~ Biographical Sketch ~

Anna Barbara Minger, born 12 March 1831 in Mulchi, Switzerland, was the fourth child of Johann Ulrich and Anna Maria (Hofer) Minger. she was baptized 13 days later in the neighboring village of Messen. Anna Barbara was 14 years old when she emigrated from Switzerland to America with her parents, brothers and sisters. The family settled on a farm near New Philadelphia, Ohio.


On 23 November 1849 when Anna Barbara was 18 years old, she was married to Johann Yaberg, age 23. They were married in New Philadelphia by a Lutheran minister,
Rev. Emanuel Greenwald.

Johann Jaberg, born in Switzerland, came to America in 1834 at the age of eight. At one time in his life Johann Yaberg had been a cable driver on a big canal; sometimes he would ride the horse on the tow-path which was located along the side of the canal, and again he would lead it. Before he worked on the canal, he had run a milk route for about a year and it is told that he drank so much cream while delivering the milk that he became quite ill and had to give up this work. In the 1850 census Johann and Anna Barbara are listed as living in Goshen Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio where Johann was a farmer. Four of their eleven children were born in Ohio. From Ohio the Yaberg family moved to the town of Guttenberg,Iowa where they lived in a white frame house and where Johann did team work (like trucking). Three more children were born in Guttenberg; all were daughters and all given the first name of Anna. Following the last child's birth, the family moved to their first farm in Iowa. It was known as the Kaiser Farm and their home on the farm was a one room log cabin with a loft. In this small house Anna Barbara lived with her husband and their six children. Two more children were born at the Kaiser farm. Two daughters were born either at the Kaiser Farm or the Dittmer Farm; the latter being the final home of Anna Barbara (Minger) Yaberg.

She died at age 42 on 13 May 1873 when her youngest child was only two years old. Her husband Johann lived for 30 more years and never remarried. He has been described as being rather short in stature, a good entertainer, with a happy disposition who loved his family and grandchildren. Both he and Annna Barbara are interred in the little county cemetery of Dittmer (St John's) where Anna Barbara's parents are also interred. Of their eleven children, eight lived to adulthood, and it is noteworthy to mention that one daughter, Anna Marie (Yaberg) Stagman, lived to be 104 years old, her last home being West Bend, Iowa.