Person:Johann Minger (2)

BIOGRAPHY: Johann and Anna Minger, 1984 HISTORY OF CLAYTON COUNTY, Clayton County Genealogy Society, pgs. 516-517.

JOHANN AND ANNA HOFER MINGER

Johann Ulrich Minger, baptized 15 June 1800, Messsen Switzerland, and Anna Maria Hofer, baptized 22 Oct. 1797, Limpach, Switzerland, were married 25 June 1825 in Switzerland. Johann became a farmer, carpenter, and blacksmith. Despite his short stature, he was strong; at one time, on a wager, he carried 200 pounds of milk for 12 miles. He was also considered quite a wrestler.

The family lived in Mulchi, Switzerland for 20 years and 9 children were born to them. one of whom, Elizabeth, born 1839, died in infancy. All children were baptized in Messen and the two oldest confirmed there. In America the family followed the Lutheran faith. When Johann was a young man he saved his money so that he could go to America and in the spring of 1845, his plans materialized. The Minger family traveled across the country of France to LaHarve on the Atlantic seacoast. With them they took their cattle and also their household furnishings which were piled on oxcarts and pulled by oxen. Anna Maria and her younger children rode on the oxcarts while Johann and the older boys walked and drove the cattle.

Their trip across the ocean took 45 days by sailing ship, depending on the wind for power. At one point they were stranded for three days in a dead calm before a breeze came to their rescue. Their journey from New York to New Philadelphia, Ohio, took another 21 days and was made nearly all by water-ways. Among the Minger's family possessions which survived the long difficult journey from Switzerland to Ohio were a lovely sugar bowl and a large wooden trunk; these prized heirlooms are today in the homes of two of Johann and Anna Maria's descendants.

While Johann and Anna Maria were living in Ohio, a fire destroyed their farmhome along with family records dating back 300 years. By spring of 1856 all of the Minger family were living in Millville or Jefferson Twp., Clayton Co., IA., with the exception of a son, Jakob, born 1829, and a daughter, Anna Maria, born 1835, whose names had vanished from the records. (Records of Jacob, and a tombstone for Maria were found in Tuscarawas Co. after this was written) Johann and Anna Maria's farmhome was in Sec. 32 in Jefferson Twp., and it was here they lived for the rest of their lives.

Johann died at age 63 on 22 Oct. 1863; Anna Maria died at age 84 on 4 Oct. 1881. Both are interred at St. John's country cemetery on Jolly Ridge near their farmhome. Their children's marriages were Anna Magdalena Minger (1825-1884) m. John Anderegg (1823-1910); Johann Minger (1827-1908) m. Elizabeth Hassig (1834-1922); Anna Barbara Minger (1837-1873) m. Johann Yaberg (1826-1898) Friedrich Minger (1833-1906) m. Maria Beer (1836-1911); Bendicht Minger (1837-1915) m. Elizabeth Albright (1839-1898); and Rudolph Minger (1847-1897) m. Elisabeth Anna Walker (1844-1917).

This article was submitted by Mae Brown Siemers