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(Research):John "Johnnie" Walker http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=b25f95d0-cf78- 40f5-b4e7-03641e3251ca&tid=44074907&pid=4711

John Walker (grocer) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other people of the same name, see John Walker (disambi guation). John (Johnnie) Walker (1805 – 1857) was a Scottish grocer , who originated what would become one of the world’s mos t famous whisky brand names, Johnnie Walker. Biography Walker was born near Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, Scotland. Whe n his father Alexander died in 1819 he was left £417 in tru st. In 1820 the trustees invested in an Italian warehouse , grocery, and wine and spirits shop on the High Street i n Kilmarnock. In 1833 John married Elizabeth Purves. He was a respected b usinessman, leader of the local trade association, and a Fr eemason. His store’s stock was almost entirely destroyed i n an 1852 flood, but the business recovered within a coupl e of years. His own whisky brand, then known as Walker’s Ki lmarnock Whisky was popular locally. John’s son Alexander Walker (named after John’s father) ha d apprenticed with a tea merchant in Glasgow, and there lea rned the art of blending tea. When he returned to take ove r the business from his ailing father, he used those skill s to create Old Highland Whisky, (eventually renamed Johnni e Walker Black Label) the blend that made Johnnie Walker wh isky famous. Although he gave his name to the whisky, John Walker wa s a far less important figure to the brand than his son, Al exander. A disastrous flood in Kilmarnock in 1852 had destr oyed all of Walker’s stock, and when Alexander joined the b usiness in 1856, he persuaded his father to abandon the nar row realm of the grocery trade and to go into wholesale tra ding. At the beginning, the firm offered a range of spirits: Camp beltown whisky from the Kintyre Peninsula; whisky from th e Inner Hebridean Island of Islay, with its pungent smoky f lavor; patent still, or grain, whisky; and “Glenlivat” (sic ), Speyside whisky. Even so, whisky sales under John Walke r represented just 8 percent of the firm’s income; by the t ime Alexander was ready to pass on the company to his own s ons, that figure had increased to between 90 and 95 percent . —Giles MacDonogh