Charles Augustus (Von Vommelsdorf) Walter was born in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. In the 1860s, he established a brewery in San Francisco, California. He continued in the business there until October of 1868, when the brewery was destroyed in an earthquake. Financially ruined, he enrolled in the army and was sent to Fort Independence as a part of a peace-keeping force with the Paiute Indians. In 1872 he established the Star Brewery in the camp. Walter retired from brewing in 1884 and died on the 16th of April, 1907.