24 May 1863. Cooper City, Ohio. Frances Shelburne cried out in pain as she gave the final push and Walker Shelburne was born in the tiny village of Cooper City, Ohio that lay next to the Little Miami River. Walker spent his first six years with his parents and older sister MiOna. A hot July day in the summer of 1869 everyone was sweating and sitting under the trees near the river was no help. Edwin Shelburne made a snide remark about MiOna hiking her pantaloons up to her thighs and Frances shushed him and the two of them got into a fight. the parents voices grew louder, MiOna waded into the river. Walker had had enough and snuck off into the woods and later when they realized he was gone they searched for miles and miles.

Walker made his way to New York City by hopping trains. Walker stumbled into a newsboy on the sidewalk who was hawking the New York Herald. The boy fought with Walker and lost the fight leaving the newspapers. Walker began selling the papers and sold out in less than five minutes and found his way to the Herald building and demanded more papars to be sold. Soion Walker began selling other things as he sold the papers. One day an editor asked him if he could write and Walker said yes. A few days later Walker was told to take some writing samples to James Bennett the publisher of the Herald. Henry Morton Stanley was yelling that he would need a small fortune to find Dr. Livingstone in Africa with James Bennett when Edwin walked in and put his writing on the publishers desk. James glanced at the writing and saw how good the young lad was. A bright idea occured to the publisher. "I want you take my young writer here with you go to Africa in search of Dr. Lvingstone".