Caldwell County MO Archives History .....JOHN MINGER - PIONEER BAKER AND RESTAURANT KEEPER  
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 8, 2008, 4:18 pm

JOHN MINGER - PIONEER BAKER AND RESTAURANT KEEPER IN HAMILTON, MO
	Narrator:  Robert Minger, Hamilton

     John Minger was of German Swiss parentage, his father, Benedict Minger 
being from Switzerland, his mother Margaret Gardhafner from south Germany.  
They emigrated to U.S. 1840, settled in Ohio.  The father followed his tailor 
trade then went on a farm in Stark county where John was born 1842.  He had to 
work so hard that he decided farm life did not interest him as a life job.  He 
became a baker's boy in South Bend Ind.  He soon set out for himself and 
married Mattie Altman here.  He thought he would soon be worth a lot of money 
but he lost every thing in a fire, his first fire.  At 25, he had to start 
over.  Having heard a good deal about the towns along the Hannibal and St. Joe 
railroad from their ads, he started out on the railroad to find a town that 
had no baker.  Hamilton was that town.
     About that time too Elijah Altman came to Hamilton to buy a farm, so Mrs. 
Minger was glad to be near her father.  Mr. Minger began business in a little 
frame building on the west side of Main, north of the present Glick store (and 
also north of the Phil Covington store which occupied the site of Glicks when 
Minger came.  He did rather well, so he moved to a better building, a two 
story frame on the east side of Main opposite his first site; he bought this 
building and the site is still owned by the Minger family, the home of A.P. 
store (1935).  Here he prospered greatly.  He ran a bakery, kept a restaurant, 
had special Christmas goods, and farm implements, also queensware and 
glassware.
     Bob can recall one night when he was a small boy and his father took him 
with him over to the sample rooms at the old Hamilton House opposite the 
depot.  They stayed till about midnight, and Mr. Minger picked out hundreds of 
dollars of Christmas goods that night.  Minger's store was one of the best to 
get your Christmas gifts for all ages.  The space behind the counters was 
filled with packages to be paid for and delivered before Christmas.  Children 
could shop there by themselves as well as grown ups and not get skinned.  
Candy peaches, china dolls, china mugs, moustache cups, games, all were there.
     They were in this site in the fire of July 5 1884.  It started in their 
building and they barely saved their lives.  (See separate narrative on that 
fire of 1884.)  They had had a hard day on the Fourth and went to sleep about 
1 o'clock.  Bob lost his first tailored suit, just home from Harry Dickinson 
the Hamilton tailor.
     Old timers still remember what a prime baker John Minger was.  He used to 
bake fine ginger bread by a German recipe, and cut it into huge slices which 
he sold for a nickel.  If a boy had only three cents in his pocket and wanted 
a square, he got his for three cents.  At first, he made his own candy, but 
found he could buy it cheaper than he could make it for the common trade.
     Whenever a German struck town, they always hunted up John Minger, so as 
to have a chance to talk German.  The Gorsche family formerly lived in these 
parts around Bonanza, and one of them became wealthy.  Mr. John Minger 
knew "old man Gorsche" when he was a pack peddlar in Chicago, going from door 
to door.  He and Mr. Minger were good friends after both came to Caldwell 
county.
     Mr. Minger bought many farms, thinking dirt the best investment.  He once 
owned 80 acres north east of the Pete Switzer farm, 500 acres south east of 
the Switzers, and the 40 acre farm west of the John Cox farm.  He died 1919, 
having sold out his business to his boys, and he spent his last years as a 
travelling salesman.
     Robert Minger is at present a restaurant man in Hamilton, following the 
work of his father.
     Interview  1934.


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