Emil Mielke

Lifespan: April 29, 1881 – April 20, 1970

Born April 29, 1881 in the town of Sturgeon Bay to Fred Meikle and Mary (Johnsen) Meikle (parents per FindAGrave, now corroborated by Emil’s own 1970 obituary: “Born Apr. 29, 1881 in Sturgeon Bay town to Fred and Mary Meikle”). Farmer; lifelong member of Shiloh Moravian church. Father of Hazel P. Mielke (1902–1987). Married Margaret Pfister (1876–1962, b. Fish Creek, Door Co, WI) on October 16, 1902 — the marriage record renders her surname “Pfisterer” (WHS index MR2175482: “Pfister, Magart,” Oct 16, 1902, Door, Vol 2, p. 243, seq 04639). Divorced from Margaret before 1930 (per 1930 census), then married Tillie H. Karnopp (1883–1967) in 1929 (per 1970 obituary). Siblings: Ernest (Green Bay, 1970), Oscar (Chicago, 1970), Iva (Mrs. Linquist) (California, 1970). Died April 20, 1970 at home, 454 N. 7th Ave., Sturgeon Bay, after six months’ illness, age 88. Buried at Bayside Cemetery, Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin.

Ethnicity RESOLVED (2026-07-15): the paternal line is Scottish — Meikle, not Mielke. See Research Notes.

Relationships

• Parents: Fred Meikle & Mary (Johnsen) Meikle — per FindAGrave, corroborated by Emil’s 1970 obituary. Stop rule lifted 2026-07-15; Fred now has his own file: see Mielke/fred-meikle.md.
• Siblings (per Emil’s 1970 obituary): Ernest Meikle (Green Bay, 1970), Oscar Meikle (Chicago, 1970), Mrs. Iva Linquist (California, 1970). A WHS index birth “Unnamed Female Meikle, Aug 30, 1890, Door County” is a candidate for Iva.
• First wife: Margaret Pfister (Aug 16, 1876–Feb 17, 1962) — born Fish Creek, Door Co, WI. Hazel’s mother. Married October 16, 1902 (marriage record reportedly spelled her surname “Pfisterer” — older German form). Divorced before 1930 (per 1930 census). Margaret kept the Mielke surname and lived until 1962.
• Second wife: Tillie H. Karnopp (1883–Sep 19, 1967) — married after Emil’s divorce from Margaret (exact date unknown; previously assumed post-1962 widowhood, now known to be post-divorce). Also buried at Bayside Cemetery.
• Children:
  • Charles Mielke — Milwaukee, WI (1962). Stepson per Emil’s 1970 obituary (“one stepson, Charles Meikle, Milwaukee”) but counted among Margaret’s five children in her 1962 obituary — most consistent reading: Margaret’s premarital son whom Emil raised under the Meikle name.
  • Hazel P. Mielke (Jul 12, 1902–Apr 8, 1987) — direct line. m. Gerald Martin Sr., then Clarence Lau
  • Earl Mielke — Sturgeon Bay, WI (1987)
  • Mrs. Harold (Mildred) Gritzmacher — Milwaukee/New Berlin, WI
  • Pearl (m. Kline/Klien; “Pearl LaHaye, Desert Hot Springs, Calif.” in Emil’s 1970 obituary — remarried) — Milwaukee, WI (1962) / California (1970, 1987)

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #126311941, Bayside Cemetery, Sturgeon Bay — birth/death dates; parents listed as Fred and Mary (Johnsen) Meikle. Bio: “Married Margaret Pfisterer October 16, 1902. Per 1930 census, they are divorced.” (Note: FG bio lists Charles among children and Pearl as “Kline” — both corrected by the 1970 obituary.)
• Obituary, Door County Advocate, April 21, 1970, p. 12 — found 2026-07-15 in the Door County Library newspaper archive (archive.co.door.wi.us, free, 1862–1979); text reconstructed from OCR. Full transcription below.
• Hazel P. Lau obituary (1987) — names parents as “the late Emil and Margaret Miekle”, names siblings Earl, Mildred, Pearl.
• Marriage index entry (CONFIRMED): WHS pre-1907 index MR2175482 — “Pfister, Magart,” October 16, 1902, Door County, Vol 2, p. 243, seq 04639. Indexed under the bride only; no groom-side Meikle entry (single-party indexing gap). Original record would name both parties’ parents.
• 1930 US Census: Emil and Margaret listed as divorced — supersedes earlier assumption that they remained married until Margaret’s 1962 death.
• WHS pre-1907 index, confirmed absences: no Emil birth registration 1881 under any spelling (rural compliance was poor); zero Mielke-spelled records in Door County at all.

Obituary (Door County Advocate, Apr 21, 1970 — reconstructed from OCR)

“Emil Meikle, 88, 454 N. 7th av., Sturgeon Bay, died at his home Monday morning. He had been ill for six months. Born Apr. 29, 1881 in Sturgeon Bay town to Fred and Mary Meikle, he lived in Sturgeon Bay all his life. He was a farmer… and a member of Shiloh Moravian church. In 1902 he married Margaret Pfister. His second wife, Tillie Karnopp, whom he married [in 1929], died in October of 1967. Surviving are a son, Earl Meikle, Sturgeon Bay; three daughters, Mrs. Clarence (Hazel) Lau, Green Bay, Mrs. Harold (Mildred) Gritzmacher, Milwaukee, and Pearl LaHaye, Desert Hot Springs, Calif.; one stepson, Charles Meikle, Milwaukee; 14 grandchildren; two brothers, Ernest, Green Bay, and Oscar, Chicago; one sister, Mrs. Iva Linquist, California… burial will be in Bayside cemetery.” [Bracketed text and ellipses reflect OCR gaps/column breaks — verify against the page image before quoting elsewhere.]

