This Veterans Day we celebrate Christopher Columbus (C.C.) Minegan. C.C. Minegan was born in 1847 in Ohio, the son of free persons of color. At the age of 16, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was ranked as a “Boy First Class,” a classification used by the Navy for all sailors under the age of 18 who had enlisted with the consent of their parents.
His military pension records indicate that he served on the following steamers that operated on the Mississippi during the war: the gunboats USS Carondelet and USS Chillicothe; and the service vessels USS General Lyon, USS Grampus, and USS Great Western.
Minegan’s military pension records also suggest that he enlisted in the 41st United States Colored Infantry Regiment. This unit saw action on the morning of April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, just hours before the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia that effectively ended the Civil War.
The following month the 41st Regiment was assigned to Texas, where it was stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border following the war. Minegan’s military records suggest he served in the regiment from 1867 to 1868. Although it’s not clear if he came to Texas as a result of his military service, Minegan started appearing on the Fort Bend County tax rolls in the 1870s.
By 1882 he appeared in the Galveston newspapers as the pastor of St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopalian Church there. In 1887 he was listed in the Houston city directory as the pastor of the Mt. Veron ME Church, and in the 1889 directory, he is listed as the pastor of Trinity ME Church.
An article in Galveston Daily News in 1890 reported that Minegan had left his post as pastor of Trinity and had been transferred to the Hempstead and Navasota area in September of that year.
Subsequent census records and city directories list Minegan as the pastor of AME churches in Beaumont and Montgomery. In 1903, he was listed as a member of the Board of Trustees of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.
Even Minegan’s civilian career was not without its perils. In 1890, Texas newspapers reported an incident at the Grand Central train station in Houston between Minegan and a rival minister. The encounter threatened to turn deadly when Minegan’s foe pulled out a pistol and fired five shots at Minegan. Three of the shots penetrated his clothing, but Minegan was uninjured, and his assailant was later charged with assault with intent to murder and carrying a concealed weapon.
C.C. Minegan passed away on Dec. 25, 1917, at 70. He is buried in Lot 120 at Olivewood. His grave is marked with a headstone inscribed with both his name and the name of his wife’s first husband.