Minerva P. Hatch (maiden name: Pierce) was born around 1803 in Vermont. She married Jethro Hatch, and they had at least five children: Marcella, born around 1830; Fayette, born around 1832; Jethro, born around 1834; Martha, born around 1840; and Austin, born around 1843. They lived in New York until 1847, when they moved to Sugar Creek, Illinois. Her husband worked as a farmer, and by 1850, they owned $5,000 of real estate. In the spring of 1865, he rejoiced that "our country has survived the perils of the last four years," and she noted that the "government nerves itself for the herculean task of dispensing justice and mercy to the still insolent remains of secession." She hoped that President Andrew Johnson would transform "the old slave states in to a land of liberty and [crush] out the last remains of rebelion from the hearts of its late abettors." They moved to Aurora, Illinois, around 1869 and by 1870, they owned $15,400 of real estate and $700 of personal property. Her husband died in 1875, and she died in Aurora on May 4, 1882.

SOURCES