The mystery of who the adorable little girl with the blond
curls in the picture was had been partially solved. I finally knew her name was Minnie Wolfe, and
she was a first cousin of my grandfather’s.
She was approximately the same age as my great aunt Florence, and passed
away at the age of 14. She was living
with her great aunt and uncle, Lucina & Titus Decker, when she died.
Last fall I reconnected with my second cousin, Leeann
Coffin, after many years of little contact between our families. She came to visit me and as, we were looking
through old family photographs, we came across the ones of Minne, and she
confessed to me that she was just as intrigued by Minnie’s story as I was. We decided to put our mutual obsession to
good use and try to find her final resting place, so we could go and remember
her, so many years later.
Armed with an Ipad and laptop, we set out to get some more
facts about Minnie’s short life. Going
on the theory that Minnie was approximately the same age as her cousin Florence
who was born in 1895, we checked the 1900 census.
She was found already living with her great aunt and uncle
at the age of 6 in Rensselaerville, Albany County, New York. Her father disappeared sometime in the late
1890’s, and her mother was left with 3 children to support. Emma (Jackson) Wolfe must have relied heavily
on the kindness of her extended family, as the children, Edith, Adelbert and
Minnie, lived with various relatives in the area over the years. As a result, they grew very close to their
grandparents, David and Mary Jackson.
Numerous pictures of the Jacksons with their grandchildren survive.
The census states that Minnie was born in June 1894, making
the year of her death at age 14 about 1908-1909. A search of the 1905 New York State Census was
made to determine her residence nearer to the time of her death. She was again found in the home of Titus
Decker in Rensselaerville, this time age 10 and described as a boarder. It was surmised she may have died while
living in Rensselaerville, and so might be buried somewhere out that way,
perhaps in Livingstonville, Schoharie County, just over the border from
Rensselaerville.
Next, a search was made of the Find-a-Grave website. A useful tool for finding pictures of gravestones,
it is a site that must be used with caution as not all entries are
accurate. For a visual reference,
however, it is the best resource available on the web. While there were several Minnie Wolfes (of
varied spellings) in the database, ours was not among them. Knowing that every grave is not recorded on
Find-a-Grave, we still weren’t ready to give up. Next, a search was made for Titus
Decker. This time, eureka! An entry for his grave was found. He was buried at the Town of Catskill
Cemetery, Catskill in GREENE county, NY.
Odd. The Find-a-Grave entry didn’t
contain a picture of the gravestone, rather it had been entered from a source
called “Gravestone Inscriptions of Catskill Village Cemeteries, Catskill,
Greene County, New York” compiled and edited by Minnie Cohen. 1931. Checking to see which other Deckers might be interred
in the cemetery, a search was made of the Town of Catskill Cemetery for the
surname Decker exclusively. A surprise
awaited us there, because there was a listing for the burial of a Minnie S.
Decker, 1895-1909!
So Minnie was buried with her great uncle Titus Decker, in
Catskill, a place she likely never lived.
Titus in later life lived in the nearby village of Coxsackie, and Minnie’s
mother was a resident of Catskill for many years, so perhaps it was thought to
be a good place for her to be remembered.
Knowing the present condition of many of the cemeteries in rural
Schoharie County, this was probably a good move.
The next day, we had planned a trek to visit cemeteries of
many of our mutual relatives, so we added a stop at the Town of Catskill
Cemetery to attempt to find the Decker gravestone. We weren’t prepared for how large the
cemetery was, and, it being Saturday, there was no office open where we could
ask for a plot map, nor was there one available online. Nevertheless, we started walking it
anyway. Our first attempt on one side of
the cemetery was fruitless. Driving to
the other side of the cemetery, which seemed to contain older graves, we split
up and started more serious searching.
After about 20 minutes of walking, my husband yelled out that he had
found it! Very exciting to finally see
where Minnie was buried!
The final resting place of Minnie Wolfe had been
discovered. Although buried under the
surname Decker, she will not be forgotten by her family. Genealogy is a lot like detective work,
putting all the clues together to solve family mysteries is not so unlike the
Nancy Drew Mysteries I used to read as a kid, although infinitely more
rewarding!
In 2 weeks: A couple
more “Minnie” mysteries to solve!
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