Paul Henry Minar was born in Welcome, Texas on June 14, 1918, to Peter Paul Minar and Amelia Henneke Minar. His dad was a farmer and moved the family when Paul was 2 years old to Industry. After 3 years the family moved again, to Frelsburg. He began school in New Ulm. His father bought a 146-acre farm around New Ulm. Paul dropped out of school after the 4th grade to help his father with the new farm.
In 1942, Paul was drafted into the US Army, as the United States entered World War II. He was assigned to the Medical Corps and spent 14 weeks in basic training. Paul never understood why he was assigned to the Medical Corps because he was just a farm boy with little education and no medical training. After basic, he was sent by troop train to New Orleans, Louisiana, and assigned to the US Public Health Hospital, located near the banks of the Mississippi River. Paul had a childhood sweetheart, Alice Mae Henneke who he asked to marry. They discussed the possibility of his being sent overseas but Alice Mae said she wanted to join him in New Orleans and if he was sent to Eu- rope or the Pacific she would just move back to Bernardo with her family and wait for him to return. Paul, age 24, and Alice Mae, age 20, married in New Orleans on December 25, 1942, and spent the next 3 ½ years there. Initially, Paul worked at various jobs at the hospital but eventually was reassigned to the Transportation Corps dealing with packaging and shipping medical supplies to the battlefront, but never leaving New Orleans.
Paul received his discharge after the war ended and he and Alice Mae moved back to Texas. They lived in New Ulm on the Minar family farm and their first child, Paul Jr., was born in Columbus, in 1946. Work was hard to find during this period in rural Texas, so the family moved to the Almeda area of Houston and bought a home. There, Paul worked for the next 30 years as a carpenter. In Houston, their second son, Billy, was born in 1948, and their daughter, Judy in 1963. Paul Jr., their oldest son graduated from San Jacinto High School in 1965, and Billy, their second son, graduated from Madison High School in 1967, both in Houston. About 10 years later, the family moved back to the Bernardo farm inherited by Alice Mae. Their daughter, Judy, graduated from Columbus High School in 1981. Paul, at age 62, retired from his work as a carpenter about the same time that Judy graduated, and he took care of the farm and raised cattle.
Paul and Alice Mae enjoyed living back in Bernardo and loved to attend polka dances. They both joined St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Columbus.
Sadly, Alice Mae passed away in 2011 at age 88. Paul continued to live on the Bernardo farm until his vision began to fail him and he agreed to stop driving. Eventually, Paul moved into the Columbus Oaks Healthcare Center, in November of 2022. Today, having celebrated his 105th birthday this past June, Paul spends his day listening to music and visiting with friends and family. He is a delight to talk with and quite a good conversationist considering his age!
