenue]] in Washington, D.C. The partnership was very short-lived, dissolving on July 18, 1899. [[File:Mobile steam car 1900 (1351558466).jpg|thumb|right|Mobile steam car, 1900]] In the split-up, Barber got the factory in [[Watertown, Massachusetts]], that the Stanley Brothers company had built, together with most of the steamers under production. He sold the cars as "[[Locomobile Company of America|Locomobiles]]."<ref name=":10" /> Walker wound up with the rights to produce steamers and pieces of undeveloped land (parts of the former [[Ambrose Kingsland]] estate) in [[Sleepy Hollow, New York|North Tarrytown, New York.]]<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Richard |date=May 16, 2008 |title=Steam Starts the 1899 Auto Industry |url=https://riverjournalonline.com/around-town/past-times/steam-starts-the-1899-auto-industry/837/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624230655/https://riverjournalonline.com/around-town/past-times/steam-starts-the-1899-auto-industry/837/ |archive-date=June 24, 2023 |access-date=July 22, 2025 |website=River Journal North}}</ref> He founded the [[Mobile Company of America]] and hired [[McKim, Mead & White]] (who had designed his Cosmopolitan Building) to design a purpose-built automobile factory on the southern plot, at the foot of the village's Beekman Avenue.<ref>{{Cite web |title=General Motors |url=https://westchesterarchives.com/ht/muni/sleepyhw/gmPhotos.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240519080941/https://westchesterarchives.com/ht/muni/sleepyhw/gmPhotos.htm |archive-date=May 19, 2024 |access-date=December 26, 2025 |website=Westchester County Archives}}</ref> Walker's steamers were to be sold as "Mobiles." In March 1900, the first Mobile was ready for sale.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Larson |first=Len |title=Dreams to Automobiles |publisher=Xlibris |year=2008 |isbn=978-1436378932 |pages=384–386}}</ref>
Walker, accompanied by his 8-year-old son Justin, displayed the hill-climbing prowess of the Mobile (reportedly a two-seat, 2-cylinder Model 4 [[Runabout (car)|runabout]])[<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD19570602-01.2.157&srpos=14&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA-%22mobile%22+%22john+brisben+walker%22-------0------|title=1901 Pikes Peak Car Trek A Nightmare Going Down!|date=June 2, 1957|access-date=January 26, 2026|work=The Rocky Mountain News}}</ref> on September 8, 1900, by driving one up [[Pikes Peak]] to a height of 11,000 feet (but not to the top of the 14,115-foot-high peak), presumably the highest altitude ever reached by an automobile until then.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 10, 1900 |title=JOHN BRISBEN WALKER'S FEAT.; In an Automobile He Ascends Pike's Peak -- A Quick Ride Down |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1900/09/10/archives/john-brisben-walkers-feat-in-an-automobile-he-ascends-pikes-peak-a.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref> In August the following year, one of his cars, driven by others, did reach the top. These stunts, however, were ridiculed by the Colorado newspapers in articles claiming that "the west is not yet prepared for the flood of automobile travel that Mr. Walker promises to let loose in the mountains."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=ADT19001007.2.15&srpos=92&e=--1889---1906--en-20--81--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA-john+brisben+walker-------0------|title=Wherein Walker Errs|date=October 7, 1900|access-date=January 26, 2026|work=The Aspen Daily Times}}</ref>
Near his North Tarrytown plant, Walker began [[Subdivision (land)|subdividing]] the northern part of the former Kingsland estate, attempting to capitalize on the site's location along the [[Hudson River Railroad]]. One of his selling points for the residential development, called Philipse Manor in a confused reference to nearby [[Philipsburg Manor House]],<ref name="Philipse/Philipsburg Manor">The actual [[Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site|Philipse Manor]] is in [[Yonkers, New York|Yonkers]], some {{convert|10|mi|km|spell=in}} to the south (both manor houses served the historical landed estate, [[Philipsburg Manor]]).</ref> was the rail access, but this failed to materialize, and Walker's Philipse Manor Land Company floundered. The Mobile Company of America also failed: steam-powered carriages proved to be inferior to gasoline [[Internal combustion engine|internal combustion]] vehicles. The heavily indebted Walker had to sell the Philipse Manor development to [[William Abraham Bell]], who had invested in Walker's automobile venture.