Person:Frank Minger (1)

BIOGRAPHY: Compiled by Mae Brown Siemers Rand.

FRANK AUGUST MINGER, 1866-1959, and FANNIE ADELIA (PATRICK) MINGER, 1864-1945

Frank August Minger was born on Friday, the ninth of November 1866, and was the eighth child of Johann and Elisabeth (Hassig) Minger. He was their only child to be born in the township of Jefferson, rather than Millville. Since there was not a school in the area where Frank lived as a child, he would occasionally live during the winter months with his grandparents, Johann and Anna Maria (Hofer) Minger and attend the Jolly Ridge School located near their home.

In later years Frank evidently had sentimental feelings towards this little country schoolhouse for in 1952 when he was 86 years old he purchased it and moved it into the town of Guttenberg. A 1952 newspaper article shows a picture of Frank taken by the school in its original site, which would have been when he was about nine years old in the year 1875.

When Frank was 26 years old he was married on 29 November 1892 in Colesburg, Iowa to Fannie Adelia Stephenson-Patrick, age 28. (When Fannie was two years old, and her brother Albert was not yet born, Fannie's father, Mr. Stephenson, died. Fannie and her mother moved from Minnesota to Cassville, Wisconsin where Fannie's mother married Jonathan D. Patrick. Fannie and her brother Albert always went by the name of Patrick). Following their marriage Frank and Fannie farmed for awhile and then eventually they bought the hotel in the town of Turkey River from Frank's brother, Charlie Minger. They ran this hotel for two or three years. Six children were born to them in Millville Township - Eneatha, Harold, Larell, twin boys (only one twin lived, named Byron), and Rita. The work in the hotel in Turkey River was quite hard, especially for Fannie who was a small, delicate person, and so the family moved into the town of Guttenberg where Frank and Fannie lived for the remainder of their lives.

Frank did odd jobs and also worked in a factory. Fannie was a good cook; one of her nieces said, "especially could she make good cornbread"! A number of Frank's nieces and nephews would come in from their farm homes and live with the Mingers while attending high school. It is said, "If they stayed with Aunt Fannie and Uncle Frank, their parents knew they would be alright". Fannie and Frank provided a good home for them. Frank was left a widower when Fannie died from bronchial pneumonia at the age of 80. Frank died from a hear ailment in his home in Guttenberg on 25 October 1959. He was 92 years old and had outlived all of his brothers and sisters.

OBITUARY: GUTTENBERG PRESS, Guttenberg, Iowa, undated 1959. MINGER RITES HELD TUESDAY

Funeral services were held on Tuesday afternoon from the Tuecke funeral home for Frank A. Minger, 92, one of Guttenberg's oldest residents who died shortly before noon Sunday of a heart ailment. The services were conducted by Rev. David Saunders, pastor of the Methodist church, and burial was in the Guttenberg City cemetery with the following as pallbearers: George Brown, Arthur Brown, Rueben White, Martin White, Lowell Minger and Carl Minger.

The last of the family of 14 children of Mr. and Mrs. John Minger, Mr. Minger was born November 9, 1866 , in Jefferson Township. On November 29, 1892, he married Fannie Patrick at Colesburg and the couple farmed for many years in the Guttenberg Community before moving into Town. He had been a lifelong resident of the community.

Surviving Mr. Minger are three sons, Harold Minger of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Larell and Byron Minger of Guttenberg; and one daughter, Mrs. Herman Christofferson of Postville. Also surviving are three grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by Mrs. Minger, a son in infancy, and a daughter, Eneatha.