Johannes Walther (John Walter) was born in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg. He was the son of a shoe-maker, and it is perhaps his father's profession that instilled in John the same wanderlust to which he and his brothers so obviously fell heir.

At age 14 John began his training in the beer-making business in Stuttgart. When he reached his majority in 1873 he and his brother George became the first of the five Walter Brothers to emigrate to America. They settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he both John and George jobbed in various breweries. John worked in succession at the Ph. Best/Fred. Pabst Brewery, the Fred. Miller brewery and finally the Jos. Schlitz brewery. After a year of this John left George and moved 100 miles west to Portage, Wisconsin. Here he met and married Miss Magdalena Lencher.

Although Mr. Walter had been domesticated he did not yet settle down. By 1880 John became employed at the Island City Brewery in Menasha. Magdalena, John and all of the brewery boys were boarded in the brewhouse.

A year later the Walter Family was off again to Spencer, Wisconsin where John purchased John Eichert's share in the town brewery, in doing became partner in the firm with Friedrich Kuethe. In 1883 Walter bought out Kuethe's share and thus, John Walter had established the first of many Walter family breweries in America.

However, this Walter Brewery would turn out to be shortest-lived, as it burned to the ground just six years later in February of 1889. In around 1879 both John's father Jacob and John's younger sister, Christine joined John and his wife in Spencer. Christine married John Eichert some time around 1880, after which the two families combined resources. Magdalena had relatives in the town of Eau Claire, Wisconsin and it was decided that the family's next move would be there. Eau Claire means "Clear Water" in French so it was a natural location for a brewing family.

In January of 1890 the Walters and the Eicherts paid $8000 for Henry Huebner's Dells Brewery and renamed it John Walter & Co., City Brewery. Walter brought in another brother-in-law Jacob Doerrer to help manage the firm. They went at once to remodeling and expanding the facility, and despite a bad fire in 1892, the investment and hard work soon paid off.

The brewery became profitable and thrived until National Prohibition shut it down in 1920. John Walter died on May 8th of 1932 at the age of 78 years. Had he lived another sixteen months he would have seen beer kegs once again roll through his brewery door. As it was the Walter Brewing company reopened on December 5th 1933 and was once again beloved in central Wisconsin. The brewery finally closed in 1988.

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Associated Breweries