Person:Peter Donkle (1)

Birth place may be Longswamp, Berks, PA per Ancestry tree.

The story below about the name-change is by Lucius Donkle Jr. and is stated as the family legend. Better genealogy has found his parents to be Danckel not Dunkel. The story below makes sense if you substitute "Danckel" for "Dunkel". FamilySearch.org shows Peter as the first of 11 children of George Danckel (9 December 1769 – 3 April 1848, LJRH-YM7) but the only child with the last name of Donkle. All other children are listed as Danckel's. If correct, the story of Peter choosing to change his name as the story describes makes sense, pending better evidence.

Another family legend is that everyone in the USA with spelling Donkle is related due to the unique source of that spelling. In support of that claim the spelling "Donkle" does NOT appear in the US Census for 1800 or 1810 but first appears in the United States Census of 1820 as Peter "Donkle" in Dauphin, Pennsylvania. (The above comments are entered by Lucius Donkle III).

From Lucius Donkle Jr: In Pennsylvania Peter Donkle changed the family name from "Dunkel" (Dark in German) to "Donkle". There was another "Dunkel" in town who used foul language, drank excessively, and was suspected of murder. Occasionally , he got his mail mixed up with Peter's. Peter, a very pious man, wanted to disassociate himself as completely as possible from this evil Dunkel. So, he changed his name. On Peter's tomb stone in the cemetery in Verona, WI, it is spelled "Donkel". Peter's daughter-in-law, Martha Jane White Donkle, spoke often of the tombstone cutter's mistake and planned to have it corrected, but never got around to it. The tombstones of his sons, Edward, Henry, and William, are all spelled Donkle.

Peter and his wife, Lydia, originally came from Wilkes-Bare, PA., according to family recollection. However, the "History of Verona" , published as a centennial souvenir, says they came from Mercer County, PA. But, there is no record of their having been there.

The family came to Verona in a covered wagon in about 1835. At night they camped and let the boys run about to use up energy, a relief after their being cramped in the wagon all day. After a few weeks, they arrived in Verona where they built a one room log cabin, homesteaded land on Badger Prairie, and started a new life. Their son Henry Donkle was only a baby at the time. in addition to their three sons, they had five daughters.

Note: In June 2001, Lucius B. Donkle Jr. visited the Luzerne County Historical Society in Wilkes-Bare to see if any "Dunkel" birth or marriage records could be found. A quick scan of microfilms for the 1830 census covering Wilkes-Bare and the counties near it did not show any 'Dunkel's" or "Donkle's". However, the 1800 Pennsylvania Census did show several "Dunkle's" and "Wendling's" in the counties near Lancaster, PA. Lydia Wendling was Peter Donkle's wife. So, it is possible, with a misspelling of "Dunkel", that this is the area where they met and married.

The Pennsylvania Census from 1800 to 1840 showed the following:

    1800 -   0    Dunkel    12 - Dunkle
    1810 -   2    Dunkel    22 - Dunkle
    1820 -   0    Dunkel    27 - Dunkle  
    1830 -  10    Dunkel    35 - Dunkle
    1840 -   8    Dunkel    47 - Dunkle

The book " Pennsylvania German Immigrants 1709-1786" ( Published by Genealogical Publishing Co. ) says 122 Germanic families emigrated in the period 1734-1752 from the Swiss Canton of Schaffhausen from Northcentral Switzerland, at the Falls of the Rhine. Included were:

    Dunkel, Hans - village of Merishausen (1748) - To Pennsylvania with wife and two sons.
    Dunkel, Melchoior - Village of Merishausen (1742) - To Pennsylvania with wife and children.
    Dunkel, Barbara - Village of Merishausen (1742) - To Pennsylvania

"in many cases names which do not appear in the emigrant lists turn up in the registers of the Reformed Churches of Eastern Pennsylvania, as for instance the Bingolf, Demuth and DUNKEL families, which appear in the records of the First Reformed Church, Lancaster, PA."

Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, nothing conclusive can be said as to where the Donkle's actually came from. But, speculation can easily lead to Switzerland and the area around Lancaster, PA.