Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Museum

Lake Forester, March 12, 1904.

Walker Sales, Lake Forest police officer, early 1900s

Lake Forester, August 3, 1907

Chicago Tribune, December 30, 1916

The coach house (now demolished) at 361 East Westminster

Lake Forester, March 3, 1938

Walker Sales was one of the earliest members of the Lake Forest police force. Born in 1864 in Morganfield, Kentucky, to Emily Sales, he came to Lake Forest around 1890, after years working as a farm laborer in Kentucky. With him came his daughter Mamie, who was born c. 1889 in Kentucky to Sales’ second wife, Ellen Lynch. In the 1900 census, he and his family were among about 100 Black residents living in the town of 2,200.

In Lake Forest, Walker Sales first worked as a coachman for the Rumsey family. Captain Israel Parsons Rumsey, Civil War veteran, and his wife Mary lived at the Evergreens, 404 East Deerpath. While working for the Rumseys, Walker Sales lived in the upper floor of the coachhouse at 361 East Westminster (now demolished), with third wife Tischa and their children.

Unfortunately, the young Sales family met with tragedy: 1-year-old Mildred died in 1896; Tisha Sales died of consumption in 1903; and two sons, 6-year-old Richard and a 4-year-old (name unknown), died in 1904 of bronchial pneumonia.

By 1901, Walker Sales was part of the two-man Lake Forest police force, working as the night officer with James Gordon as the daytime patrol. He served as member of the police department for nearly 20 years, taking a brief break in 1907 to try his hand at express and teaming.

By mid-1908, Sales sold his express business and rejoined the police force. During his tenure, the department grew from two officers to five by 1919; his salary (and that of other officers as well) increased from $50/month to $100/month.

As night officer, Sales was often on call for burglary cases, and among his many duties included keeping watch during the “offseason” on any shuttered Lake Forest residences. Local newspapers periodically felt the need to explicate this role of a Black policeman in a North Shore community. The Chicago Tribune wrote: “In winter when many of the residents closed their homes they often left keys in charge of Sales, trusting him with thousands of dollars’ worth of furnishings. He was reputed to be a brave man and a crack pistol shot.” The Lake Foresterwrote: “The night was never too dark or the request too impossible for Walker to undertake to be obliging. … Hundreds and hundreds of little things that another man never would think of helped to make Walker popular…” Occasionally Sales was similarly referred to by first name in the press, which was not often done for his white counterparts.

Another Tribune article from late 1916, as the U.S. role as goods supplier for the war-torn European countries drove up the prices of many material goods, featured Sales and his innovation of using car tires to sole his shoes. “The high cost of living can’t scare me,” the newspaper quotes Sales. “I used to be a chauffeur and I still got a fine limousine tire left. I found out the cobblers are using paper so I just tacked on a hunk of automobile tire. I gave a piece to Ferd Berghorn – he’s on the fire department – and that’s what makes him so fast.”

After Sales left the employ of the Rumseys and joined the police department c. 1900, he and his family rented rooms in a house on Wisconsin Avenue. The 1908 Waukegan (and vicinity) city directory lists him residing with daughter Mamie Sales, by then working as a dressmaker. They were boarding on Wisconsin with America Bridgeman, a woman of color who ran her own laundry business. She was born in 1880 in Tennesee. In November of 1910, Walker Sales and American Bridgeman were married in Waukegan; the wedding notice lists her as a graduate of Fisk University.

Walker and America Sales soon made their home on Effner Avenue, which in 1917 was renamed Granby. The address of their house was 321 Granby Road (the current house on the site appears to be a more recent construction).

On March 3, 1919, Walker Sales died following complications from asthma and heart trouble. His funeral was held at First Baptist Church and he was buried in Lake Forest Cemetery. After his death, the Lake Forest City Council passed a resolution: “Whereas, for over fifteen years, Mr. Sales had served the City, faithfully and efficiently, and by his kindly and sterling character and faithful discharge of duty, had won the approbation of the City Council and the officials of the City, as well as the citizens of Lake Forest; Therefore, be it resolved: that we express our deep sorrow and regret at his loss, and our sincere sympathy for his bereaved family…”

America Sales continued to live at 321 Granby and operate her laundry business. Other family members moved up from Tennessee to join her, including her uncle John Bridgeman, a former enslaved person; and her nephew, Simon Cook, who worked as a postal clerk. Simon Cook’s son Edward was born in 1926; according to a 1993 newspaper interview, he was “basically raised” by America Sales. Ed Cook graduated from Lake Forest High School in 1943, served in WWII, and became a well-known disc jockey on WVON-AM, one of Chicago’s first major black radio stations.

America Bridgeman Sales died in 1938. Her obituary in the Lake Forester, which refers to her as Mrs. Amanda Sales, states that: “Mrs. Sales was proud of two things during her lifetime: that she had always been able to support herself, and of the splendid record made by her husband, Walker, as a member of the local police force.”

Sources:U.S. Federal Census records accessed via Ancestry.com; Lake Forester newspaper; Chicago Tribune newspaper; City of Lake Forest City Council Minutes; Find A Grave; Sanborn Fire Insurance maps; Waukegan City Directories; Lake Forest and Lake Bluff telephone directories; Arpee, Edward. Lake Forest Illinois: History and Reminiscences 1861-1961. Lake Forest, Illinois: Rotary Club of Lake Forest, 1963; "African American History in Lake Forest: A WalkingTour," Lake Forest College, 1997