The Problem of Henry Pavlat after 1916

In her divorce proceedings, Clara Pavlat attested that Henry abandoned his family in May of 1913. According to grandson Richard Pavlat, the family was then living above a dance hall and oral tradition has Henry taking up with one of the girls in the dance hall. This may have been the reason for abandoning his family, but Henry is still found living in Milwaukee in the city directories through 1916. 1917 is uncertain, but from 1918 onward, no more evidence of Henry in Milwaukee has been found. During the period 1914-1916 Henry shared his rooming house with sister Mamie Keltner, so it seems likely that his family had knowlege of his business for these years.

In 1919, when his wife began divorce proceedings so she could re-marry, she could not identify Henry's location and had to place advertisements in Wisconsin newspapers in hopes he would respond. He never responded to these notices, and the divorce was granted after a waiting period.

In his father's obituary of 1943, Henry is NOT mentioned as a survivor, so his family seems to acknowledge that he is deceased.

There is an oral tradition in the family that Henry died in Minneapolis/St Paul, possibly by gunfire. I have been unable to identify the source of this story, but I have heard it from several relatives.

Simple investigations in The Twin Cities have produced no clues, so I have declared this investigation one of my "Brick Walls".

FOOTNOTE: there is a Henry Pavlat of about the same age living in the Sault Saint Marie area of northern Michigan during the 1910's and 1920's, but I have convinced myself that this person is a descendant of the Pavlat's of Kewaunee. I have documented this in my database.