Wilhelmina “Minnie” Margarethe (Rebbe) Hollingshead was born March 22, 1881, in Crow Creek, Buffalo County, South Dakota. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Caroline (Bader) and Heinrich Diedrich Richard Rebbe. In 1898, she graduated with a teaching certificate from the Normal School at Spearfish, Lawrence County, South Dakota. She taught at the one-room school house her father built on one acre on the west end of their property in 1881.

On September 28, 1904, she married William Harrison “Harry” Hollingshead (1869-1949), a carpenter, in Spearfish, South Dakota. William and Minnie had three daughters: Elizabeth M. (Hollingshead) Sturm born November 20, 1907 in Walker, Arizona; Inez (Hollingshead) Cobb born January 16, 1912 in Prescott, Arizona; and Virginia Mae (Hollingshead) Nicholson born September 22, 1916 in Clarkdale, Arizona.

Minnie lived most of her life in Arizona’s Yavapai County, residing in the towns of Camp Verde, Walker, Clarkdale, Skull Valley, Copper Basin and Prescott. She was a teacher, ranch wife, mother, and leader in the First Church of God. People who knew her always held her in great respect and affection. From her father, she learned honesty, fairness, and hard work.

Two of her daughters were university graduates. All three girls were healthy and combined successful careers with children and stable marriages.

Minnie died on March 7, 1968, in Porterville, California, and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Beaumont, California.

Donor: Elizabeth (Hollingshead) Sturm, daughter, November 1998
Photo Located: RGC MS-39, Box H, F-Hollingshead, Wilhelmina (Rebbe)
Updated: 2/04/2016, Gretchen Hough Eastman