My Genealogy Hound

Ernst Walter, farmer and stock raiser, was born in Suhl, Germany, in 1834, the fifth in the family of thirteen children born to John B. and Mary (Barthold) Walter; the former, a farmer by occupation, was drowned while enroute to St. Louis, Mo., from Germany via New Orleans. He was about forty-five years of age. Mrs. Mary Walter died October 29, 1887, aged eighty-two years. Ernst Walter immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1846, landed at New Orleans, and settled first in St. Louis, removing the following year to a farm near Glencoe, St. Louis Co., Mo., where he remained until 1854, being then nineteen years of age. He then, in company with others, went across the plains to California, the journey occupying five months and two weeks; they located at Placerville, El Dorado County, where Mr. Walters engaged in mining until 1858, when he returned home by the way of the Isthmus of Panama and New York City. That winter he purchased and moved to his present farm, which consists of 175 acres of well-improved land. He was married in the spring of 1860 to Miss Caroline Sandfos, a native of Hanover, Germany, and a daughter of John and Johanna (Meyer) Sandfos, who came to this country in 1846, first settled in St. Louis, and later removed to a farm on Wild Horse Creek, same county. John Sandfos served in the War of 1812, participating in the battle of Waterloo. Mr. and Mrs. Walter are the parents of nine children: Charles W., John E., Amelia H., Frank, Louisa J, Anna M., Lizzie S., James B. and Elsie Nellie. Mr. Walter, who is a Republican in politics, is a member of the G. A. R. He enlisted for service in the late war, in September, 1862, was wounded in the right hand at Ringgold, Ga., and was discharged at Nashville, Tenn., in June, 1865.