The Sad Tale of Walter Engell

I haven't posted anything on this blog in quite some time, but that is going to change soon. Today, I am going to share with you the story of Walter Engell. Now, this story isn't going to be a very long story but it is still a story worth sharing with you. First and foremost, I want to give a big thanks to Megan at the Ione Public Cemetery in Ione for her help with this one. 

According to Megan, they had a record at the cemetery of Walter Engell's death, but that he wasn't actually buried there. He was listed as a ward at the Preston School of Industry who sadly passed away at the school due to pneumonia. Megan reached out to me regarding this story and I went searching for that name in my records. Sure enough, I had a record of an Engell in my ward's list, but it was the wrong Engall.

So I started researching and uncovered Walter's story, a story that hasn't been told in one hundred years!

Walter was born in 1903 to Raymond G. Engell and Gussie Adams.  Walter's father was a German immigrant while his mother was born in New York to German immigrants. In 1910, the family was living at 324 W. Sepulveda Street in San Pedro, California. Walter's father was bar tender, which doesn't surprise me given the incident that led up to Walter ending up in Preston, but we will get to that shortly.

The family lived at the home with 7 year old Walter, his parents and his two siblings, Raymond Jr., and Gladys.  By 1920, the census shows the family residing at 1159 W 52nd Street, and by this time Raymond is going by his middle name Gerhard and is listed as a proprietor of a restaurant. The family has grown since then, as they now have a younger daughter, Alice, who is 8 years old at this point. Walter is listed as 16. 

By April 14, 1921, in the middle of prohibition the Los Angeles Herald publishes an account of a "Purity Brigade" arresting 10 people in a "kicky cider search." Among those arrested were Walter, only 17 by now, and his father, Gerhard Engell. 

Sadly, this is the event that would send underage Walter up to the Preston School of Industry, where he would eventually get sick and develop pneumonia which would end his life. The fact that his father had a role in what led to not only his son being arrested and going into the "system," but also his own death is something inconceivable to a normal parent. 

His body was removed from Preston, to C.W. Swain  coroner and undertaker in Ione, who made arrangements to send Walter's remains to San Pedro, where they would end up at the receiving vault at the Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. His body sat in the receiving vault until he was cremated on July 7, 1924. It appears he remained in permanent storage in their "vault" until January 31, 1952 when his funeral card states "IWR" which I can only think meant "interred with relatives." 

Sadly, because he was cremated and he was later removed from the cemetery, there are no further records showing where he is located, and I haven't been able to locate where his parents are buried as of yet either. So for now, Walter Engell's final whereabouts remain a mystery.

I can only wonder what happened to Walter at Preston to cause his untimely death? Did he just catch a cold that developed into pneumonia, or was he exposed to such bad conditions at Preston that caused his illness to get worse to the point he died? I only think about this based on the fact that during the 1920s, the school was developing the reputation "The Preston School of Scandal," and Leon Adams wrote an expose' on the school and how the boys were living in pretty bad conditions at the time. Could Walter's life have been saved had he been allowed proper medical care, and better living conditions? Or was it simply just natural causes that couldn't have been changed either way? We will never know for sure.

To read more about Leon Adams' investigation into the school, please pick up a copy of "Behind The Walls" today!

J'aime Rubio - Copyright 2024 - www.jaimerubiowriter.com