By 1900 7 children had been born and 3 were alive, and by 1910, 13 had been born and 8 were alive.
Interesting: in 1910 she is listed as a farm laborer (not a 'home maker' as were most women), and her daughter is also listed as a farm laborer (usually daughters' occupations were shown as 'none').
Several people told me Minnie's mother died she was 5 years old. In 1880 census she is 6 years old and is living with her half-sister Jennie.
Izetta said Minnie May married young because she didn't have anyone to take care of her. The Beals and Dufours tried to help take care of her. She was very close to her half-sister, Jenny, who visited often. Izetta was with her mother alot. Her mother was very kind, but was the one who did the punishing, especially to Sadie. She was a very good cook. She made all the clothes and borrowed her sister-in-law Maggie Murphy's sewing machine to make Sadie's dress (wedding?). She was close to Maggie and they canned together. She was always ready to help anyone. She worked once a week for Drs. Vardin & Parks in East Jordan, going early in the morning to clean and put out clean linens She was a mid-wife. When their house was burning, she grabbed a dresser that contained baby clothes and carried it out of the house. She had a real nice singing voice and always sang hymns around the house; 'White as Snow', 'Sunshine in the Valley', and 'Somewhere the Son is Shining'. She died at home, with her father, Joseph Edgerton, sitting at the foot of the bed and her husband was in the fields working. Her funeral service was in their home and they sang 'Beautiful Isle Somewhere'.
Dorothy said her mother was very clean, very particular. Once a week she scrubbed all the white pine floors with a brush, and sometimes the children had to help. She was a small person, strict, but not mean. Once when their dad was miffed about something and he was very quiet, she backed him up against the wall and said, 'Let's have it.'
Minnie comes from a long line of English ancestors and their names are among many of the early records of the American colonies. Through the ancestors of her mother and father, the Foster and Fitch families, she is twice a decendant of William Brewster, who was chaplain on the Mayflower. William Brewster wife, Mary Wentworth's lineage has been traced back to Alfred the Great, King of England 871-901.
The genealogical research on her Foster line has been done by others and goes back to the early American colonists and England.
We recently learned information about her connection to the Fitch family thru the will of her g-g-grandfather. That research has been done also and goes back to the early American colonists and England.
Research has been done on the Edgerton family and also goes back to the early American colonists and England. However, I have been unable, as yet, to positively prove how her grandfather, Zeno, connects to that line.
Cause of death was tuberculosis (which tradition says she got from cow's milk).
