Weldy Wilberforce Walker (July 27, 1860 – November 23, 1937), sometimes known as Welday Walker and W. W. Walker, was an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player. In 1884, he became the third

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

to play

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. Walker played at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. In July 1884, he joined the

Toledo Blue Stockings The Toledo Blue Stockings formed as a minor league baseball team in Toledo, Ohio, in 1883. They won the Northwestern League championship in 1883. Their home ballpark was League Park. The following year, they joined the major league American Assoc ...

of the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

which was then part of Major League Baseball. His brother

Moses Fleetwood Walker Moses Fleetwood Walker (October 7, 1856 – May 11, 1924) was an American professional baseball catcher who, historically, was credited with being the first black man to play in Major League Baseball (MLB). A native of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, an ...

, commonly known as Fleetwood (or "Fleet") Walker, was the second African American to play Major League Baseball, making his debut two months before Weldy. In 1887, as

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

took hold in professional baseball, Weldy joined the Pittsburgh Keystones of the short-lived

National Colored Base Ball League The National Colored Base Ball League, the National Colored League, or the League of Colored Baseball Clubs was the subsequent attempt, after the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists, to have a league consisting of all-black teams. It predated ...

. His March 1888

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

to '' The Sporting Life'' protesting the racial segregation of baseball has been described as "perhaps the most passionate cry for justice ever voiced by an athlete." After retiring from baseball, Walker operated restaurants and a hotel in eastern

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. In 1897, he served on the Executive Committee of the Negro Protective Party, a newly formed political party established in Ohio in protest of the failure of the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

governor to investigate the

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

of an African American in June 1897 at

Urbana, Ohio Urbana is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Ohio, United States, west of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. Urbana was laid out in 1805, and for a time in 1812 was the headquarters of the Northwestern army during the War of 1812. It is t ...

. In the 1900s, Weldy and his brother Fleetwood became active in the

Back-to-Africa movement The back-to-Africa movement was based on the widespread belief among some European Americans in the 18th and 19th century United States that African Americans would want to return to the continent of Africa. In general, the political movement wa ...

and promoted emigration to

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

. The brothers also established and edited '' The Equator'', a black issues newspaper.

Early years

Walker was born in 1860 in

Steubenville, Ohio Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River 33 miles west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from Fort Steuben, a 1 ...

, an industrial city in the eastern part of the state with a reputation for racial tolerance. Weldy's name was a combination of the biblical word for wealthy ("weldy") and the surname of English abolitionist

William Wilberforce William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...

. His parents, Moses W. Walker and Caroline (O'Hara) Walker, moved to Steubenville from

Mount Pleasant, Ohio Mount Pleasant is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in southern Jefferson County, Ohio, Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. The population was 394 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is part of the Weirton–Steubenville met ...

. His father was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, a physician, and a leader in Steubenville's African-American community. In June 1870, at the time of the

1870 United States Census The United States census of 1870 was the ninth United States census. It was conducted by the Census Bureau from June 1, 1870, to August 23, 1871. The 1870 census was the first census to provide detailed information on the African-American popul ...

, the Walker family was living in Steubenville's First Ward. Walker's father was identified as a minister who had been born in Virginia. The couple had four children listed in the Census: William (age 25), Mary (age 21), Sarah (age 19), Moses F. (age 11) and Weldy W. (age 9). In June 1880, at the time of the

1880 United States Census The United States census of 1880 conducted by the Census Bureau during June 1880 was the tenth United States census. While Weldy was still in high school, his older brother, Fleetwood Walker, enrolled at

, which was among the first colleges in the United States to become racially integrated. In 1881, Weldy joined his brother at Oberlin College, enrolling as a student in the Oberlin's preparatory school. In the spring of 1881, the Walker brothers played on Oberlin College's first varsity inter-collegiate baseball team. Weldy, a freshman, played right field while Fleetwood, a junior, was the catcher. According to one account, Weldy played second base and finished the 1881 season as Oberlin's second leading batter. After the 1881 baseball season, Weldy's brother Fleetwood transferred to the

and played as a catcher for the

Michigan Wolverines baseball The Michigan Wolverines baseball team represents the University of Michigan in NCAA Division I college baseball. Along with most other Michigan athletic teams, the baseball team participates in the Big Ten Conference. They play their home games ...

