Joseph Warren (Joe) Minter

  General Notes:

from: http://webpages.charter.net/chamberlayne/minter/mnotes.htm Minters of Henry County by Donald W. Chamberlayne : chamberlayne@charter.net
Joseph Minter
There are two currents of thought regarding Joseph Minter's full name and his date of birth. Ken Storm and others have identified him as Joseph Warren Minter, Sr., born in 1821 in Leatherwood, who married Matilda Jane Bocock. Some descendants of Joe, however, have him as Joseph Jackson Minter, with a birth year of 1831, also married to Matilda Jane Bocock.

A Joseph Jackson Minter served with the 24th Virginia Cavalry Regiment in the civil war, according to the labeling of a photograph, provided by Seth Compton, but this alone does not establish him as the son of Silas and Nancy Minter.
All sources known to this compiler agree that a son of Joe and Matilda Minter was Joseph Warren Minter, born in 1867, sometimes with the suffix "Jr." attached to the name. This "Joe, Jr.," regardless of the middle name or veteran status of his father, married Lucy D. Franklin and, according to Storm, they had ten children, one of whom was Thomas Joseph ("Tommy Joe"), born circa 1890s, who married Myrtle Dora Bray. A granddaughter of Tommy Joe and Myrtle is Julia Minter Kendrick, a current resident of Henry County and a person to contact for exchange of information concerning this line. Another is her brother-in-law Desmond Kendrick, who is well known among history and family researchers with roots in Henry County, as the archivist of the county library, and a very knowledgeable source on the county and many of its families.
Whether the son of Silas and Nancy Minter was named Joseph Warren or Joseph Jackson may not be of great importance in itself, but the answer does imply whether the civil war veteran in the photograph was in this line of the family. Ken Storm's listing notes that Joseph Warren Minter served with the 57th Virginia Infantry Regiment. It is apparent that some research on civil war regiments might help resolve the issue.
A search of the censuses of 1850 through 1880 yielded the following results: In 1850, a Joseph Minter, 23, a son of Obediah and Fanny Minter (Note 4A), was said, in the indelicate manner of the times, to be an "idiot," and thus seems an unlikely candidate for the Joseph in question. Also in 1850, a Joseph Minter, 25, occupation overseer, was found residing in the household of George Napier, 35, a tobacconist in Henry County. The 1870 census showed Joseph and Matilda Minter residing in Martinsville with eight children, ages one through 15. By 1880, Joseph apparently had died, as Matilda Minter was listed as age 50, the mother of the head of the household, James Minter, 26, farmer. Also present were James' wife Sarah, 28, and their daughter Mary, 2, as well as three brothers and three sisters of James, ages five through 19. Storm gives a date of death for Joseph as March, 1874. As the family was still in Martinsville, it seems likely that the only census-related change that had occurred was that James' wife and child had been added and that he had taken on the designation of head of the family.
Another possible source of useful information regarding Joseph, possibly including his middle name, would be any obituary that might have appeared upon the death, said to have occurred in 1952, of his son, Joseph Warren Minter.


The 1880 Federal Census for Martinsville, Henry Co., VA, District 130 records the widow Matilda Minter (50 - VA) living with her son James (26) Minter and his wife, Sarah (28 - VA) and daughter Mary (2). Also in the household are Matilda's children Drewry (23), Silas (19), Julia (15), Rosa (14), and Joseph (10), Mary (8), and George (5). The family is farming.

Joseph married Matilda Jane Bocock. (Matilda Jane Bocock was born on 29 Dec 1831 in Henry Co., Virginia, died 21 Mrch 1927 in Leatherwood, Henry Co, Virginia and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Martinsville, VA.) The cause of her death was Influenza complicated with Bronchitis.