Harriet G. Walker

Harriet Granger Hulet Walker (10 September 1841 – 13 January 1917) was an American hospital administrator and leader in the temperance movement.

Early life

She was born in Brunswick, Ohio in the United States. She attended Baldwin University and in 1863 married T. B. Walker. They later lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota and had eight children.

Her mother, whose last name was Granger, came from Berkshire County in Massachusetts, like Walker's father. Her mother's husband, the Honorable Fletcher Hulet, was a "prosperous businessman" who owned a quarry that sold grindstones. Later in life, Walker's husband would go to Minneapolis-Saint Paul to sell grindstones and meet James J. Hill when he was a young clerk who later was involved with the Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific Railway, and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

Her father's father served in the American Revolutionary War and participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Walker studied vocal and instrumental music at what is today Baldwin-Wallace College, and then taught music for two years. One of her classmates was Thomas B. Walker who worked for Walker's father. They were engaged and wanted to live in Minneapolis. The Reverend J. Wheeler, president of Baldwin University, married them. Wheeler was Walker's brother in law. Her gravestone says "Harriet Hulet Walker" but she is called "Harriet G. Walker" by the Minnesota Historical Society as well as by Isaac Atwater.

The Walker home on Hennepin Avenue was a public art gallery now known as the Walker Art Center, In about 1914 the house was torn down. The State Theatre in downtown Minneapolis is on the site today, renovated with a few other theaters in the area, and is part of one of the city's entertainment districts.