At the age of fifteen, he left his studies and joined an engineering corps engaged in building the Chenango Canal, under the charge of William J.

[1] After two years' service he suffered a broken knee when thrown from a carriage, which prevented him from continuing his profession.

Walker returned to Detroit, taught school at the university and then began the study of law in the office of Joy & Parker.

Also in 1863, during the American Civil War, he was very charitable towards the Union cause, serving as Chairman of the Michigan Branch of the United States Christian Commission which sent delegate to the hospitals and fields.

The attribution of the song "I like cigars beneath the stars" by an "E. C. Walker" to the poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox to the politician is probably mistaken.