team in 1882. Fleetwood became the first African American to play on a varsity sports team at Michigan and helped lead the Wolverines to a 10–3 record, a conference championship, and the best record for a Michigan baseball team up to that time.Adler 2004, p. 15. Weldy initially remained at Oberlin, but he transferred to Michigan in the fall of 1882 as a student in the homeopathic medical school.Zang 1998, p. 32. In the fall of 1882, the ''Oberlin Review'' reported: "Weldy Walker, '85 leaves to assist his brother in making the 'Ann Harbor' icnine a little more able to compete with Oberlin." Two weeks later, a writer for an Ann Arbor newspaper noted that "we have added to the list Weldy Walker, a magnificent fielder, safe batter, and phenomenal base runner." Before the 1883 baseball season began, Fleetwood left Michigan to play professional baseball for a team from

New Castle, Pennsylvania New Castle is a city in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lawrence County. It is northwest of Pittsburgh, and near the Pennsylvania–Ohio border, just southeast of Youngstown, Ohio. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, ...

. During the 1883 season, Weldy became the second African American to play for the Michigan baseball team. He played third base for Michigan and also served on the board of directors of the University Base-Ball Association. Weldy also played for Michigan as a catcher during part of the 1884 baseball season.Adler 2004, p. 16. Weldy scored four runs and had four hits in five at-bats to help Michigan defeat Michigan Agricultural College (later known as

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

) on June 14, 1884. According to Rich Adler's book ''Baseball at the University of Michigan'', each of the Walker brothers was "accepted as a member of the student body," although neither received a degree from the university.

Professional baseball

1883 University of Michigan baseball team

Toledo Blue Stockings

At the start of the 1884 baseball season, Weldy continued to study homeopathic medicine and play baseball at Michigan. Meanwhile, Fleetwood was playing for the

of the

, which was considered to be part of

. On May 1, 1884, Fleetwood became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball. As the 1884 baseball season progressed, the roster of the Toledo Blue Stockings was depleted by injuries. In need of additional players, the team recruited Weldy to join his brother in Toledo. Weldy appeared in his first game for the Blue Stockings on July 15, 1884, becoming the second African American to play Major League Baseball. ("His brother, Weldy Wilberforce Walker, who was to become the second Negro major leaguer, played right field.") Weldy appeared in five games as an outfielder for the Blue Stockings between July 15 and August 6, 1884. He had four hits, two runs batted in, and one run scored in 18 at-bats for a .222 batting average. After a series in Indianapolis, an article in '' The Sporting Life'' noted that "the Toledos were short-handed and played Weldy Walker, a brother of the catcher; he played well." The Walker brothers in 1884 were the last African Americans to play Major League Baseball for more than 60 years until

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

joined the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

in 1947.

Segregation of baseball and minor leagues

Weldy blamed Chicago White Stockings player-manager

Cap Anson Adrian Constantine Anson (April 17, 1852 – April 14, 1922), nicknamed "Cap" (for "Captain") and "Pop", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 c ...

for the fact that neither he, his brother, nor any other African Americans were allowed to play in the major leagues after 1884. During the 1884 season, Anson refused to play against Toledo until the Walker brothers were benched. In 1887, Anson again refused to play against the Newark team on which Fleetwood played. Anson biographer David L. Fleitz shared Weldy's belief that Anson was responsible for the game's segregation: "Cap Anson, more than anyone else, was the man who wielded the infamous pen." Following his time with the Blue Stockings, Weldy played for the

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

team in the Western League. During the 1885 season, Weldy compiled a .375 batting average for the Cleveland Forest Cities. In 1886, Weldy played third base for the Excelsior Club in Cleveland.

Open letter on racial segregation

By early 1887, 13 African Americans were playing in the "white" minor leagues, including four in the

Ohio State League The Ohio State League was a minor league baseball league that operated in numerous seasons between 1887 and 1947, predominantly as a Class D level league. League franchises were based in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Histo ...

