Guide to the Peter Menkel Papers

Peter Menkel was born probably in 1851 in New York of German immigrant parents and was one of several children. He apparently started working for the mission stations in West Africa in 1873 as a boat captain carrying freight and passengers along the coast and upriver to the various mission stations. Most of Menkel's time seems to have been spent at Gaboon, Corisco, Benito and, after it was opened, Batanga.

Menkel was married to Charity Sneed by 1875, Charity Sneed was a black missionary, the daughter of James and Lousia Sneed, who also worked in West Africa (but were probably from Philadelphia). Peter and Charity Menkel had at least two daughters before she died in 1882 while he was on furlough in New York. During the next furlough in 1889-90 Menkel married Mary B. Smith who then entered the mission service. She died in West Africa in 1893. Later Menkel married Louise A. Babe who survived his death in the field in 1905.