John Milton Minter and Cynthia McLean
front row: Berrien C. Minter (holding grandson John B. Minter), Cynthia McLean Minter
back row: Charyln Minter (mother of J. B. Minter), Vesta Adel O'Neal Minter
l-r: Eva Ruth Minter Brooks, Hattie Maud Minter, Kitty Minter Davis, Vesta Adel Minter, daughters of Berrien C. Minter and Leila Adel O'Neal.
My Minter ancestry begins and ends with John Minter (b. abt 1799 - d.aft 1826) He may have had a middle name that began with an M. Perhaps it was "Milton" as was his son's middle name, John Milton Minter (1825-1897)
Family lore has John Minter coming to Georgia in the 1820. An aunt of my father, (Vesta Adel Minter (1886-1984) told my father that John Minter came to Georgia from Ireland via way of Virginia. From the recollections of Aunt Vesta's cousin, Dot Harvey (also a descendant of John Minter, immigrant) described in Jo Webb's (also a cousin of my Aunt Vesta through the Porters I think) book, "Linkage" on page 211, "John Minter, a skilled millwright, came direct from Dublin, Ireland, through Virginia and Baldwin County, Georgia, to become one of the early settlers of Early County, Georgia. He is said to have been about ninteen or twenty years old at the time.
"He married about 1820 Elizabeth Porter, daughter of Frederick Porter, also one of the first settlers of that county. Their son, Constantine Alonza Minter, was said to have been the first white child born in Early County.
"The John Minters lived for short periods of time on rivers of Southeast Alabama, northwest Florida, and southwest Georgia, where millwright Minter would build mills. Later they settled on the Sewanee River in Florida. The family was sickly there - no doubt due to malaria from mosquitoes. Finally the mother was persuaded by her relatives to return to Porter's Ferry (Early County Ga.) to live. This she did to save the life of one of her two small children. At this time she and her husband were given by her father, Frederick Porter, the first mill which he, John Minter, has built in America.
"Their children were: Patience Louise Minter, Constantine Alonza Minter, John Milton Minter, and Elizabeth B. Minter. The youngest daughter, Elizabeth, died before she was grown.
"John Minter did not live many years. While working on a mill he became overheated. He accidentally dropped a tool into the cold water. As was his custom, he dived immediately for it. The exposure of two extremes of body temperatures cause pnewumonia and his death."
Elizabeth Porterr Minter never married again.
My descent from John Minter
John Minter (1799-1826), married Elizabeth "Betsy" Porter (1801-1866)
John Milton Minter (1825-1897), m. Cynthia McLean (1831-1930)
Berrien Constantine Minter (1862-1943), married Leila Adel O'Neal (1870-1949)
Eva Ruth Minter (1898-1985), m. Roy Brooks (1893-1971)
James Warren Brooks (1931-2010), m. Judith Leola Hackett (b. 1933)
Sarah Ruth Brooks (b. 1961)
Ruth Minter, 1906, Jakin, Ga., School
Ruth Minter, 1909, Jakin School
Ruth Minter, 1910-1920
Ruth Minter Brooks with son, James Warren Brooks, 1954, Elmodel, Ga.
Ruth and Roy Brooks, Elmodel, Georgia, 1969.
Roy, Ruth, Judy, and James Brooks, Lum, Michigan, 1971
Ruth Minter, 1908, Jakin School
