“Go West, old man”

Photo of "Uncle Joe" Walling taken April 1, 1915 in front of C. W. Miller's Cigar Shop in Frederick (located at 315 N. Market Street)

Horace L. Greeley (1811-1872)

How did the concept of Manifest Destiny play to Frederick residents just three months after the close of the American Civil War? On July 13th, 1865, Horace Greeley, Editor of the New York Tribune newspaper, wrote an editorial promoting the Homestead Act which President Lincoln had signed earlier on May 20th, 1862. Young men working in Washington D.C. had complained about the cost of living and the low wages paid by the government. Greeley wrote:

“Washington is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.”

One young man was just too darn young to act on any impulse in 1865—but years later he would, multiple times.

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Eleven-year old Joseph Walling knew little of the world outside of his hometown, but appreciated the modes of travel afforded local residents wanting to see more of the country that had just been preserved by the recent four-year conflict. The young man’s father (Capt. Henry Jefferson Walling) was a popular passenger conductor for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, making trips to Charm City and elsewhere on a daily basis. Joe Walling would also understand the dangers involved in travel as well. His grandfather and namesake, Joseph M. Walling, was also an employee of the mighty B&O. He was tragically killed in a railroad derailment accident in March, 1858.

Article reporting the death of Joseph M. Walling of Frederick in the Baltimore Sun (March 23, 1858)

Grave of Joseph M. Walling (1800-1853)

Maybe travel was just in Joe Walling’s blood, and his childhood exposure to the carnage of the Civil War simply made him numb to danger? This can be hypothesized because Walling’s long-“road” ahead would be defined by two things: westward travel and engaging in risky professions and hobbies.

Joseph Henry Jefferson Walling was born September 21st, 1853 in Frederick, Maryland. His family lived in a two story dwelling on East All Saints Street, located between the B&O Railroad Depot to the east, and the B&O Passenger Station to the west. "Joe" was five when his grandfather lost his life heading to work one day en-route to Baltimore. At eight, the American Civil War erupted, and Frederick would be visited by both major armies, North and South. Throughout the duration, wounded, sick and dying soldiers could be easily seen as they were brought for care to Frederick’s “one-vast hospital.”

The Walling family residence can be seen in this wartime sketch depicting the October 4, 1862 visit of Abraham Lincoln to Frederick which appeared in Harpers Weekly magazine. This is the old B&O Passenger Station located at the southeast corner of E. All Saints and S. market streets. The two-story Walling home appears on the south side of All Saints Street (just beyond the locomotive)

Wagon train on the Santa Fe Trail

At 15, Joe followed in a first responder role, shared with both his father and grandfather as he joined the United Fire Company. He would spend the next 75 years in service to various fire companies, one day earning the moniker as “the oldest volunteer firefighter in the United States.”  In 1871, Joe made his first big move and took up residence in Baltimore and worked for the railroad.

Shortly thereafter, he earned a job as an Indian scout, guide and escort assisting wagon trains delivering shipments from Kansas City to points in the “Wild West.”  Most of these were along the famed Santa Fe Trail, taking him to New Mexico and Arizona. He lived in the plains country for six years between 1872-1878. In between trips, he had proposed to the love of his life, Laura Staley. The couple married in 1876, but the life change didn’t seem to slow down Joe Walling one bit, as he would have plenty of stories to tell in the future of his western experiences. Nearly 70 years later, a newspaper writer of the Frederick News would write of Joe:

“He could describe the markings painted on the faces of the Apaches and the sound of their battle cries as they attacked the wagon trains. He knew the Pawnee, the Arapahoes and the Sioux. Many a time their ponies streaked in lightning circles around the massed covered-wagons he protected, and he swapped bullets with the best of them.”

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Joe next ventured into the heart of Indian Territory (Oklahoma Territory) and became a bona-fide cowboy. For two years (1879-1880) he would ride the range, keeping a lookout for cattle rustlers and other unsavory men of the Old West.  It was here that he met a young adventurer much like himself and named Gordon William Lillie. Lillie would later become a well-known American showman and performer under the name Pawnee Bill. He and wife May, a female marksman in the style of Annie Oakley, specialized in Wild West shows, including a short partnership with Maj. William F. Cody—Buffalo Bill.

Pawnee Bill (Gordon W. Lillie) and May Lillie

By June of 1880, Joe was back east in Frederick with wife Laura and son Henry Jefferson, who were living with Joe’s parents and grandmother in the family home on E. All Saints Street. He gained employment again with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as a brakeman.

The job of the freight train brakeman was a solitary one and was especially dangerous. Before the widespread use of airbrakes in the late 19th century, trains were stopped through the manual application of brakes on each of the train’s cars. Even after the airbrake came into universal use, the brakeman still had to be ready to climb atop the train to manually set the brakes when the airbrakes failed to work or when a section of cars had to be cut from the train. In the interest of train safety, the middle brakeman, if there was one, would ride out in the open in order to be ready to manually apply the brakes if the need arose. Middle brakemen were most frequently used on long freight trains as well as on local freight lines where freight cars had to be cut loose or added on regularly.

Three additional children would join the family during the decade of the 1880’s. Joe left the position of brakeman, to ride lines of another kind for the railroad. He was involved in stringing the first telephone lines between Baltimore and Washington DC. Joe continued this work until receiving a job offer from an old friend—Pawnee Bill.

The American frontier would soon come to Frederick in the form of Pawnee Bill’s Historic Wild West Show. His first show was here at the Great Frederick Fair in 1888, but more would follow in subsequent years. Joe Walling connected with his old friend and received work caring for the shows livestock. The story goes that Joe actually hiked to Pawnee, Oklahoma to meet with the famed showman. That same year, Pawnee Bill began using Frederick as his Winter Quarters. The exact location was the farm of Samuel Hoke, just north of Frederick City at Ceresville.