. Weldy began the season with the

Akron Acorns Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

of the Ohio State League. However, he appeared in only four games for the Acorns. During the 1887 season, racial segregation began to become the official policy in certain minor leagues. Weldy was outraged by a report that the Tri-State League (successor to the Ohio State League) had abandoned racial integration. In March 1888, he wrote a letter to the league's president protesting the decision. In his 1970 history of racial segregation in baseball, Robert Peterson described Weldy's letter as "perhaps the most passionate cry for justice ever voiced by a Negro athlete."Peterson 1970, p. 32. In the letter, Walker wrote:

The law is a disgrace to the present age, and reflects very much upon the intelligence of your last meeting, and casts derision at the laws of Ohio – the voice of the people – that say all men are equal. I would suggest that your honorable body, in case that black law is not repealed, pass one making it criminal for a colored man or woman to be found on a ball ground ... There should be some broader cause – such as lack of ability, behavior and intelligence – for barring a player, rather than his color. It is for these reasons and because I think ability and intelligence should be recognized first and last – at all times and by everyone – I ask the question again, 'Why was the law permitting colored men to sign repealed, etc.?'

On March 14, 1888, and at Weldy's request, his letter was published in ''The Sporting Life'' under the headline "Why Discriminate?" In his book on baseball's segregation, Robert Peterson wrote that Weldy's question "went unanswered, because it was unanswerable . . . but the truth was plain for all who wished to see it:

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

was warming up."

Pittsburgh Keystones

In 1887, Weldy joined the Pittsburgh Keystones in the newly formed

and compiled a .360 batting average in five games as a player. Although the National Colored Base Ball League disbanded after a short time, the Keystones continued to play as an independent team. Weldy took over as the team's manager in 1888 and led the Keystones to a 9–1 record in the first ten games of the season. The Keystones' lineup in 1888 also included

Sol White King Solomon "Sol" White (June 12, 1868 – August 26, 1955) was an American professional baseball infielder, manager and executive, and one of the pioneers of the Negro leagues. An active sportswriter for many years, he wrote the first definit ...

. In early June 1888, ''

The Cleveland Gazette ''The Cleveland Gazette'' was a weekly newspaper published in Cleveland, Ohio, from August 25, 1883, to May 20, 1945. It was an African-American newspaper owned and edited by Harry Clay Smith, initially with a group of partners. Circulation was es ...

'' wrote that Weldy was "making quite a success of the Keystone Base Ball Club." (available by subscription from genealogybank.com)

Civil rights efforts and business career

1884 civil rights lawsuit

Walker became involved in a civil rights lawsuit in 1884 after a roller-skating rink in Steubenville denied entry to Walker and his friend, Hannibal Lyons. ''

'', an African-American weekly newspaper, described the circumstances as follows:

Steubenville, like many other places, is suffering now from the roller skate craze. There are now three in full blast and prospects for more. Discrimination on account of color never was carried on in Steubenville until these strangers starting rinks here issued the edict "No Negroes need apply except for positions of menials." On the 16th there was an opening night at the South Side Rink, and two of our young men of gentlemanly deportment and honest reputation applied for admission. The proprietor of the rink flatly told them, "You are colored and you can't skate."

Walker and Lyons filed a civil rights lawsuit accusing the operator, Massey & Son, of racial discrimination. (available through subscription at newspaperarchive.com) Some local newspaper accounts of the suit suggested that "Walker and Lyons were troublemakers stirring a 'political and social racket.'" Following a trial in January 1885, the presiding judge, Justice May, ruled that the skating rink operator had violated the rights of Walker and Lyons "under the civil rights law, and a special law of the Ohio Legislature giving the colored man certain privileges." The court awarded them each fifteen dollars in damages, with costs. However, the court declined to enter an order requiring the rink operator to admit African Americans. In his biography of Fleetwood Walker, David Zang called the court's ruling "a judgment that nominally supported integration while doing nothing to promote it in everyday reality."Zang 1998, pp. 45–46.

