Santa Clara County
Biographies
CHARLES HENRY WALTER, M. D.
CHARLES HENRY WALTER,
M. D. Prominent among the foremost
physicians and surgeons of Santa Clara county is Charles Henry
Walter, M. D., a man of marked ability and intelligence. He is
actively identified with the best interests of San Jose, and as a member of its
Board of School Trustees has done much to advance its educational standard and
growth. A son of George William Walter, he was born near Belair,
Harford county, Md., February 3, 1867, of German ancestry. His
paternal grandfather, William Walter, spent his entire life of eighty-four
years in Germany.
A native of Germany,
George William Walter was born in Hesse-Darmstadt,
where he learned the trade of a furniture manufacturer and interior designer.
Coming to this country when a young man, he followed his trade for a time, and
then settled near Belair, Md., where he engaged in
agricultural pursuits until his death, at the age of three score and ten years.
He was a successful farmer and businessman. He was a man of upright character,
greatly respected by all, and was a consistent member of the Methodist Church.
He married Catherine Goodman, who was born in Carlsruhe,
Germany. Left an orphan when young, she came to America, married, and resided
in Maryland until her death, at the age of seventy years. She bore her husband
three sons and one daughter, Charles Henry, the subject of this sketch, being
the youngest child.
Charles Henry Walter
was reared on the home farm and attended the district schools. He is to a great
extent self-educated and has always been a careful student and close observer.
He was employed for six or seven years in the furniture business, first in
Baltimore and then in Wilmington, Del., in the latter place having charge of
the upholstery department of a large store. In 1890, under
Dr. Harmer Rile, he began to read medicine, and in 1891 entered the
Hahnemann Medical College, in Philadelphia, and in 1894 was graduated with the
degree of M. D., having in the meantime taken special courses in operative
surgery and obstetrics. The day after his marriage he started with his bride
for California. Settling first in Salinas, Dr. Walter was there engaged in
the practice of his profession for two and one-half years. Removing to San Jose
in September, 1896, he has here built up a large and remunerative general
practice, his natural talents and industry placing him among the most
successful physicians and surgeons of the city. The doctor is a man of great
enterprise and business ability, and is financially interested in mining
operations, being vice-president of the Big Butte Gold Mining Company. In 1902,
by Mayor Warswick, Dr. Walter was appointed
a member of the Board of Education, and has served in different capacities,
including that of chairman of the classification, financial, and library and
printing committees. The board of which he is a member has done notable work in
the past two years, having raised the standard of the schools, paid off an
indebtedness of $6,000, lessened the school appropriations, increased the
teachers’ salaries to the amount of $11,000, and placed $6,000 in the city
treasury.
In Wilmington, Del.,
April 26, 1894, Dr. Walter married Miss E. V. Scott, a native of
Baltimore, Md. In politics, the doctor is independent of party restrictions,
voting for the best men and measures. He is a member, and past noble grand, of
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and belongs also to the Encampment and to
the National Union. He is examiner for the Bankers’ Life Insurance Company, and
is a member of the California State Homeopathic Medical Society. He is an
active member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of San Jose, and is one
of its Board of Stewards.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
05 January 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 321-322.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie Hassard.