Minnie Elizabeth Koepke, GW #91

Minnie was born 15 March 1889 in Ohio to immigrants from Germany John Koepke and his second wife Christina Bauer.  Minnie was a bit restless in life as will be explained.  In 1907, at the age of 18, she united with the Cleveland Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers).  It appears her parents were not Quakers.  In the 1910 census she is found in Pittsburgh, working as a helper for the Salvation Army.  In the 1920 census she is in Altoona, Pa with three other Gospel Workers:  Rosa Rote, Lillian Sipe, and Lillian Follmer.  She joined the Gospel Worker Society by 1917; she is listed in the Altoona city directory with the same address as the 1920 census.  In the 1924 Cleveland City directory she is listed as a missionary with the Gospel Worker Society residing at one of the addresses used by the GWS.  Her whereabouts in 1930 remain undiscovered.  However, she appears in the group photo of the Missionary Workers, the group led by former Gospel Worker Annie Spellman.  The photo looks to be taken in the late 1920s, or early 1930s.  By 1940 Minnie is living in Chicago, as a proprietor of a rooming house, with three boarders.  That enterprise did not last long; Minnie died in 1943.  She is buried in the Brooklyn Heights cemetery in the Acacia section which is where some of the Gospel Workers are buried, though she is not with them.  Her mother is buried in that cemetery also.