Peter Leoke, the family’s anchor in America

Peter, Hans and Mari’s third son, was born on 21 May 1892 (9 May Old Style), the date he also gave in America.¹ He went to the Nicholas I gymnasium in Tallinn. He studied architecture at the Riga and Moscow polytechnics between 1913 and 1916. During his student years he joined the fraternity Vironia.

In 1918–19 he helped set up Estonian consulates in Helsinki and Riga. He served in the artillery during the War of Independence, ending his service in 1921 as commander of a heavy battery. He then joined the Foreign Ministry and in 1922 helped envoy Tõnis Vares establish Estonia’s legation in Moscow. In Moscow, on 2 June 1921, he married Elizabeth, born there on 23 June 1893. Her passport papers of 1924–25 call her Elisabeth Leoke-Porfireff and describe her as an actress and drama student; Porfireff was probably her maiden name.² From November 1921 Peter was registered in Tallinn, in the Foreign Ministry’s service. Peter also worked in publishing and theater: he founded the publishing house Areng, which published the magazine Romaan, and in 1920 co-founded Estonia’s first private theater studio.

He left Tallinn for Sweden at the end of September 1924,³ and by 1925 he and Elizabeth were in New York; one account says he came by way of Canada. He edited the Estonian weekly Ameerika Eestlane and was active in Estonian community organizations, earning his living as a home decorator. Around 1941 he moved to Los Angeles and worked in the wartime aircraft industry. Although he had lived in the United States for years, his papers record his admission as a permanent resident on 26 March 1943 at Blaine, Washington, arriving by car from Vancouver. He declared his intention to become a citizen on 24 May 1943, giving his occupation as carpenter.

By May 1943 he was living at 138 Witmer Street, Los Angeles. His home would later become a base for his brother’s family and for Pilvi and Elmar Koik.

Notes

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1. EELK Viljandi congregation, births 1892, EAA.1290.1.334, image 17, No. 130, entered as “Peeter Leoke (Peter Leoke)”: born 9 May 1892 O.S. at Alt-Woidoma-Luisenhütte and baptized on 14 June. His 1943 declaration of intention gives 21 May 1892, the same day in the New Style. The household book also reads 9 May; an earlier reading of it as 2 May was mistaken. ↩

2. Files of the Estonian Consulate General in New York, passports and visas of Hans, Peter and Elisabeth Leoke, 1924–29, ERA.1608.1.808, images 2–8 (“Leoke-Porfireff”, born in Moscow, 23 June 1893, Russian Orthodox, “näitleja (õpilane)”, actress and student). ↩

3. Tallinn City Archives, address-register sheets, TLA.1376.1.134: sheet 312836, Peeter Leoke, Foreign Ministry official, at Viru 22, flat 3, from 16 November 1921 (arriving from Germany) to 30 September 1924, then to Sweden; sheet 312802, Hans Leoke, 10 July 1924 – 6 April 1925; sheet 312796, Elmar Leoke, university student, 27 January – 3 February 1925, from Viljandi, leaving for Tartu. ↩

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