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 28, 2009 |title=B'way reprise for Rocawear |url=https://nypost.com/2009/10/28/bway-reprise-for-rocawear/ |access-date=2025-10-24 |website=New York Post |language=en-US}}</ref> (Bell, with his extensive experience in railroad development, not only continued the residential construction at Philipse Manor but also made the rail service possible by building the station and presenting it to the railroad.<ref name="Papers">{{citation |title=William A. Bell Papers |url=http://www2.coloradocollege.edu/library/specialcollections/Manuscript/Bell.html |access-date=7 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528011155/http://www.coloradocollege.edu/library/SpecialCollections/Manuscript/Bell.html |archive-date=28 May 2010 |url-status=dead |publisher=Tutt Library, Colorado College}}</ref><ref name="NRHP nom">{{cite web |last=Kuhn |first=Robert |date=January 1991 |title=National Register of Historic Places nomination, Philipse Manor Railroad Station |url=http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=10545 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219185019/http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=10545 |archive-date=February 19, 2012 |access-date=June 22, 2008 |publisher=[[New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]]}}</ref> Wealthy New Yorkers started eagerly buying homes in Philipse Manor. Today, the [[Sleepy Hollow, New York#Philipse Manor|Philipse Manor neighborhood]] is part of the village of [[Sleepy Hollow, New York|Sleepy Hollow]], and the [[Philipse Manor station]] is on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].)
Walker's Mobile Company of America had produced only 600 Mobiles, as contrasted to Barber's 5,000 steam Locomobiles.<ref name=":02">{{Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942|edition=Third}}</ref> Later in 1903, the equipped automobile plant at Kingsland Point was leased (and subsequently sold) to [[Maxwell Motor Company|Maxwell-Briscoe]],<ref name=":32">Steam Cars, 1770-1970. St. Martin's Press (1971)</ref> a gasoline-powered automobile manufacturer. In 1905, Walker sold ''The Cosmopolitan'' to [[William Randolph Hearst]] for a sum variously reported as $400,000 and $1,000,000. Not long after the sale, what seems to be a press release appeared in identical form in several newspapers around the country<ref>''Anaconda'' ''Standard'' (Anaconda, MT) January 21, 1906, p. 7, col. 3</ref><ref>''Olympia Daily Recorder'' (Olympia, WA), January 20, 1906, p. 2</ref> under the caption "Why It Was Sold". In pertinent part, it read:<blockquote>…a sudden change in public favor from steam to the French gasoline car left the company with branch houses from Boston to San Francisco and losses exceeding $1,700,000. Mr. Walker personally assumed the indebtedness of the Mobile Company of America, and not only paid it off in full, but returned to every shareholder the amount of his investment, with interest. This action required the sale of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, Kingsland Point, and some other properties.</blockquote>(With some short interruptions, the site of Walker's automobile plant would continue to be used to build cars until June 1996, when [[General Motors]] finally stopped production of cars there and closed its [[North Tarrytown Assembly]] plant.<ref name=":22" />)
Among Walker's other grandiose plans during his New York years was one for building a great public bathhouse modeled on [[Thermae|Roman baths]], a public laundry, and a [[tenement]] house with a cooperative kitchen in New York City.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=OCE18900627-01.2.5&srpos=42&e=--1889---1906--en-20--41--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA-john+brisben+walker-------0------|title=J. Brisben Walker’s Scheme|date=June 27, 1890|access-date=January 26, 2026|work=The Otero County Eagle}}</ref>
During his tenure as owner of ''The Cosmopolitan,'' Walker wrote many articles, essays, and even fiction stories for the magazine, reflecting his diverse and varied personal interests, which ranged from contemporary economic and political issues to aviation and automobiles.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=JB Walker at Cosmopolitan |url=https://redrockshistory.org/history/before-1906/jb-walker-at-cosmopolitan/ |access-date=January 26, 2026 |website=Red Rocks History |language=en}}</ref> In 1904, he published them as a book.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=John Brisben |title=The Cosmopolitan (1904) |publisher=Kessinger's Rare Reprints |isbn=978-1120938305 |edition=reprint}}</ref> Many of his articles promoted a progressive, reformist social agenda.