WI BIO - Manitowoc Co - ROEPKE, Deidrich Johann

History of Northern Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical, 1881, vol II, p 
542

D. ROEPKE, firm of D. Roepke & Brothers, Silver Creek Mills [Sherman 
Township, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, Section 34, P. O. Manitowoc [Manitowoc 
County, Wisconsin], was born 23 March 1853 in Germany. His father was a 
miller. D. ROEPKE was brought up to that business, and has always been 
engaged in it. Mr. ROEPKE's present mill, built of stone and brick, was 
erected in 1880, costing about $8,000. They [D. Roepke & Brothers] also have 
a saw mill attached to it, which has a capacity of 10,000 feet a day.

[On 28] June 1879 he [Diedrich ROEPKE] married Miss Annie [Anna] WERNECKE, of 
Newton Township [Manitowoc County, Wisconsin [a daughter of Carl and 
Wilhelmina (STEINFORD) WERNECKE. See also the Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, 
biography of Carl, Herman, & Otto WERNECKE, from which the rest of this 
paragraph was extracted.] Carl and Wilhelmina (STEINFORD) WERNECKE had 
ten children: (1) William, a business man of Manitowoc who died in 1901; 
(2) Carl, who is living on the old [WERNECKE] homestead; (3) Fredericka, 
who died in infancy; (4) Bertha, who also died when an infant; (5) Annie 
[Anna], who married D. ROEPKE and resides in Milwaukee [at the time the 
biography was written]; (6) Wilhelmina, who married H. ROEPKE, a farmer of 
Manitowoc County; (7) Henry, born 15 October 1862 in Manitowoc County, 
Wisconsin, who is in business in Manitowoc; (8) Mary, deceased; (9) 
Frederick, deceased; and (10) Margaret, who married Carl HOEFNER, a business 
man of Manitowoc. The mother of these had come to the United States in 1849 
with two sisters. Wilhelmina (STENFORD) WERNECKE died in 1872. The father, 
Carl WERNECKE, who died in 1886, was the son of Andrew WERNEKCE, who was born 
in Germany, and brought his family to the United States in 1848, settling on 
wild land in Newton Township, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, and farmed there 
until his death.]

They [Diedrich and Anna (WERNECKE) ROEPKE] have one son [named Karl Johann, 
born in 1880. After the biography was published at least two more children 
were born: Maria, in 1881; and Lillie, in 1883. All were born in Newburg, 
on an 1878 map of Manitowoc County spelled "Newburgh," Newton Township, 
Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. WERNECKE is sometimes spelled "WERNEKE."] 

Submitted by Cathy Kubly