Willoughby Minshew
Willoughby Minshew was born on 13 October 1862 at Pierson, in Volusia County, Florida, during the Civil War. His father was Archibald Minshew, born at Fort Gatlin, Florida, and his mother Martha Jane Hicks, born in Georgia. Fort Gatlin was an Army post of the Second Seminole War, built in 1838 near the site of what became Orlando. His mother later married a Harper, and Willoughby grew up with a brother, Bryant Breckinridge Minshew (1860 to 1931), and a household of Harper half-brothers and half-sisters.
In 1888 he married Mary Jane Bennett in Volusia County. Their daughter Alice May was born at Pierson on 8 June 1889. Eva Jane followed in 1891 and Franklin Willoughby, called Frank, in 1895. Mary Jane died on 10 April 1897, aged 29.
In 1898 Willoughby married Annie V. Bennett. When the census was taken in 1900 the household at Pierson held Willoughby, 37, his wife, written Jinnie, his children May, Eva, Annie and Frank, and her children Robert, Herbert, Arthur and Florence Bennett.
He lived his whole life at Pierson. When he died there on 14 December 1938, his certificate gave his length of residence as 76 years and 2 months, which was his whole age. He was a citrus and fern grower. Pierson grew into the center of Florida's fern trade, raising the cut greenery that florists put in their arrangements. He died of bronchial pneumonia, with asthma and senility as contributing causes, and had been under a doctor's care since April 1937.
He was buried at Pierson on 18 December 1938, in the Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Cemetery, between the graves of Annie V. Minshew (1865 to 1930) and Leroy. His first wife, Mary J. Minshew, lies in the same cemetery.
Sources
If Willoughby Minshew is in your family, start your own tree.
Cite: Heirology, "Willoughby Minshew (1862-1938)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/willoughby-minshew-1862-1938-302041.