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schneirov |first=Matthew |date=March 29, 2017 |title=POPULAR MAGAZINES, NEW LIBERAL DISCOURSE AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, 1890s–1914 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era/article/popular-magazines-new-liberal-discourse-and-american-democracy-1890s1914/A294984EB0EEC53C7C96A3C4AF7FAFBC |journal=The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era |language=en |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=121–142 |doi=10.1017/S1537781416000694 |issn=1537-7814}}</ref> He wrote several articles on the then-President [[Theodore Roosevelt]];<ref>{{Cite web |title=Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John Brisben Walker |url=https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o194750/ |access-date=January 26, 2026 |website=Theodore Roosevelt Center |language=en-US}}</ref> the two men corresponded and met several times.
==Return to Colorado== After selling ''The Cosmopolitan'' and his [[Westchester County, New York|Westchester]] properties, Walker returned to Colorado in 1906. He was accompanied by a woman named Ethel Richmond, whom he identified as his wife, who came with four children,<ref name=":0" /> ages four to ten, all of whom later in life regularly identified Walker as their father and used his name as their family name. However, he was still married to Emily Strother. They were not divorced until July 1, 1914.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Colorado, Divorce Index, 1851-1985 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60927/ |access-date= |website=Ancestry.com}}</ref>
Some sources say Ethel Richmond was Walker's secretary,<ref name=":0" /> but she first may have been a nanny for Walker and Emily's family. This is suggested by the fact that in November 1890, when Walker and Emily were then living in the east, they and their 11-year-old son James Randolph Walker made a trip to Colorado Springs and Ethel, then about 23-years-old, accompanied them.<ref>Colorado Springs Gazette, November 1, 1890, p. 5, col. 2</ref>
'''Town of Morrison'''
On his return to Colorado with Ethel, Walker concentrated his efforts on developing real estate he earlier had accumulated around [[Morrison, Colorado|Morrison]], a town not far from Denver.<ref name=":2" /> For the most part, he had bought undeveloped land or platted lots for speculation, eventually owning about 4,000 acres around the town, including both Mount Falcon and nearby Mount Morrison, which overlooks the town of Morrison and features a natural geologic amphitheater that today is known as the [[Red Rocks Amphitheatre]].<ref name=":0" />
On the crest of Mount Falcon, Walker built a stone castle designed by [[Jacques Benedict]] for himself, Ethel, and family. On Mount Morrison, assisted by his eldest son, John Jr., he began developing [[Red Rocks Park|Red Rocks]] with the dream of making it a world-famous music venue.<ref name=":2" /> Road and walking paths were built and a platform constructed high up in the Rocks. On May 31, 1906, a concert by Pietro Satriano and a 25-piece brass band in the amphitheater marked the grand opening of what Walker named The Garden of the Titans.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=May 13, 2014 |title=Riots, rock bans and redemption: The lesser known history of Red Rocks |url=https://www.cpr.org/2014/05/13/riots-rock-bans-and-redemption-the-lesser-known-history-of-red-rocks/ |access-date= |website=Colorado Public Radio |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre |url=https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/red-rocks-park-and-amphitheatre |access-date=January 20, 2026 |website=Colorado Encyclopedia}}</ref> [[File:RedRocks.jpg|thumb|left|View of Red Rocks area and Mount Morrison]] In 1909, after two years of construction, a one-mile funicular railroad to the top of Red Rocks, funded by Walker and a group of Morrison businessmen, opened as the Mount Morrison Incline Railroad, giving visitors a spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains and surrounding area. In that same year, John Jr. became Morrison's third mayor.<ref name=":0" /> Concerts in Red Rocks were a regular occurrence from 1906 to 1911. After her concert there in 1911, acclaimed opera singer [[Mary Garden]] declared that no opera house in the world had better acoustics than Red Rocks. However, although he had some early success in his desire to make Red Rocks a renowned venue, this did not become a reality until long after Walker had lost ownership of the site.<ref name=":8" />
In 1909, he bought the "Swiss Cabin" in Morrison and converted it into a [[casino]]. It had earlier been the Evergreen Hotel and from 1884 to 1888 the home of Sacred Heart College, a Jesuit institution.<ref name=":0" /> Walker gave the Jesuits property in Denver as a new site for the college,<ref name=":9" /> which today is [[Regis University]].
