![\"Walter](\"https:\/\/jessicagreen.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/02739.jpg\")
<\/a>Walter was the eighth in a line of eleven children.\u00c2\u00a0 His siblings were: Martin, Ida, Nicck, Jennie, Vera, Mary C., Francis S., Paul A., Andrew S., and Casmer.<\/p>\nNot much is known about Walter’s early life.\u00c2\u00a0 His family has been found in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 US Census images for Michigan.\u00c2\u00a0 He registered in the mandatory draft for World War I at age 18, but we do not think he served during the war.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometime between 1910 and 1918, they moved from Otsego County to Saginaw City in Saginaw County, Michigan. To many neighbors and his children, Walter was known as a very strict man.\u00c2\u00a0 He did not like his children playing around a lot or yelling loudly.\u00c2\u00a0 He was known to carry his youngest twins on his shoulders around the block and make up stories for them to hear.\u00c2\u00a0 On more than one occasion he was known to retrieve his cat-o-nine tails to spank the older children when they misbehaved.\u00c2\u00a0 He was a grinder by occupation, according to his death certificate.<\/p>\n
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\n<\/a>He met his only known wife, Mary Stroik, around 1924 when she arrived in central Michigan.\u00c2\u00a0 They were friends for many years before finally marrying on November 3, 1951.\u00c2\u00a0 The couple already had six children before their wedding, and had twins Danny and Diane on the way (seen here in their wedding photo).\u00c2\u00a0 Walter left Mary in 1956 and moved to Bay City, Michigan.
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\nWalter’s brother Francis S. Dreffs had a son, Edward Dreffs, who married Rose Mary Karpuk in 1945, his future wife Mary’s daughter from her second marriage to Andrew Karpuk.\u00c2\u00a0 Technically speaking, Walter actually married his nephew’s mother-in-law, known at that time as Mary Karpuk.<\/p>\n