Negro Protective Party

During the 1890s, Walker became active in politics. Walker's activism was heightened by an incident in June 1897 in which residents of

, formed a lynch mob, removed a black man named "Click" Mitchell from the town jail, and publicly killed him by hanging. Believing that Ohio's Republican Governor Asa Bushnell had failed to conduct an appropriate investigation into the lynching, Walker and other African Americans in Ohio left the Republican Party and formed the Negro Protective Party. As a member of the party's Executive Committee, Walker helped organize the party's convention at

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

in September 1897. The party adopted a platform demanding "an immediate recognition of our rights as citizens such as have been repeatedly pledged and as often violated," and declaring an intention "to take immediate political action that we may show to the world that we are no longer the plaything of politicians or chattels for sale to the highest bidder." The party also began publishing "The Negro Protector" as its official organ. When former slave and Republican Party official, Nelson T. Gant, attacked Walker and the Negro Protective Party, Walker responded with an open letter that was published in Ohio newspapers. In the letter, Walker wrote:

Notwithstanding N. T. Gant there are many "intelligent Negroes" who will support the Negro protective ticket and will hurl back at him with contempt his insults to their manhood that they are not free to leave the republican party without being branded as "betrayers of their party" and "ungrateful to their Creator and their race." Such fumings are manifestly the strongest evidence of an enslaved mind ... Republicans ... believe, or make pretense of believing, that the Negro owes eternal allegiance to the G. O. P. no matter what the issue ... We shall not trespass further upon your valuable space, except to say that the Negro Protective party will live and its supporters hope never to regret the stand taken for free and independent manhood as a protest against every disregard, from whatever source, of the rights and privileges of the Negro as an American citizen. (available by subscription through genealogybank.com)

When Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Charles Kinney refused to print the Negro Protective Party's emblem (an image of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

) on the state ballot, the party filed a

mandamus (; ) is a judicial remedy in the form of an order from a court to any government, subordinate court, corporation, or public authority, to do (or forbear from doing) some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do (or refrain from ...

action to compel him to do so. When the party's gubernatorial candidate, S. J. Lewis, received 4,276 votes in the official vote count, ''The Cleveland Gazette'' opined that Governor Bushnell's narrow plurality victory was "a direct result of the governor's failure to do his duty during the life of the mob that lynched innocent Afro-American, 'Click" Mitchell, at Urbana."

Business interests

Even before retiring from baseball, Weldy became active in business. In October 1884, Weldy and a partner went into business operating Delmonico Dining Rooms in

Mingo Junction, Ohio Mingo Junction is a village in eastern Jefferson County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 3,347 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Weirton–Steubenville metropolitan area. Geography Mingo Junction is located at ...

, near Steubenville. In 1897, Weldy and Joe Jetters opened an oyster and fish store on North Sixth Street in Steubenville. The 1890s were a turbulent decade for Weldy's older brother Fleetwood. In 1891, Fleetwood stabbed a man to death outside a saloon, but was acquitted on grounds of self-defense. In 1898, while employed as a railroad postal clerk, Fleetwood was charged with embezzling the contents of registered letters addressed to a dozen different persons and served a year in jail. In 1899, while Fleetwood was still in jail, Weldy began operating the Union Hotel at 105 Market Street in downtown Steubenville. Following Fleetwood's release from jail, the hotel/boarding house was jointly operated by Fleetwood and Weldy. In June 1900, at the time of the 1900 United States Census, Walker was living at the Union Hotel with Fleetwood, Fleetwood's second wife Ednah, and their three children. The family also had a live-in servant, Sarah Richmond (age 45). Fleetwood was identified in the 1900 Census as the operator of a boarding house, and Weldy as a "porter." A 1902 city directory listed Fleetwood as the hotel's proprietor and Weldy as the clerk, but a 1904–05 directory listed Weldy as the proprietor and Fleetwood and Ednah as residents. By 1906, Weldy had temporarily relocated several miles downriver to

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...

, and rumors circulated that the Union Hotel would be sold and turned into "a first class house for the accommodation of Afro-American visitors."

