Ancestors
Minnie Belle Fennell
1882-1956 · Texas
Born 1882, Texas
Died 1956
Children include Ora
Minnie Belle Fennell was born on 25 November 1882 in Texas. She was born a Fennell. Her brothers Willie and Walter carried the name all their lives, and when she married in 1897 the county clerk wrote her down under it.
In June 1897 she and Thomas Marion Fennell, a young farmer from Tennessee, took out a license to marry in Fannin County, Texas. The Bonham News printed it among that month's licenses as "Thos Fennell and Minnie Fennell". She was fourteen, five months short of her fifteenth birthday. Thomas was nineteen.
In June 1900 they were farming in Justice Precinct 6 of Lamar County, Texas, with their small daughters Lizzie and Gertie. The family later moved back to Fannin County, and about 1914 crossed the Red River into McCurtain County, Oklahoma, where they farmed near Valliant.
She raised at least seven children: Lizzie, Gertie Mae, Leonard, Clarence, Harold, Alta Mae, called Allie, and Ora Delane, the youngest, born at Rufe in 1921. Thomas died in September 1951.
Minnie died at her home near Valliant at 5:15 in the afternoon of Saturday 24 November 1956, the day before her seventy fourth birthday. She was a member of the Baptist church. Her funeral was held at 2 p.m. the following Tuesday at Pilgrim Rest Baptist church, Mound Grove, with the Rev. Fay Chronister of Wright City officiating, and she was buried beside Thomas in Moran Cemetery.
Sources
McCurtain Gazette (Idabel, Oklahoma), Wednesday 3 October 1951, page 1; clipping on Find a Grave memorial 9541162, added 23 August 2026.
Find a Grave memorial 9541157, Moran Cemetery, Valliant, McCurtain County, Oklahoma; photograph added by Sandie Manning Lambert, 9 October 2004.
McCurtain Gazette (Idabel, Oklahoma), obituary of Mrs. Minnie Fennell, late November 1956; transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 9541157, where the date is printed as Wednesday, November 28, 1958.
United States Census 1900, Texas, Lamar County, Justice Precinct 6; FamilySearch.
United States Census 1920, Oklahoma, McCurtain County; FamilySearch 1:1:M2S6-CFR.
McCurtain Gazette (Idabel), obituary of Mrs. Minnie Fennell, November 1956, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 9541157 (the transcription prints the date as Wednesday, November 28, 1958); United States Census 1900, Lamar County, Texas; United States Census 1920, McCurtain County, Oklahoma; headstone, Moran Cemetery
The Bonham News (Bonham, Texas), Vol. 32, No. 4, Friday, 25 June 1897, page 3; Portal to Texas History, ark:/67531/metapth913076.
The Bonham News (Bonham, Texas), 25 June 1897, page 3, "Licensed to Wed" (Portal to Texas History, ark:/67531/metapth913076); McCurtain Gazette (Idabel), obituary of Mrs. Minnie Fennell, November 1956, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 9541157 (the transcription prints the date as Wednesday, November 28, 1958); The Southeast Oklahoman (Hugo), 29 November 1956, page 1; United States Census 1900, Lamar County, Texas; United States Census 1920, McCurtain County, Oklahoma; headstone, Moran Cemetery
If Minnie Belle Fennell is in your family, start your own tree.
Cite: Heirology, "Minnie Belle Fennell (1882-1956)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/minnie-belle-fennell-1882-1956-674813.