John Minnich

The Thayer News, Friday, May 24, 1907, Pg. 5

Vol. XVI, No. 34

Mr. Minnich is Dead.

After a lingering illness of several years, the last five months of which he has been confined to his home, Mr. John Minnich passed away last Friday evening, May 17. Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Coffield, assisted by Dr. J. A. DeMoss, from the family residence Sunday morning at 10 o’clock and the body laid to rest in the Thayer cemetery.

John Minnich was born near Stiansburg Germany, March 9, 1837. At the age of 3 years he came to this country with his parents and settled in Butler county, Ohio. In 1859 he moved to Illinois where he resided until the fall of 1861, when he enlisted in Company I, 54th Illinois Infantry, and served until the end of the war. On January 7, 1868 he was united in marriage to Martha T. Ramsey. To this union six children were born. In 1888 he, with his family, moved to Thayer, Kansas, where he resided until his death, May 17, 1907, aged 70 years, 2 months and 8 days. He is survived by his wife, five children and one brother. One son, Arthur G., died in 1897.

Mr. Minnich is dead. He was a picturesque and familiar figure about our little town for many years. His occupation was that of a farmer, and his farming operations were carried on near Thayer during his active life in Kansas. Enfeebled by age and disease, he was forced to quit the toils of life a few years ago, when he disposed of his farm and took up residence in town. Maladies entailed in army service bore their marks upon him through all the years of his post bellum days, and these afflictions contributed to his long, wearing and wasting illness. As a release from the bonds of affliction he invited death without a fear. Now his ashes have returned to the earth as they were, and his spirit unto God who gave it.

Raised of Roman Catholic parents, he was held in that religious body until his majority. Attaining his manhood and American citizenship, he entered to that higher liberty, known only to the free.

Mr. Minnich was an honest man. He paid 100 cents on the dollar, no grumbling, no grudging and no regrets. With the just, it is a satisfying pleasure to discharge the obligations of life, and honor is the chief ambition of the soul that is pure and clean. What happiness “to look the whole world in the face, to owe not any man!”

For all the nineteen years he lived in Chetopa township, who can point to a single dishonorable transaction of this man? Is there none to accuse him? Then God will not. Rectitude before God and charity for all mankind, constitutes the ideal cross the eye should fix upon and the soul should follow with unremitting endeavor.

He was a patriotic citizen, an ideal neighbor, a conscientious diciplinarian in the conduct of life. He loved his friends, fellowshipped the just, and despised the nave. Loyalty, purity, nobility, were the cardinal virtues of true manhood with him, and the sham, the false, the untrue were unworthy his tolerance, association or recognition.