Walter Gaulke  

Birth:  

Family Information:  

Description:  

Pre-Colony History: Came to the colony in July 1933 from Milwaukee where he'd been president of the Esperanto Club. He came in an International truck with a friend, Frank Mueller, also of Milwaukee.

Six months after his arrival, he reminisced about his nervousness that first night when Ralph Field, the Industrial Manager, came up and asked the newcomers what kind of work they could do.  

Home in Colony:  

Job in Colony: For a while he worked on the sawmill deck and at the boilers, working barefoot and without a shirt in the sun all day, drenched with sweat; in January 1934 he remembered the hard work and the heat, but also the delightful showers at 11:30 and 5 every day.

In February 1934 he was a member of the Sunday Volunteer Gang including: Bill Heath, Charles Brown, Rob Roe, Walter Gaulke, Dad Thomas, Ernest Prodon, Bert Busick, Roscoe Busick, Gossett, Jack Carnahan, Ed Hiatt John Calgarry, Tom Cunningham, Phillips, Real Baril, Nick Lentz, Ed Mansfield, Septer Baldwin, F.W. Fay and F.S. Hammond. They spent the day cutting some eight hundred feet of cypress lumber into two-inch planks, twenty inches wide and as clear as a hound's tooth to be used for shingles.

Later he wrote for the colony diary in the "Llano Colonist".  

Other Info: Though he did occasionally miss the city life, he found much beauty in the colony life. Like discovering a magnolia, holly or some palmettos growing along a creek. And the people-- one Sunday he and three friends walked out to Archer's place. Archer played Beethoven's "Pathetique" for them and told them he had "seen a yellow jasmine vine in bloom on a tree. It had a sweet odor." Another day in the dining room one of the older fellows sat down beside him and conversation turned to another colonist who was getting married soon. The older fellow said, "I heard he has no suit. I have one," and he watched the older man as he immediately went over to offer the use of his suit.  

Post-Colony History:  

Death:  

Sources: "Llano Colonist": July 29, 1933, January 27, 1934, February 3, 1934