WALTER. CALLENDER is a worthy "Son of the Rock," having been
born in Stirling, January 9, 1834, son of James and Christina (Reid)
Callender, of that town. Mr. Callender emigrated to America when a
comparatively young man and entered the house of Hogg, Brown & Taylor, in
Boston, where he remained until the outbreak of the Civil War. He
patriotically determined to serve his adopted country and volunteered for
service in the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteers. Considerable active
service fell to his share and he rose to the rank of captain, commanding a
company of colored troops in the defence of Washington. After the war he
was attached for a time to the Quartermaster-General ‘s Department in
Washington.
After the conclusion of the war, Mr. Callender entered
into partnership with the late John McAuslan and the late John E. Troup,
and had founded the firm of Callender, McAuslan & Troup, in October, 1866,
now one of the leading department stores of Providence, Rhode Island, and
widely known as the "Boston Store". The firm, of which Mr. Callender is
the head, is also engaged in the importing and wholesale
dry goods business, employing fifteen
travelling salesmen, covering all the New England States.
Shortly before engaging in business, April 3, 1866, Mr.
Callender married Miss Ann Oswald Crow, daughter of William Crow, of
Roxburn, Scotland, and Sarah Reevie. (The surname of Crow, it may be
parenthetically observed, is an abridgement of Auchencraw, the name of a
once prominent family in Berwickshire, which
died out in the main line.) Three sons were born of this marriage: namely.
Walter Reid Callender, Robert Callender (now deceased) and John A.
Callender. All the sons were graduated from Yale University, in 1894, 1898
and 1902, respectively. Mr. Callender ‘s first wife died in 1882, and two
years later he married Jane Stobie Reid, daughter of the Rev. John Reid,
of Old Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire, the traditional birthplace of St.
Patrick.
Mr. Callender ‘s business energies cover a wide field,
as the following will show. He is President of the Callender, McAuslan &
Troup Co.; Treasurer of the Boston Store Land Co., Vice-President of the
Puritan Life Insurance Co., and a director in the following concerns:
National Exchange Bank, Crown Worsted Mills, Rhode Island Insurance Co.,
Snowden Worsted Mill, and the Syndicate Trading Company, of 2 Walker
Street, New York City. This latter concern is known in the dry goods trade
as the "Scotch Syndicate."
With all his business affiliations, Captain Callender
does not neglect the social and intellectual side of life, and accordingly
we find him enrolled among the members of the Providence Chamber of
Commerce, Commercial Club, Economic Club, Rhode Island Historical Society,
Rhode Island School of Design, Squantum Association, Providence Athenaeum,
and, of course, as becomes a patriotic Scot, of the St. Andrew’s Society
of the State of New York.
Captain Callender is a member of the Beneficent
Congregational Church, and resides at 1509 Westminster Street, Providence.
He also has a fine summer home at Hatchett’s Point, South Lyme, Conn.