Historical Tyson Landowners
Henry Julius Mincke and george Ferdinand mincke
The Minckes’ land in 1870, on Julius Hutawa’s 1870 Altas of St. Louis County.
Two generations of the Mincke family, three of which were Tyson landowners, appear on plat maps of current day Tyson from 1870 until the arrival of the military in the 1940s.
The Mincke last name was often misspelled as Minke, Minck, and even Minie. Henry’s name in German was Heinrich and was sometimes spelled as such. The Minckes are the namesake of the present-day Mincke quarry.
The family’s story begins when George Ferdinand Mincke Sr. moved to the US from Germany in 1834. In 1848, his sons George Ferdinand Mincke Jr. and Julius Henry Mincke Sr. moved out to California for the Gold Rush, but they returned to Missouri in 1850. After Julius served in the Civil War for the United States, the brothers started a lumber business. In 1877 they began operating the Hunkin-Willis Company’s mine on their land at Tyson, and the small town of Mincke was established. The mine would run until 1927, at which point both the mine and the town were abandoned. In 1941, the land was seized by the federal government under eminent domain.
Present day image of Mincke quarry. Photo by Emmett Kearns, 6/30/2023.
Julius Mincke Sr. lived from 1827-1887. He was a volunteer firefighter, Presbyterian, and Republican. He married Louisa Ellsmueller and they had three children: Henry Julius Mincke, Clara Mincke, and Julia Mincke. Henry married Clara Hillebrand and they had two children: Julius Henry Mincke Jr. and Paula Mincke Smith.
There are no known records of enslavement associated with the Mincke family.
Resources
Belleview Farm, Donnelly property, 1333 Belleview Farm Rd., Jedburgh vicinity. (n. d.) St. Louis County Parks Department. Retrieved on 24 June 2024 from https://stlouiscountymo.gov/st-louis-county-departments/parks/about/st-louis-county-landmarks/jedburg/.
Biro, E. Tyson Border Polygon. (2023) Tyson Research Center.
Henry Julius Mincke. (n. d.) Find A Grave. Retrieved on 24 June 2024 from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39795394/henry-julius-mincke.
Hyde, Williams and Conard, Howard Louis. (1899). Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis, Volume III. Southern History Company. https://books.google.com/books?id=sy1IAQAAMAAJ&dq=george+ferdinand+mincke&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
Kearns, E. Mincke Land 1870 ArcGIS Polygon. (2024) Washington University in St. Louis.
Paula Mincke, George Smith Married in Baltimore Service. (1949, August 28). St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 43.
St. Louis Integrated Database of Enslavement | Washington University in St. Louis. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2024, from https://sites.wustl.edu/enslavementstl/search/.
This Tyson landowner profile was researched and written by Undergraduate Fellow Emmett Kearns and edited by Undergraduate Fellow Juliana Morera during summer 2024.