PLEASANT ALEXANDER MINICH.-Of honored pioneer descent, and for many years a leading agriculturist of Sullivan county, Pleasant A. Minich has the distinction of being one of the very oldest native-born citizens of Haddon township, his birth having occurred here, about three miles south of Carlisle, June 6, 1822, on the farm which his father, Adam Minich, entered from the government. Of German descent, Adam Minich was born, in 1791, in Virginia. During a part of his early life he resided in Tennessee, living there until after his marriage. Coming to Sullivan county, Indiana, in 1819, he located in Haddon township, buying a tract of wild land from the government. He began the clearing of a farm, and also worked at his trade of a saddlemaker, living here until his death, in 1826, while yet in the prime Of life. He was a Jacksonian Democrat, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah O'Haver, was born in Tennessee, May 16, 1799. She bore him five children, as follows: Two who died in infancy; Pleasant Alexander, of this sketch; Mary, deceased; and Sarah, deceased. His widow subsequently married for her second husband Richard Whalen, grandfather of Dr. Joseph Whalen, of Carlisle, of whom a brief sketch is given elsewhere in this work, and they reared several children.
Succeeding to the free and independent occupation to which he was reared, P. A. Minich has resided on his present homestead since June, 1856, and during the fifty and more years that have since passed has contributed his full share towards advancing the agricultural and industrial interests of the community. As a farmer, he has had excellent success, his two hundred and eighty acres of land being in a fine condition. Since 1881 he has not performed any of the actual labor devolving upon an agriculturist, having relegated the management of his farm to his son William. but has lived in ease and comfort, enjoying the reward of his earlier years of persistent toil. True to the political faith in which he was brought up, he is a straightforward Democrat.
On April 24, 1856, Mr. Minich married Sarah Corbin, who was born, January 25, 1832, in Haddon township, on the same farm that he was. Her father, Vincent Corbin, was born in Virginia, in 1799, and died in Haddon township, on the farm which he bought from the government in 1829, his death occurring February 20, 1871. He married, in Kentucky, Julia Spencer, who was born in that state, in 1805, and died in Haddon township, Indiana, in January, 1891. Three children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Minich, namely: A. V., of Sullivan, of whom a sketch may be found in this biographical work; William Franklin, born August 22, 1859; and Charles Theodore, born October 21, 1860, who died July 14, 1861.