Back-to-Africa movement

In the 1900s, the Walker brothers became active in the

. In 1902, Fleetwood and Weldy established and edited a black-issues newspaper called '' The Equator''. Six years later, Fleetwood and Weldy published a 47-page book titled ''Our Home Colony: A Treatise on the Past, Present, and Future of the Negro Race in America''. Fleetwood's biographer, David Zang, has written that Fleetwood "was effected by the political vigilance which his younger brother, Weldy, had brought to the black cause." In the credits to ''Our Home Colony'', Fleetwood was identified as the author, and Weldy was identified as "General Agent," though much of the book is written in the first-person plural. In the book, the Walkers wrote: "The only practical and permanent solution of the present and future race troubles in the United States is entire separation by Emigration of the Negro from America." They added: "The Negro race will be a menace and the source of discontent as long as it remains in large numbers in the United States. The time is growing very near when the whites of the United States must either settle this problem by deportation, or else be willing to accept a reign of terror such as the world has never seen in a civilized country." The Walker brothers also opened an office to begin the work of resettlement to Africa at the time ''Our Home Colony'' was published. In his 1908 response to an Oberlin College alumni questionnaire, Weldy listed his occupation as "General Agent" for ''Our Home Colony'' and Liberian emigration.Weldy Wilberforce Walker, alumni questionnaire, July 15, 1908, Oberlin College Archives (pdf copy is Document 4 her

.

Later years

By 1910, Fleetwood had moved to

Cadiz, Ohio Cadiz ( ) is a village in Cadiz Township, Harrison County, Ohio, United States located about 20 miles from Steubenville. The population was 3,353 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Harrison County. History Cadiz was founded in 1803 a ...

, where he operated an 800-seat vaudeville theater. In April 1910, at the time of the 1910 United States Census, Weldy was still living at 105 Market Street in Steubenville, and the property was being operated as a boarding house. The proprietor and head of the household was identified as Thomas F. Walker, Weldy's nephew and Fleetwood's son. Weldy was listed as a "waiter." In January 1920, at the time of the 1920 United States Census, Walker was living at 100 Market Street in Steubenville with nephew Thomas and Thomas's wife, Jeanette. Thomas was listed as the "keeper" of the hotel, and Weldy (identified as "Welda") was listed as having no employment.Census entry for Thomas F. Walker household, including Welda W. Walker, uncle, born in Ohio (mother and father both born in Ohio). Not employed. Marital status listed as "S", meaning single and not widowed or divorced. Thomas employed as the keeper of a hotel. Weldy remained politically active in his later years and was a friend of Harry Clay Smith, the owner and editor of ''

'', the longest-publishing African-American weekly in the United States. After Smith helped the Republican Party elect President

Warren Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. ...

in 1920, Weldy sent Smith a congratulatory letter noting that the Negro vote played a role in Harding's victory. Still focused on the practice of lynching in the Southern states, Weldy added: "The North would not have known there had been an election in Florida unless that old game of killing six or more Negroes for wanting to vote had been pulled off. When will 'Uncle Sam' allow the poor southern Negro 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.'" When Fleetwood died in Cleveland in May 1924, Weldy and Thomas traveled to Cleveland and returned Fleetwood's remains to Steubenville in a casket costing $525. According to Fleetwood biographer, David Zang, Weldy became a bootlegger during Prohibition, and nephew Thomas was a numbers bookie. In April 1930, at the time of the

1930 United States Census The United States census of 1930, conducted by the Census Bureau one month from April 1, 1930, determined the resident population of the United States to be 122,775,046, an increase of 13.7 percent over the 106,021,537 persons enumerated during ...

, Walker was a "roomer" in an all-black boarding house at 117 South 6th Street in Steubenville operated by Eugene Williams. His occupation was listed as a clerk.Census entry for Weldy W. Walker. His marital status is listed as single, never married. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census atabase on-line Place: Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio; Roll: 1825; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 32; Image: 275.0; FHL microfilm: 2341559. Walker never married. In November 1937, he died from pneumonia at his home in Steubenville.''The Baseball Necrology''
/ref>

References

External links

an
Seamheads
*Weldy Walker biography fro
Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Weldy 1860 births 1937 deaths 19th-century baseball players African-American baseball players Akron Acorns players Baseball players from Ohio Burials at Union Cemetery-Beatty Park Cleveland Forest Cities players Major League Baseball left fielders Michigan Wolverines baseball players Oberlin Yeomen baseball players Sportspeople from Steubenville, Ohio Pittsburgh Keystones players Toledo Blue Stockings players 20th-century African-American people