Walling actually went on the road with Pawnee Bill’s traveling entourage entitled "Pawnee Bill’s Historical Wild West Indian Museum and Encampment Show." He got another opportunity to travel around the US, but this one brought overseas travel. Pawnee Bill had received an invitation from King Leopold of Belgium to bring his show to the World’s fair in Antwerp. Joe Walling was among the entire cast and staff who made the ship voyage to Europe in April of that year. The show performed in Belgium, Holland and France.  Joe was given the special assignment of riding, and keeping secure, Pawnee’s famous buffalo herd.

Frederick News (August 3, 1894)

Joe Walling would later recount that this trip however, was not the high point of his career. Instead, he said his greatest life thrill was driving a covered wagon, drawn by six oxen, in a Pawnee Bill parade through the crowd lined streets of Baltimore on one occasion. He continued working for Pawnee Bill’s circus until 1898, at which time Joe enlisted for duty in the Spanish-American War at age 45.  Serving in the First Maryland Regiment, he never made it to the theaters of war in the Caribbean and Pacific, but worked diligently in his prime capacity as a wagon driver in Norfolk (VA). At the conclusion of the war, he was honorably discharged. Joe would then enlist in the US Navy for the next decade, rising to the position of boatswain first class. A boatswain is a ship's officer in charge of equipment and the crew.  

Joe moved to Baltimore again. He also kept up his service as a volunteer firefighter, and was associated with Baltimore’s Volunteer Engine House #9 Company. The fire of his life occurred in 1904, with the Great Baltimore Fire on February 7th through the 8th, destroying much of central Baltimore, including over 1,500 buildings covering an area of some 140 acres.  It is considered historically the third worst major fire in an American city, surpassed only by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

Scene from a Pawnee Bill show parade through town

The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904

One month later, Joe Walling would experience another tragic event with the death of wife Laura. His four children were grown, but the pain was no less. He took up residence with his daughter Betty Pennington, and lived under her roof at 907 S. Paca Street in Baltimore, only a few blocks west of the current day sports stadium complex of Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium.

Joe Walling’s personal storytelling ability to family and friends was legendary. He had a welcome invitation to visit and “conduct court” at a plethora of fire houses across Charm City. This is likely how he earned the nickname of “Uncle Joe.”

Joe needed something to fill his desire for travel and danger. He was working for a Baltimore ironworks at this time, and his chief hobby was that of a member of the Baltimore Wanderlust Club, an organization that conducted hiking outings. Joe loved this group and regularly walked long distances to towns across the region, including many trips to and from Frederick on foot.

As Joe was trying to fill the major void created in his life following the loss of Laura, he decided to head west once again, as he had done in his youth. However, he wasn’t going to stay out west, he just wanted to visit, and come back to Maryland. In 1910, Joe embarked on the first of five known transcontinental trips he would attempt over the next 22 years. To San Francisco and back on foot was “Uncle Joe’s” first major feat.  It also brought him notoriety and standing as one of the state’s most colorful characters. In 1915, Joe Walling planned another transcontinental trip, but this time aboard a pony. Escorted by policemen and drum corps, Joe set out on his journey from Frederick on April 1st. Unfortunately, the trek had to be aborted later in the month. After traveling 300 miles, the 62 year-old rider was thrown from his mount near Wheeling, WV. He suffered a broken leg but remained in good spirits, determined to try again in the spring of 1916.

The Adams County News (March 20, 1915)

"Uncle Joe" Walling

Joe Walling financed these trips by selling postcards of himself posing in costumes depicting his various occupations. Subscribers could choose the “western” destination the card would be mailed from. Joe also had backing from the Frederick and Baltimore Chambers of Commerce.  A Maryland ambassador of sorts, he carried marketing/tourism materials with him and distributed in the towns he visited.

As for lodging, Joe made plenty of friends along the way. He became a novelty, as well as a celebrity of sorts, and was gladly welcomed wherever he went. The "wanderluster" was usually put up in hotels and taken to dinner by local government officials, whom he would always have sign a register book that accompanied him on his journeys. This included the names of mayors, clerks of the court, sheriffs and other notables.

“Uncle Joe” would make subsequent trips on foot and by horseback in 1922, 1926 and 1932. Another trip was supposed in 1921 as Joe went missing for a few weeks. He decided to walk to Carlisle (PA) but failed to tell his family where he was going. They just assumed he was heading to the west coast again. 

Joe achieved lasting fame as he was often the subject of newspaper articles both here at home and in all the towns and states that stood in his path. He always wore high boots, buckskin trousers and a Mexican belt—remnants of his days with the Pawnee Bill show. His last trip was made at the age of 79. This on-foot journey took him to San Francisco by way of Canada on the way out, and through southern states on the return trip.

The Topeka (Kansas) Daily Capital Sun (July 9, 1922)

In his eighties, he would continue to walk all over Baltimore, but would not attempt another cross-country sojourn. His last decade of life found Uncle Joe in the familiar role as raconteur as he told the tales of a storied life, full of adventure, duty to others, travel and the romance of the famed “Wild West.” Joseph J. Walling died quietly in Baltimore on July 2nd, 1944 at the age of 91. The “old warrior” made one last trip west to his native Frederick, where he would be laid to rest in the family plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery. He would take his place next to wife Laura, with his parents and grandparents close at hand. His monument reads:

“Here he lies where he longed to be. Home is the sailor, home from the sea.”

Final resting place and monument to Joseph H. J. Walling in Mount Olivet's Section H/Lot 220

Baltimore Sun (March 1, 1926)

The Frederick News (July 6, 1944)