Walker Brothers & Hardy

Corliss P., Fred P., and John F. Walker spent their early years in Fargo working in the press room at the Argus newspaper. The 1893 Fargo city directory is the first to list the Walker Brother firm based out of the Argus building. By 1896, they had moved to 117 Broadway. In 1901-1902 the Walker Brothers built the Walker Building to house their business. They first occupied their space at 619-621 1st Avenue North in October, 1902. By this time John P. Hardy had joined the business and the name became Walker Brothers and Hardy. A 1909 article in the Fargo Forum & Daily Republican, states:

This institution does all kinds of job printing and binding. Color lithographing work has been made a feature. However, the class of work to which is devoted a large amount of energy is the printing and making of blank books of all kinds. In this line the firm has been especially successful. During the last election this company printed the poll books for thirty-eight counties. In other words they printed 22,000 poll books out of 25,000. This gives some idea of the vast amount of work this company does in the way of printing and making of blank books.

Corliss P. Walker was also very involved with local theater and for a time brought the company into ownership of the Fargo Opera House and Walker Theater Company. The business printed all the playbills and publications related to the Fargo Opera house, until it burned down in 1912. Corliss Walker moved to Winnipeg, John P. Walker died in 1912, and Fred P. Walker died in 1925. The company was last listed in the 1927 city directory under the ownership of J. P. Hardy and Fred B. Black.

Sources:
Fargo and Moorhead City Directory. Fargo, 1881-1927.
"Printing and book-binding establishments of Fargo turn out fine grade of work and give employment to many persons, history of industry" Fargo Forum and Daily Republican (2 June 1909): 5