Person:George Minger (1)

BIOGRAPHY: Compiled by Mae Brown Siemers Rand

GEORGE RUDOLPH MINGER, 1860-1943 and MARY ELISABETH (TOMDELL) MINGER, abt 1865-bef. 1943 and ETHEL MAY (PATRICK) MINGER, 1891-1919.

George Rudolph Minger, born Monday, 19November 1860, was the fifth child of Johann and Elisabeth (Hassig) Minger. His baptism record in St. John's Lutheran Church, Guttenberg, Iowa reads: Georg Rudolf, son of Johannes Mergert and Elisabeth Hesse, born 20 (should be 19) November 1860 bei (German word for near) Guttenberg, baptized 24 August 1861. The sponsors were his parents.

George spent his childhood years on his parent's farm and very likely received his education by staying with his grandparents, Johan and Anna Maria (Hofer) Minger in Jefferson Township and attending the Jolly Ridge school near their home. George was a farmer most of his life.

On 1 January 1884 when George was 23 years old, he married Mary Elisabeth Tindell, age 18, of Lancaster, Wisconsin. They were married in Colesburg, Iowa by Rev. E. L. McNamee and the witnesses were John E. Kaufmann and S. E. Minger. George and Elisabeth's (as she was known) first child was Elsie; she was born in Millville Township, Clayton County, Iowa. After the birth of Elsie, the family moved to Norfolk, Nebraska where George and Elisabeth had six more children - Lottie, Mabel, Jessie, Ray, Roy and Nettie. George and Elisabeth were separated and George returned with his seven children to Turkey River, Iowa. From then on he and his children lived with various members of the Minger family in the Turkey River area.

The 1900 Clayton County census shows that George and his daughter Jessie were living with George's sister, Elisabeth (Minger) Brown. The same census shows that Elsie, Lottie, Ray and Nettie were living with their grandparents, Johann and Elisabeth (Hassig) Minger; Mabel was living with her uncle, Frank Minger, and Roy was living with his Aunt, Ella (Minger) White. In the 1905-06 school year George Minger is listed as the director of the Turkey River school in which Pearl Heckel was the teacher. The school record shows that three of George's children were attending the school that year - Jessie, Ray and Roy. Jessie received a 95 in music; Ray a 95 in writing and Roy a 94 in reading.

On June 27 1912 when he was 51 years old, George married Ethel May Patrick, age 20. The witnesses at their marriage were Willie Patrick and Beatrice Patrick. George and Ethel had three children, the first two died soon after birth, one living six hours and the other 10 hours. A third child, Carl, was born 30 December 1918. Ethel's two sisters-in-law, Elisabeth (Minger) Brown and Ella (Minger) White, delivered the baby. After his birth Ethel became ill with childbirth complications and the flu, and it is told that as she held her little baby in her arms she said, "I wanted you so much and now I have to leave you". She died when Carl was seven days old. A record states that she died from Spanish influenza and confinement. Carl lived with his father from age five to twelve, then lived with Ethel's sister in Dubuque.

As years went by, George made his home with his daughter, Lottie (Minger) Borrett who lived on a farm near Garber, Iowa. It is told that George became very heavy and had dropsy so bad that if a finger was placed on him it would leave a dent, and that if someone sat down rather hard next to him, he would scream in pain. He liked to sit in the porch swing in his daughter's farmhome. George died in the home of his daughter, Lottie Borrett, on 9 October 1943 at the age of 82.