He championed the idea of creating on a ridge east of that castle a Summer White House for Presidents of the United States, and in 1911 a foundation was built and cornerstone laid, but because of American involvement in [[World War I]] and a decline in Walker's fortunes the project never progressed past that point.<ref>Mark Harden, ''The failed dream of a Colorado summer White House,'' Denver Business Journal, July 7, 2014</ref>
In 1912, an idea that Walker espoused took a step toward fruition when the Denver City Council agreed to create [[Denver Mountain Parks|a system of mountain parks near Morrison]]. In 1913, Denver Mayor Robert Speer managed to have a tax levy of one mill imposed to fund creation of the mountain parks system.<ref>''Robert W Speer, a City Builder'', p. 71. The Robert W. Speer Memorial Association, 1919</ref>
On January 1, 1913, yet another crusade of Walker's came to a successful end when Congress ordered the [[United States Postal Service]] to allow parcels weighing more than four pounds to be mailed at reasonable rates.<ref>''100 Years of Parcel Post'', USPS Office of Inspector General, White Paper Report No. RARC-WP-14-004, footnote 6 (Dec 20, 2013)</ref> Until then, mailing even a small package cost an exorbitant amount and forwarding of larger packages was the fiefdom of four private express companies. For years, Walker's pen had been a loud voice urging Congress to end their monopoly.<ref>''The Aid Which the Post Office Department Might Render to Commerce,'' ''The Cosmopolitan'', Vol. 36, No. 4, p. 379 (Feb 1904)</ref><ref>''A Plea for a Parcels Post,'' The Literary Digest, Vol. 40, Part I, p. 334 (Feb 19, 1910)</ref><ref>''The People v. The Express Companies'', Pearson's Magazine, Vol. 24, p. 56 (July 1910)</ref> An ironic twist was that [[Wells Fargo (1852–1998)|Wells Fargo]] was one of the favored express companies, and members of the family from whom Walker bought his Irvington property had headed that company for years.
Walker had envisioned Morrison as becoming a booming tourism venue,<ref name=":2" /> but the advent of World War I dimmed that prospect. Walker was an early peace activist, organizing a World Congress of 100 outstanding men in 1912 to try to mold public opinion against war.<ref>''Denver Post,'' December 29, 1912</ref> After WW I began, he became an outspoken advocate for peace and opponent of the United States entering the War or providing assistance to combatants,<ref>''New York Times'', August 22, 1915, p. 2, col. 6</ref><ref>''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'', September 4, 1915, p. 14</ref> serving as chairman of the Friends of Peace,<ref name=":9" /> an organization supported by many German-American societies.
