Jessie Bruner Minassian was born February 6, 1867, at Monmouth, Illinois. Ancestry, German and Scotch. She lived with her parents at Monmouth, Oskaloosa, Abingdon and Eureka, successively. Attended the public schools and Abingdon College, graduating from the latter in 1884, and taught school the following year. In 1886 she studied music at Eureka College, and since 1887 has devoted her entire time and attention to her chosen profession—Art. Studied painting in oil with Professor L. A. Loomis, graduate of Royal Academy of Berlin; portraiture with Mr. J. A. Bunch of Chicago,and Professor C. C. Minor of the Chicago Art Institute, and watercolors with Artist White. Taught art at Cambridge, Illinois, through
the fall and winter of 1889.
She gave her hand in marriage to Dr. H. A. Minassian, December 25, 1890.
Took charge of the Art department of Eureka College, January, 1892, and has since removed to Des Moines, Iowa.
She spent the summer of 1892 sketching in Wisconsin, making a large collection.
Source:
A History of Eureka College, St. Louis: Christian Publishing
Company, 1894.