Will County IL Archives Biographies.....ERIKSEN, WALTER 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Paula Winke-Martisek wranglerjack@comcast.net September 11, 2007, 5:56 pm

Author: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

WALTER L. ERIKSEN, a successful sanitary engineer, has made Joliet his home 

since 1886.  A member of an old Danish family, he was born in Copenhagen, 

Denmark, February 17, 1869, a son of Hans P. and Maria(Nilsen) Eriksen, and a 

grandson of Erik Eriksen, a cabinet-maker and furniture dealer now

residing in Greenville, Montcalm County, Mich. His father, who was also a 

cabinet-maker, brought the family to America in the fall of 1870 and settled in 

Sheffield, Ill, where he engaged in contracting and building for a time. Later 

he built a carriage shop and turned his attention to the manufacture of 

carriages and wagons, continuing in that business until he died in 1879.  His 

wife, who still lives at Sheffield, is a lineal descendant, on her mother's 

side, of French ancestry, her grandfather, Francis Francie, a member of a 

wealthy family, having migrated from France to Denmark.  The older of two sons, 

of whom the younger, Alexander, died in 1879 at eight years of age, W. L. 

Eriksen was reared in Sheffield, where he studied in the public school.  Since 

fourteen years of age he has been self-supporting.  He served an apprenticeship 

to the tinner's trade in his home town, remaining under an employer in 

Sheffield for three years.  In 1886 he came to Joliet, where at first he worked 

at the tinner's trade for Strong, Bush & Handwerk.  In 1888 he was made foreman 

in charge of the department of plumbing, gas-fitting and heating. His work was 

satisfactory, and he proved himself an efficient and reliable man.  While 

filling the position of foreman he entered upon the study of sanitary 

engineering in the International Correspondence School of Scranton, Pa., from 

which, after four years, he received the degree of S.E. in 1898.  Meantime he 

had resigned his position in order to start in business for himself. He has 

since taken a partner, enlarged the business, and is now located at No.800 

Jefferson street, where he has built up an excellent trade in his chosen line 

of sanitary engineer.  Fraternally Mr. Eriksen is connected with the Modern 

Woodmen of America, in politics votes with the Republican party, and in 

religion holds membership with the Richards Street Methodist Episcopal Church. 

He was married, in Joliet, to Miss Emma McDade, who was born and reared in this 

city, her father, Chauncey McDade, having been an early settler here. She is of 

Scotch descent on the paternal side, while through her

mother she traces her lineage to France.

Additional comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900


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