==Financial ruin== In 1916, Ethel died and was buried by Walker at the foot of Mount Falcon.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=August 20, 2009 |title=Are We There Yet?: John Brisben Walker's Castle in the Sky |url=https://arewethereyet-davisfarmmom.blogspot.com/2009/08/john-brisben-walkers-castle-in-sky.html |access-date= |website=Are We There Yet?}}</ref> In April 1918, a lightning strike started a fire that destroyed the mansion Walker had built atop Mount Falcon.<ref>''Colorado Transcript'' [Golden, CO], April 25, 1918, p. 3</ref> Six months later, in October 1918, in a home he owned in Denver, Walker, then 71, married 25-year-old [[Iris Calderhead]], a firebrand women's suffragist who was sent from Washington by [[Alice Paul]] to organize the Colorado campaign for the [[National Woman Suffrage Association]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 10, 1918 |title=Editor Marries Suffragist Wedding Secret for Month |url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD19181110-01.2.32&srpos=2&e=-------en-20-RMD-1--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA-john+brisben+walker-------0------ |website=The Rocky Mountain News}}</ref>
Walker's various Colorado real estate ventures were adversely affected by WWI, and did not recover after it ended. The enactment of the first [[Income tax in the United States|Federal Income Tax]] in 1913 might also have hurt his fortunes. Between 1918 and 1925, a series of sales, mortgage foreclosures and tax sales of Walker's real estate holdings took place, to the extent that by 1925 more than 1,500 acres of Red Rocks Park and the Mount Morrison area had been acquired by a third party, who also took over the Casino and 180 acres surrounding it. Two years later, another 700 acres central to Red Rocks was sold to an affiliate of the earlier acquirer.<ref name=":0" /> This parcel was condemned by the city of Denver in 1928 and acquired by it for the sum of $54,133.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Red Rocks History |url=https://redrockshistory.org/ |access-date=January 20, 2026 |website=Red Rocks History |language=en}}</ref>
The sorry state of Walker's finances was highlighted in 1926 when his attempt to inaugurate bus service between Denver and Mount Falcon was rebuffed by the State Public Service Commission on the grounds that he was "unable to prove he possessed financial ability to insure service" on the line.<ref>''Denver Post,'' December 3, 1926, p. 40, col. 7</ref> From 1924 to 1927 Walker spent time in Texas trying to promote building durable dirt roads by use of a machine he had invented for removing water from clay so it would not freeze in winter, a method he said was much less expensive than other methods.<ref name=":0" />
==Death== After a long illness, he died on July 7, 1931, in a house in [[Brooklyn|Brooklyn, New York]], with Iris by his side. His funeral arrangements were kept private.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=July 8, 1931 |title=J. BRISBEN WALKER DIES AT AGE OF 83; Gained Note as Newspaper Editor and Publisher of Cosmopolitan Magazine |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/07/08/archives/j-brisben-walker-dies-at-age-of-83-gained-note-as-newspaper-editor.html |website=The New York Times}}</ref> The July 8, 1931, obituary in ''[[Rocky Mountain News|The Rocky Mountain News]]'' said, in part:<ref name=":9">{{Cite news |date=July 8, 1931 |title=John Brisben Walker Dies After Colorful Career: Soldier, Editor, Capitalist and Philanthropist, Known Throughout World, Expires in New York |url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD19310708-01.2.52&srpos=10&e=-07-1931-----en-20-RMD-1--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA-john+brisben+walker-------0------ |work=The Rocky Mountain News}}</ref> <blockquote>Death yesterday closed the long and brilliant career of John Brisben Walker, whose multiple activities as a soldier, journalist, magazine editor and capitalist made him famous in Denver and throughout the world[...] Mr. Walker spent vast sums in the development of projects in and near Denver and has left vast monuments in Denver’s present system of mountain parks[...] He was the originator of the modern method of alfalfa farming in Colorado[...] He transformed the old [''Cosmopolitan''] magazine into a progressive publication and set new standards for fiction and illustrations. He was a close friend of [[Leo Tolstoy|Count Tolstoy]], [[Camille Flammarion]] and [[Edgar Saltus]][...] Mr. Walker mapped a system of roadways for Denver mountain parks. At a time when tourist advertising was little known, he advocated spending $1,000,000 to advertise Colorado.</blockquote>
==Personal life== ''The Rocky Mountain News'' described Walker as follows: "Of virile [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scotch-Irish]] stock, he was handsome, moody, restless, known for his sparkling wit and brilliant, original mind."<ref name=":11" />
Walker's first wife and mother of eight of his children, Emily, survived him by four years, dying in January 1935.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 6, 1935 |title=WIFE OF EMPIRE BUILDER IS DEAD |url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD19350106-01.2.29&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA--------0------ |work=The Rocky Mountain News}}</ref> His relationship with his purported second wife, Ethel Richmond, remains a question. The 1900 Federal Census lists Ethel living in [[Inwood, Manhattan|Inwood]], a section of northern Manhattan, with two children, her mother and father, three servants, and a husband named John Ruthven, whom according to that Census she had married in 1891. The 1902 New York City Directory lists Ethel Ruthven as "widow of John A., home Inwood" but three years later in 1905, the New York State Census taken on June 1 has Ethel living in Inwood with Ruthven four children. The following year Ethel arrives in Colorado as Walker's "wife".
