This is the story of a family who migrated from Maryland to Somerset, Ohio and then on to Lancaster. It begins locally about 1820 when a young man named Walker arrived in Somerset and concludes with that young man's great-great-great-great granddaughter celebrating the 50th anniversary of the family business in Lancaster. Six generations continuing in the same business is a rare occurrence today.

Thanks to the work done by Thomas J. Walker, author of The Family History of William Walker, the Blacksmith 1750-1821, much of the research about the early family members had been done. The Walker ancestors were Quakers in England who left for the colonies so they could practice their religion without persecution. William Walker, Jr. was born about 1750 in New Jersey, but moved, to a Catholic community in Berks County, Pennsylvania where he married in the 1770s and started his family.

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