Biography of James Q. Minshall
From HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
W. H. Beers [Chicago, 1883]
Page 910
JAMES Q. MINSHALL (deceased) was born in Paint Township, this county, March 7, 1815, and died in London August 28, 1878. His parents, Jonathan and Eleanor Minshall, came from Virginia to Ross County, Ohio, in 1806, and moved from there to Paint Township, Madison County, one year later. James Quinn Minshall began life for himself at twenty-one years of age, by accepting a position with a Mr. Anderson, who kept a stage station near, and subsequently a hotel at La Fayette, in this county. After remaining three years with Mr. Anderson, during which time he accumulated about $300, he engaged in farming and stock-dealing, renting the John Creamer farm in Range Township, in connection with Jesse Watson. In this business he continued until his death, accumulating property which, clear of all
indebtedness, was worth not less than $200,000. During his lifetime, he paid, interest included, not less than $70,000 as security for others. He was the owner of between thirty-four and thirty-five hundred acres of land in Range, Paint and Union Townships, and was a large stock owner in the Madison National Bank, of which he was President for a long time prior to and until his death. He was married to Hannah Watson, daughter of Samuel Watson, and by her had five children, viz., Wyatt, Clarestine (deceased), Leon, Sarah and Ada. Mrs. Minshall died in June, 1866, after twenty-seven years of happily married life, and in April, 1867, Mr. Minshall married Lydia Powell, by whom he had no children. Mr. Minshall was one of the best known, most influential and wealthy citizens of Madison County. From a penniless boy, he gained his high position in the world by his own personal efforts, and though he lost a great deal of money, during his life, his business ability and untiring energy enabled him to overcome all reverses, and to reach a position of the highest honor in the community. Some time before the beginning of his residence in London, in 1865, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was ever afterward a steadfast, working Christian. Tireless in doing good, and unbounded in his charity, with a warm heart and sympathetic nature, he never turned a deaf ear to the cry of want, but always stood ready to help the deserving poor. In his death the community mourned the loss of one of its most noble members.
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