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Submitted: 2/25/11 • Approved: 2/25/11 • Last Updated: 11/17/13 • R473508-G473507-S3
Minerva Jane LASTER James
b. 19 Jul 1860 in Rives, Obion Co., Tennessee
d. 6 May 1948 in McCrory, Woodruff Co., Arkansas
Minerva (or Jane as she was called), was the daughter of Elias Laster (1831-1899) and Mary War Nan JEANSONNE (1838-1918). She married Samuel Jackson James (1858-1936) on 25 Dec 1879 in Rives, Obion Co., Tennessee. Together, Minerva and Samuel had seven children:
Arthur (1881- ), Lucy Pearl (1883-1959), Horace Jackson (1888-1947), Iris Corder 'Babe' (1889-1960), Jessie Lee (1894-1974), Bessie Bee (1896-1932), and Mae Elizabeth James (1901-1978)
Minerva lived the first 40 plus years of her life in Obion County before she and Samuel moved to Arkansas sometime between 1900 and 1910 where Samuel worked in the logging and timber business and did some farming.
By the time their daughter, Jessie Lee was born in 1894, Minerva had lost most of her eyesight going completely blind shortly afterward. She used to tell my dad (her grandson who is Jessie's son) that if she held baby Jessie up to the light, she could just make out her shape. Jessie was named after Jesse James and Robert E. Lee.
Minerva's father served in the Civil War on the side of the Confederate Army. Her mother, Mary, was born in Louisiana and for many years her maiden name was misspelled as "Johnson" but we found in late 2009 that it was actually spelled as "Jeansonne" which is the Arcadian spelling of "Johnson." Perhaps because when Jeansonne is pronounced it sounds very much like Johnson that the spelling of the name was changed at some point.
Contributed on 2/25/11 by tonirl
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Record #: 473508