Person:John Collins (132)

John Collins, of Irish descent, was born August 1, 1806. His wife, Minerva was born July 7, 1814. Both were born and married at Somerset, Kentucky and came to Clayton County, Iowa from Putman [Putnam] County, Indiana. In 1854 they located in Minnesota Territory east of a spring creek at the settlement of Curtis, which later officially became the village of Pleasant Grove in Olmsted County, Minnesota.

Seventeen children and their descendants have participated in more than 100 years of Pleasant Grove History. The family of John and Minerva Collins were: Elizabeth, (Y. P. Burgan); Margaret, (Joseph L. Parks); Ellinor, (William Burgan); William, (Elizabeth Yates); Sarah, (Albert Cyrus Sparks); Abigail, (Jonathan Parks); Olive, (John Wesley Flathers); Minnesota, (William Carothers); John, (Cora Bassett); Nancy and Martha who never married; Mary and Stephen who died as children and four that died in infancy. Minerva Collins died May 12, 1872, and was buried in the family plot in the timber tract on the Collins claim. John Collins married Elma L. Clemans at Lodi, Wisconsin, December 22, 1880. John F. Collins died August 25, 1886, age eighty.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Bernard, Belva du Mez. Research History of Pleasant Grove Township, Olmsted County, Minnesota, 1852-1960. (Rochester, Minnesota: Whiting Press, 1960?)
   441-442.