Alexander Walter was alumberman and businessman born in Glasgow, Scotland. He and his family migrated to the U.S. in 1858.

Career

He attended Ripon College but left to become superintendent of a Wausau sawmill owned by his uncle, W. D. Mclndoe. Upon his uncle's death in 1872, the company merged with the J. Parcher & A. Stewart Lumber Company, which was incorporated in 1874 with Alexander as secretary and treasurer. He helped organize the Wausau Paper Mills Company, Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company, Wisconsin Valley Electric Company and other firms located in Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Arkansas, Michigan and British Columbia. He was the only Wisconsin delegate to the Republican national convention of 1908 pledged to William Howard Taft.

Legacy

Ben Alexander, the son of Walter, attended the Biltmore Forest School, University of Wisconsin and the University of California. In 1926 he became president of the Masonite Corporation, which he had helped his father found in Wausau. During World War II he served on the War Production Board and was in charge of lumber, textiles and other critical materials. 

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]