Research Notes

• Surname variants: Mielke (German), Meikle (Find A Grave + parents’ surname), Miekle (Hazel’s obituary).
• Ethnicity ambiguity — RESOLVED 2026-07-15: Scottish. The 2026-06-10 hypothesis was right. See “Research target — RESOLVED” section below for the full evidence chain (William Meikle b. 1813 Glasgow, the Bayside cluster, and the confirming negatives).
• Buried at Bayside Cemetery — same cemetery as daughter Hazel and son-in-law Clarence Lau.
• Lived to 88 — died 9 days before his 89th birthday.
• Sturgeon Bay, Door County is the family’s base — Emil, Hazel, and Earl all associated with Sturgeon Bay.
• Hazel’s pre-marital birth: Hazel was born July 12, 1902 — three months before her parents’ October 16, 1902 marriage. Three plausible readings: (a) Hazel was born to Margaret out of wedlock and Emil & Margaret legitimized the relationship that fall; (b) one of the two dates is off in the records; (c) Hazel was Emil’s child by an earlier relationship that Margaret then raised. Catholic Door County would make (a) common-but-quietly-handled. Worth a single targeted check of Hazel’s actual birth/baptism record if it ever falls into your lap, but per stop rule, don’t go hunting.
• Divorce as story shift: the previous record framed Emil as “widowed by Margaret in 1962, then remarried Tillie” — a tidy late-life remarriage. The actual story is messier: married Oct 1902, divorced before 1930 (so by their late 40s), then both remarried separately. Margaret kept the Mielke name. All three (Emil, Margaret, Tillie) are buried in the same Bayside Cemetery in Sturgeon Bay despite the divorce — small-town Door County reality.
• Ruled-out candidate (do not re-investigate): Fredrick D. Mielke (1877–1959), son of Johann Mielke + Wilhelmine Mielke (born Germany), surfaced as a possible sibling because his sibling list includes “Emil Mielke.” Not our Emil — different parents (Fred Meikle + Mary Johnsen, not Johann + Wilhelmine), different surname-spelling pattern (consistently Mielke, not the Meikle/Miekle drift), different children’s names. Mielke is one of the most common German surnames; multiple unrelated Emil Mielkes existed in late-1800s Wisconsin. Logged here so this candidate doesn’t get re-chased in future sessions.
• Stop-rule status: REOPENED by Foggy 2026-07-15, then largely closed by findings. Birthplace resolved (Sturgeon Bay town, per 1970 obituary); parents corroborated; siblings found; paternal ethnicity resolved Scottish. Remaining open items live in fred-meikle.md (Fred’s parentage proof + Mary Johnsen’s origin).

Research target — Mielke (German) vs. Meikle (Scottish) ethnicity — RESOLVED SCOTTISH [2026-07-15]

Answer: the paternal surname line is Scottish. Stop rule lifted by Foggy 2026-07-15; deep-dive session (WHS index + Door County Library newspaper archive + FindAGrave) resolved it:

• The Sturgeon Bay Meikle patriarch is William Meikle, b. Feb 6, 1813 near Glasgow, Scotland; emigrated 1848 with his family to New York state, then Ontario, Canada; died May 1, 1893 in Sturgeon Bay at son Alex’s home, nine days after arriving from Chesley, Ontario. Obituary: The Democrat, May 4, 1893, p. 1 (“OBITUARY MENTION — Wm. Meikle Died Only a Few Days After His Arrival In This City”). Buried Bayside, Ward B (FindAGrave #130602798).
• William’s documented sons (all Bayside): Alexander (b. Nov 18, 1839 Scotland, d. Apr 5, 1914 — timber expert, Gardner justice of the peace, Sturgeon Bay alderman; FG #203230000; obit Door County Democrat Apr 10, 1914, p. 1; longer obit clipped in Wisconsin Necrology Vol. 14, pp. 42–43 at WHS); James (b. 1841 Scotland, d. 1917 — Civil War veteran; m. Adelaide PINNEY, d. Apr 30/May 1, 1882, leaving four children — she was the Genealogy Trails obituary lead, now identified; FG #130602683/#130602618; obit Door County Democrat Jun 22, 1917, p. 1); John (1845–1931, FG #130602609).
• Fred’s place in this family is probable but UNPROVEN — FindAGrave links only Alexander, James, and John as William’s children. Fred (Emil’s father) is the same surname, same town, same cemetery cluster, right generation — but no record yet names his parents. See fred-meikle.md for the proof path (the Oct 1902 marriage record and 1900 census are the two one-shot answers).
• Confirming negatives: zero Mielke-spelled records in Door County in the WHS pre-1907 index (432 statewide, none Door); zero “Emil Mielke” hits in 117 years of Door County newspapers. The archive’s “Mielke” standardization is backwards — the family spelling is Meikle; “Mielke” is the drift, from German-dominated Green Bay/record contexts (Hazel’s 1987 obit “Miekle” etc.).
• Still open — the maternal half: Mary Johnsen (Scandinavian form) + Emil’s lifelong membership in Shiloh/Sturgeon Bay Moravian church (a historically Norwegian congregation there) still points to a Norwegian mother. Unproven; the 1902 marriage record or 1900 census would state her birthplace.
• Downstream effect: Helen Martin’s maternal-grandfather side is Scottish, not German. Consider whether ethnicity-breakdown.md / heritage-analytics.md need updating once Fred→William is proven.
• Archive naming decision pending: whether to rename mielke files/tag (#mielke) to Meikle. Held for a deliberate pass — folder/tag renames touch the validator, indexes, and cross-references.