Walter Petelle and Marie Hansen.

Walter was born in Ashland, Wisconsin in June 1890. He was the middle child, situated between his sisters Mabel and Stella. According to family lore he was baptized twice out of respect for each of his Catholic and Methodist parent's religions. His tattered baptism certificate from the First Methodist Church in Ashland was dated August 2, 1893.

Walter's father worked in the railway shop with its tracks leading out to the massive ore docks jutting out into Chequamegon Bay off Lake Superior. They lived next to his aunt Hermine Gervais, close to the Bad River Reservation.

Early in the Twentieth Century, when he was about 5 years old they moved to Milwaukee where the Wolfe's, his maternal grandparents, had their home. The family was separated for a time as his father sought work in Chicago and his mother lived with her parents while working in the house of another family. This lasted until about 1908 when they relocated to the Windy City.

Chicago.

Their home was at 427 Rhine (Chicago streets were renumbered in 1910, when the address became 2718 Rhine; later, after the wars, anti-German sentiment led to a street name change to Belden). This was next door to his Aunt Matilda Odenbrett and Grandmother Edesse Petelle Myer. A map of the neighborhood the family lived in may be found here: [click to view map].

Along with his father Joseph, Walter relished sports, and as captain, led his Woodmen of the World (WOW) baseball team to win the championships in 1910 and 1911. Amateur leagues such as the WOW team were quite popular and drew in many fans. He followed pro ball as well but though his beloved Cubs finished first in the National League in 1910 they were defeated in the World Series. Undaunted, his love of baseball was to last a lifetime.

At about eighteen years of age (by 1909), the young man went to work at the Chicago Board of Trade as a settler to close deals made by traders at the exchange. Though in the 1940 census he reported that he had only seven years of schooling, a later listing in Who's Who claims he was a student in a business college between 1912-15. This time frame covers the first few years of his marriage.

Marriage to Marie Hansen.

Walter, 22, married Marie Hansen, 20, in Nazareth German Evangelical Church on Tallman Avenue in Chicago on 26 October 1912. The Reverend August Glade performed the ceremony and their witnesses were his friend Welser Weaver and his older sister Mabel Petelle. (They would wed in the same church in two years time.)

The couple moved in with Marie's parents and her siblings Mike, Sadie and Tony at 2301 Monticello Avenue. It was unclear as to whether he "got the girl first" or the job for her father Sam Hansen ran a beer bottling company and Walter participated in the family business. He told his sons that she could drive the two horse team pulling the beer truck as well as any man. The beer was purchased from breweries who sold it to be bottled and distributed by independent companies.

Starting a Family.

Most births occurred in the home with a midwife in attendance early in the 20th Century. The practice of confining pregnant women had begun to wane and maternity clothes were offered as women were free to show themselves in the later months of their pregnancy.

Marie and Walter's first child, Dorothy Louise, was born September 5, 1914. It was crushing to the young couple when they had to bury her four months later after she died of pneumonia.

Four more children were born over the years, all boys. Wally made his appearance in 1915.