George Henry Walker occupies a prominent position in business, circles of Muskogee as vice president and general manager of the Osage Cotton Oil Company and has also served as mayor of the city since April, 1920.
His birth occurred at Union Springs, Alabama, on the 1st of October, 1872, his parents being Merriott W. and Rexie (Goodwin) Walker, the former a prosperous planter and merchant. After mastering the elementary branches of learning George Henry Walker pursued a high school course in his native town and subsequently attended a business college at Poughkeepsie, New York.
When his textbooks were put aside he secured a position as bookkeeper in an oil mill at a salary of sixty dollars per month and he has since been identified with cotton seed oil mill interests.
It was in September, 1910, that George Henry Walker came to Muskogee, where he has remained throughout the intervening period of eleven years and has become well known in the oil mill business, being now vice president and general manager of the Osage Cotton Oil Company, which is capitalized for two million dollars and has its home office in Muskogee.
The company conducts fourteen mills in Oklahoma, two in Arkansas, one in Louisiana and three in Florida and also operates one hundred cotton gins, the enterprise being one of extensive proportions and increasing importance. Mr. Walker possesses untiring energy, is quick of perception, forms his plans readily and is determined in their execution, and his close application to business and his excellent management have brought to him the high degree of prosperity which is his today.
On the 24th of May, 1894, Mr. Walker was united in marriage to Miss Estelle McRae and they have become parents of five children: Warren Henry, Charles Merriott, Mary Goodwin, Francis E. and George H., Jr. The eldest son entered the air service at the time of the World war and was trained as a pilot at San Diego, California. He received a commission as second lieutenant and later was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, thus serving until the armistice was signed. In September, 1919, he married Miss Beulah Thompson of Joplin, Missouri. He is now successfully engaged in business as an automobile dealer.
Mr. Walker gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party. In April, 1920, he entered upon the duties of mayor under the new managerial form of government and in this connection has since given to Muskogee a most businesslike and progressive administration, characterized by numerous needed reforms and improvements, so that he has made a most commendable record in the office of chief executive. Fraternally he is a Knights Templar Mason, has also attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, of which his son, Warren Henry, is also a representative. Mr. Walker is a Rotarian and a popular member of the Country Club and the Sequoyah Club, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the First Presbyterian church, of which he is a trustee. He finds pleasure and diversion in hunting, fishing and motoring. A man of social, genial nature, he has won a host of friends during the period of his residence in Muskogee, while his position in business circles and in public life is one of acknowledged leadership.