Walter D. Munson was born on February 18, 1843, in Litchfield, Connecticut, fifth of the six children of Barnabas Daniel Munson and Delia Canfield, and was descended from Thomas Munson, an Englishman, who had settled at Hartford by 1637. He was only three when his father died. His mother later married David W. Wood, a widower.
Munson was brought up on the farm, with a fair schooling.
At eighteen he enlisted as a private in Company E of the 8th Connecticut Volunteers and fought through the Civil War. He became second lieutenant, first lieutenant, and finally captain in the 2nd United States Cavalry and served as assistant adjutant-general of the 3rd Division of the XVIII Army Corps. Remaining in the army for a year after the war, he was with Sheridan's force which was sent to the Rio Grande in protest against the French occupation of Mexico. Finally mustered out early in 1866 in Texas, he settled in Brownsville for two years.
In 1868 Munson moved to Havana and from that time until his death he was intimately connected with Cuba. He became interested in the refining of petroleum there and eventually that led to shipping, which became his most important field of activity. The nucleus of the future Munson Line was a schooner with which he began regular freight service between New York and Havana in 1873.
By 1882, when he moved to New York, he had five sailing vessels regularly engaged in trade between the two ports. For the remainder of his life Munson made his home in Brooklyn and conducted his business from New York. He continued to develop the line of ships between New York and Cuba, adding steamships to the sailing vessels. The line specialized in freight, but he later put some excellent passenger ships on the New York-Havana run. The Munson freighters connected New York not only with Havana but also with Matanzas, Santiago, and many other ports on the island. He extended his service to Mexico and developed a regular service between Havana and Mobile and other Gulf ports.
In 1894 Munson was also serving as agent for the Prince Steamship Company which connected Haiti, Jamaica, Central America, and Colombia. This shipping business was at first Munson's private venture, but in 1899 it was incorporated as the Munson Steamship Line, remaining a fairly close corporation. Munson himself was president and a director. Munson also extended his shipping line northward to Nova Scotia and the Maritime Provinces where pulpwood and other bulky commodities offered good freight. He was president of the Cameron Steamship Company, vice-president of the Atlantic & Mexican Gulf Steamship Company, and secretary-treasurer of the International Coal Company. He was a director of the Compania Maritima Cubana and of the Cuban & Pan-American Express Company. The Munson Line itself, however, was his chief interest.
By the time of his death, it had expanded in thirty-five years from a single schooner to sixty steamships. In size and volume of trade, it was the largest freighting organization in the American coastal trade and was a powerful influence in Caribbean commerce. His sons Carlos W. and Frank C. Munson became respectively president and vice-president-treasurer of the line after his death. Walter D. Munson died on April 24, 1908, of paralysis, at his home, 664 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.
Walter D. Munson was non-sectarian in religion.
Walter D. Munson was non-partisan in politics.
Walter D. Munson himself was a large and kindly man, bald and with a drooping moustache.
On December 31, 1863, Walter D. Munson married Emily M. Wood, by whom he had five children.
