The German founders were a thrifty, industrious bunch

Those who rode the 19th century trail from Charleston to what became Walhalla, in the estimation of a local history buff, were a thrifty and industrious group of people who succeeded in founding a new town far from heavier populated areas.  Lowell Ross, who grew up in the Walhalla area, today remembers the German Colonization Society of 1848.  If it weren’t for them, there would be no Walhalla as we know it and no reason to celebrate the town’s founding each year with the German-rooted Oktoberfest.  Some of the Germans who formed Walhalla had names—some of which are still familiar in 21st century Walhalla.   Names such as Brandt, Brucke, Biemann, Ivester, and Schroder.