In 1910, while Walker was still legally married to Emily, Ethel and her four children, now all designated as "Walkers", were living in a house on Shore Road in Brooklyn, with Walker's father. Five years later, a New York State Census lists Walker, Ethel, and four children living in Stapleton, [[Staten Island]]. There is no question that Ethel Ruthven and Ethel Richmond, Walker's "second wife", are the same person. Ethel Ruthven's parents are identified in the ''1910 Federal Census'' (Inwood-on-Hudson, N.Y. City Ward 12, N.Y.) as Charles E. and Marion Lee. The death notice of John Ruthven Walker, who died in Denver in 1943,<ref>''Denver Post,'' September 15, 1943, p. 26</ref> named Ethel's three other children (Herbert Lee Walker, Ethel Walker, Nathalie W. Richmond) as his siblings, her mother as his grandmother, and her sister, Maude R. F. Valle, as his aunt. (Nathalie called herself Mrs. Richmond even though she had married a Russian immigrant named Georgi Dobrovolsky. Sibling Ethel's middle name was Richmond.) In an interview given to a California newspaper after she celebrated her 100th birthday, Maude confirmed that after divorcing her husband she had moved to Denver "to be with her sister, who was married to the remarkable John Brisben Walker," who "had owned Cosmopolitan Magazine."<ref>''Marin Independent Journal'' [Marin Co. California]'','' December 3, 1968</ref>
John Brisben Walker had 12 children from his first two marriages, 9 of whom were sons. He had no children with his third wife.
Children by Emily Strother: Wilfred Walker (died young), John Brisben Walker Jr. (1870–1941), David S. Walker (1874–?), James Randolph Walker (1879–1942), Justin Clement Walker (1881–?), Harold Strother Walker (1883–1919), Ethel Strother Walker Sweetser (1887–1957), Gerald Walker (1890–1945).
Children by Ethel Richmond: John Ruthven Walker (1896–1943), Herbert Lee Walker (1898–1964), Ethel Richmond Walker (c.1900-?), Nathalia (Nathalie) Richmond Walker (1903–1998).
==Legacy== * [[Cosmopolitan (magazine)]] * [[Irvington, New York#Cosmopolitan Building|Cosmopolitan Building]] in [[Irvington, New York]] * [[Sleepy Hollow, New York#Philipse Manor|Philipse Manor neighborhood]] in [[Sleepy Hollow, New York]] * [[West Side (Charleston), West Virginia|West Side]] neighborhood in [[Charleston, West Virginia]] ==Images of Walker Castle on Mt. Falcon== <gallery mode="packed" heights="120"> File:Walker home sign.JPG| [[Interpretive sign]] with a description of Walker Castle and pictures of the house nearing completion File:Walker home distance.jpg| View of the ruins of Walker Castle on Mt. Falcon from Castle Trail File:Walker home pano.jpg| Central view of the ruins </gallery> ==See also== *[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)]] *[[Mobile Company of America]] *[[Morrison, Colorado]]
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, John Brisben}} [[Category:1847 births]] [[Category:1931 deaths]] [[Category:American magazine publishers (people)]] [[Category:American founders of motor vehicle manufacturers]] [[Category:Cosmopolitan (magazine) editors]] [[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]]