Minnie Myrtle Cardinal was one of the six children born to William Jerome Cardinal and Mary Frances Connell who lived to adulthood.  She was born April 18, 1885 in Knox County, Indiana, and had four sisters–Effie May, Florence, Gertrude and Laura–and a brother named Everett.  The family resided in the southwest portion of the county near Decker until the late 1890s, at which time they moved across the river to the community of Billett in Lawrence County, Illinois.

Around 1901, Minnie met and married James Joseph Wheeler, son of Bill Wheeler and Sarah Carey, who was originally from the St Thomas area in Knox County.  They started their family in the Billett area with the births of daughters Allie and Flossie.  By 1907, they returned to Johnson Township where Willard and Sylvia Irene were born.  James supported the family as a farm laborer.  They remained in Indiana for a few more years, however, the family returned to the Billett/Lawrenceville area by the time Leo was born in 1914.  Leo was followed by brother Herbert in 1920 and sister Dorothy in 1923. As many others in Lawrenceville did, James worked in the local oil refinery.

As 1930 approached, the children grew into adults and started to leave home.  Allie married and Willard moved to California where he worked in a variety of occupations.  During the 1930s, Flossie and Sylvia married.  James retired from the refinery, however, he left Minnie a widow in 1938.   In 1940, Minnie, Herbert and Dorothy were living in a boarding house in Lawrenceville and Herbert was working for the WPA.  With the start of World War II, both Herbert and Leo were drafted.  Unfortunately, Leo did not make it home.  He was attached to the Armored Forces Tank Units and suffered extensive injuries from artillery shrapnel in May 1944.  He did not survive.

Minnie remarried at some point in the 1940s to Frank Higgins.  They resided in Sumner and later Lawrenceville. She died on November 11, 1949 after suffering from a brief illness.

Minnie Cardinal Wheeler Higgins was my 3rd cousin 3x removed on my mother’s side.

REFERENCES

• United States Census, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940
• Find A Grave website
• Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index
• United States WWII Draft Cards
• United State WWII Hospital Admission Card Files
• Indiana Birth Certificates
• Vincennes Sun Commercial, November 13, 1949