The interesting and strange saga of the life of Joshua Simmons, Civil War veteran, whose body lies buried in an unmarked grave on a hilltop west of Lincoln, and which has gained widespread circulation, may be the means of making the family burial plot a shrine of importance and of far reaching significance.
According to Arthur Rose Jr., administrative assistant to the Kansas Veterans Commission, and a former Lincoln boy, and who has done considerable research work on the Simmons sage, has ascertained there is another old soldier buried at the same place.
According to Arthur’s investigation, an old soldier, Charles G. Minnick by name, is also buried there. Mr. Minnick was a veteran of the War of 1812, and was listed in the National Society United States Daughters of 1812, State of Kansas, as a musician in the First Maryland Artillery, but the war was not stated.
Only fragmentary information has so far been obtained regarding Mr. Minnick, but it has been ascertained that he was the father-in-law of Joshua Simmons, which may account for his burial in the family plot.
The Kansas State Historical Society in its yearbook of 1952 lists Charles G. Minnick as an 1812 solider "burial in a private family burial plot on a farm near Lincoln, Kansas."
In a letter to Mr. Rose, Mrs. George Hawley, cataloger for the Kansas State Historical Society, says, "In 1952 the state chairman of location of 1812 soldiers graves was Miss Lena Smith, Kingston, Kan. Mrs. Robert S. Good, Phillipsburg, Kan., is very active in the Society. In the 1883 enrollment of soldiers made by the Adjutant General’s office, a C.G. Minnick is listed in Lincoln county as having been a musician in the First Maryland Artillery, which war is not stated. We have tried unsuccessfully to find more about him. He does not appear in the 1875, 1880, 1885 census of Lincoln county."
The Kansas Veterans Commission is interested in the matter to the same extent that it has taken in the Simmons matter, that is, the erection of a suitable marker for Mr. Minnick, whose resting place also remains unmarked.
Arthur is also in receipt of a letter from H.D. McCall of Toledo, Ohio, who says that as a small boy he attended the last burial at the site in 1890. He stated that Mr. Minnick was 97 or 98 years of age and a veteran of the War of 1812-1815. He advised that Joshua Simmons and two children, his mother and father and Mr. Minnick – his wife’s grandfather – were all buried there, which would verify reports of local residents that the burial plot contained some eight or ten graves.
