1890 Buchanan and Delaware Counties History pgs. 505-508
 

HARVEY MINKLER, an old and highly esteemed citizen of Delaware county, was born in Chesterfield, Clinton county, N. Y., November 24, 1805,    He traces his ancestry to New England, and back of that to Germany and  Wales.   His father and paternal grandfather were natives of New Hampshire, while his paternal great-grandfather was born in Germany.    Each of these bore the Christian name of John, and each was a good   representative of the sturdy stock from which he was descended. Our subject's   father, John Minkler, although   born in New Hampshire, was reared on Grand Isle, Vt.    He married Irene Call, of Essex county, N. Y., in 1804, (who died when the subject of this sketch was in his third year) when he was twenty-four years of age, and settled in that county, where he resided for some years.    He subsequently lived in Clinton county,  N. Y., returned then to  Grand Isle, Vt., moved again to Essex county, and finally, in 1816, immigrated West and settled in what is now Lake county, Ohio, where he purchased land in Perry township, near Painesville.     He lived there till about 1830 when he moved to Huron county, settling first in Berlin, and afterward in Vermillion township, passing the remainder of his life on a farm, which he bought in the latter township, dying there in 1866, aged eighty-six years.    He was a farmer throughout life, an honest, industrious, upright man, faithful in the discharge of his obligations of every nature. He served in the War of 1812 and received from the government land-warrants  for his services, which he afterward gave to his son.    He was a member of the Methodist church for sixty years, and a zealous Christian. He lost his first wife only a few years after marriage, and subsequently married her sister, Asenath Call. There was only one child born to the former union, that being, Harvey, the subject of this sketch. To the second union, however, nine children were born, as follows -Cyrus V., who died at the age of twenty-four, in Huron county, Ohio; Elsie, who now resides in Salt Lake City, Utah; David, who died in that city some years ago; Daniel, residing in Lake county, Ohio; Electa, the widow of George Vley, residing in Delaware county, Iowa; Alanson, living in Clayton county, Iowa; Alvin, residing in Erie county, Ohio, and Erastus, of Delaware county, Iowa.

Harvey Minkler's mother, who bore the maiden name of Irene Call, was a daughter of Asa Call, a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and Azubeth Call, both of whom were natives of Vermont. Asa Call, after residing in his native state for some years, in 1816 moved to what is now Lake county, Ohio, where he afterward lived and where he and his wife both died, he at the age of seventy and she at the age of fifty-five. The Call family was of Welsh descent and was among the early settled families of New England.

Our subject was about eleven years old when his parents moved West in 1816. His youth was spent in Geauga (now Lake) county, Ohio, and was passed amidst the scenes and marked by the activities of pioneer life. He married in 1827, and moving into the woods of Lake county, laid out a farm, erected a small log cabin, eighteen by twenty, and began clearing land. He resided there until 1839, when he moved to Huron (now Erie) county, where he lived on a rented farm ten years, purchased another farm, some of which was cleared, but the greater part of which was not, settled on it and resided there engaged in farming, and working at the carpenter's trade until 1853. At that date he sold his farm and loading up his household goods and other personal effects in three wagons, he started for Iowa. He reached Coffin's Grove in Delaware county, May 4, 1853, and there stopped. He at once purchased "a claim" of one hundred and twenty acres, lying in the grove, on which he located and where he has since resided. Coffin's Grove township had not then been organized, and there were only five or six families beside his own residing in what now constitutes that township. Mr. Minkler immediately began farming and he has followed this since, devoting himself mostly to farming. At an early date he kept a wayside tavern to accommodate overland travel to the West, and many a weary traveler has found rest and food at his house. His place was known as Elkhorn Tavern, and at it man and beast found the best fare the country afforded, and the kindest treatment an honest, warm hearted landlord could give. In seasons of great travel, and especially in inclement weather, the capacity of the Elkhorn was often sorely tested, but it was understood that the latch-string always hung out, and no one in need of entertainment was ever turned away. Many amusing stories are told by Mr. Minkler and his good wife concerning the things they did and the "plans" they had to resort to to find quarters and refreshments for those who sought their hospitality during the fall and winter seasons of those years, when prospectors, home-seekers, hunters and others were pouring into the country. Their ingenuity, however, was equal to every emergency, and if the accommodations were not always "strictly first class," as measured by more modern standards, they were, at any rate, the best that could be had, and were given with such a genuine warmth of hospitality that the guests were made to feel quite as comfortable, and much more at home, than many do in the elegant establishments of this day. Mr. Minkler took an active interest in everything relating to the settlement of the new country, and bore his share of the burden in all enterprises set on foot for the public good. He assisted in organizing the township, and was one of the first township trustees, and has since held a number of other local offices. But, like most men of his kind, the greatest good he has accomplished has been done in a quiet way; it has been done as an unpretentious citizen - one, who, knowing his duty, has discharged it faithfully in the light of his own
conscience, and regardless of the opinions of others, and without the hope of plaudits of men. Mr. Minkler has never been very active in politics, and yet he is a man of strong political views, and from his great age and habits of close observation has seen much of political affairs and knows much of what is called political life. He has been a voter for sixty-four years. He cast his first presidential vote for John Quincy Adams in 1828.
He was afterward a whig, voted for General Harrison in 1840, and adhered to the whig party as long as it maintained an organization, joined the republicans on the organization of that party, and has been a republican since. During the agitation of the slavery question he was a strong abolitionist, and never failed to let his opinions touching that great iniquity be known where there was any occasion for it. Mr. Minkler is a man of devout nature and tender impulses. For forty years he has been an active and consistent member of the Free-Will Baptist church, and he has found in the promises of his religion much consolation for the losses and disappointments of this world, as he has also made it the means by which he has accomplished much good for his fellow-men.

On May 27, 1827, Mr. Minkler married, his choice for a companion falling on a young lady whom he had known for some years, Miss Elizabeth Ransom, then of Erie county, Ohio. Mrs. Minkler was born in the town of Avon, Livingston county, N. Y., the date of her birth being April 27, 1810. She is a daughter of John and Amy (Ames) Ransom, the father having been a native of Rhode Island, and the mother a native of Avon, Livingston county, N. Y. Mrs. Minkler's parents were married in Avon, Livingston county, and in 1816 moved to Geauga county, Ohio, where the father died in 1830, at the age of thirty-seven. After his death, his widow returned to her native place, where she subsequently married Zebulon Rathbone, and settled in Avon, and resided there till her death, which occurred in 1887, at the advanced age of ninety-three years.
Mr. and Mrs. Minkler have had born to them three children, a daughter and two sons. The daughter, Elizabeth I., was married to Frank K. Smith, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this work, and died at her home in Coffin's Grove township, Delaware county, in 1859, at the age of thirty-one. Mr. and Mrs. Smith's second child, John R., is a farmer, residing in Washington county, Kans. He married Julia Cornell, of Erie county, Ohio, and has five children-Julia, Alonzo, Elizabeth, Jerome Earnest and Frank. Cyrus V., the youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Minkler, is a farmer, residing in the newly made state of Washington. He married Miss Lucy Minkler, of Erie county, Ohio, and has three children-Harvey, Harlow and Mina.

Mr. and Mrs. Minkler are both people of remarkable vitality, being well preserved in mind and body, notwithstanding their great age. They have lived as husband and wife for-more than sixty-three years, and while they have only two children living, they have a number of grandchildren, some great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. There are thus, as we might say, in the family of which they are the first parents, five-generations represented. It would be hard to find another such instance of continuity of relationship extending through so many generations.

 

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