My Genealogy Hound

LOUIS A. MINNER, a practical pharmacist and chemist, who is doing a good business as a druggist in Murphysboro, claims Ohio as the state of his nativity. He was born near Zanesville, July 14, 1861, and is a son of the Rev. Frederick and Teckla Minner, both of whom were natives of Germany. The father was born in Stuttgart, and was graduated from the theological seminary and the Berlin University with the degrees of M. A. and B. D. He became a minister of the German Lutheran Church, and after emigrating to the New World first preached in Philadelphia. He was then employed in his ministerial capacity in different places in the Buckeye State until his retirement from the ministry, when he located on a farm near Zanesville. His death there occurred at the age of sixty-two, and his wife also passed away in Ohio.

Their son Louis is the ninth in the family of ten children, all of whom are still living. Midst play and work his boyhood days were passed upon the farm near Zanesville, where he continued until sixteen years of age. He then went to Adamsville, Ohio, to attend school, where he remained for about two years. For three terms he engaged in teaching school, and in 1880 entered the Valparaiso Normal School of Indiana, where for nearly two years he pursued the scientific course and also completed the commercial course. In 1882 he went to Sterling, Kan., and accepted a clerkship in a drug store, where he continued one year. He afterward spent three years as a druggist’s clerk in St. Louis and East St. Louis, and in order to perfect himself for that line of business pursued a course of pharmacy in the St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 1886-87. On the expiration of that period we find him in Chicago, where he worked for nearly three years. Having entered the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy of Philadelphia, Pa., he was graduated from that institution in 1889, with the degree of Ph. G. He was also graduated as a chemist from both schools.

Returning to Chicago, Mr. Minner there remained until the 1st of May, 1890, when he arrived in Murphysboro and bought out the store and stock of Charles Muehehein, a druggist at the corner of Chestnut and Broad Streets. Here he has carried on business continuously since. His store has been improved with large plate glass windows and is well stocked with everything found in a first-class drug store. As far as practicable, he manufactures his own medicines, and is recognized as the best prescription druggist in the city. His business has steadily increased from the beginning until he is now enjoying a fine trade. He is connected with the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association, and is also a member of the Alumni Association of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.

Mr. Minner is a stockholder in the Southern Illinois Building and Loan Association, the Jackson County Building and Loan Association, and is a Director of the East St. Louis Building and Loan Association, and the AEtna, of St. Louis. In politics he is a Populist. The Minner household numbers three members, our subject, wife and child, Frem K. The lady was formerly Miss Fannie King. She was born in Dresden, Ohio, and their marriage was celebrated in Zanesville, February 4, 1891.