Obit: Walk, Rudolph H. (1875 - 1951)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Walk, Lipke, Keller, Urlaub, Gangler, Luethe, Hein, Either

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) September 28, 2011

Walk, Rudolph H. (6 October 1875 - 6 September 1951)

This obit was published in the Good Old Days columns of The Clark County Press 2011 - News of 1951

Rudolph H. Walk, 75, one of the last members of the pioneer Walk family of Clark County, died at his home in Lewiston, Ed. (Id.) on Thursday, September 6.

Mr. Walk was born in Jefferson County October 6, 1875. When he was 12, his father, Carl Walk, Sr., move the family to Neillsville where they settled on a farm, three miles southeast of the city.  The farm was later sold to Frank Keller, father of the Keller brothers, and is now being farmed by Joe Urlaub.

Mr. Walk attended the Neillsville Public Schools and at 16 began clerking.  He worked in the Sol. F. Jaseph store, which was located near the present Nick Gangler on the North Side. He later clerked for John Hein and for the B. E. Luethe Company. The John Hein store was located where the transformers now are. The B. E. Luethe company, occupied the corner of Seventh and Hewett Streets, where Harry’s Standard Service Station is now located, it was then called the Dangers Corner.

In 1896 Mr. Walk joined the firm of Either and Walk in Milwaukee.  In 1902, however, he returned to Neillsville and joined his brothers in the Walk Brothers general store. The four Walk sons, Carl, Paul, Rudolph and Hans, the sold surviving brother, ran the store on the corner of Fifth and Hewett.  The building was sold in 1908 and the First National Bank building now occupies the site.

In 1905 Rudolph and Carl opened a store in Abbotsford but later they sold it and moved to Ray (Bay) City, Mich. After two and a half years, Mr. Walk started selling for the Charles A. Stevens Company of Chicago.  His territory included Montana, Idaho and Washington.  Following his marriage in 1910 to Miss Anna Lipke of Bay City, Mich., he made his home in Lewiston, Id.

His wife and five children, Robert, Francis, Howard, Irene, and grandchildren, and one brother J. L. "Hans" Walk of Neillsville survive him. Two brothers Carl and Paul preceded him in death.