Minerva Leah Rowles was born in Hagarstown, Maryland, to Elizabeth Penn and George Rowles in 1820 or 1817. In 1842, she married Wiley Jarrett McClatchey in Athens, Tennessee, but the family moved to Marietta, Georgia, after the start of the Civil War. She had three sons, the eldest of whom, John George McClatchey (1843-1864) enlisted in the 7th Regiment. Georgia Cavalry, Company I, and died in service in Gordonsville, Virginia. Her second son, William Penn, married Julia Allen and lived in Marietta also; their daughters were Minerva, who married Thomas Merriam, and Annie Kate and Juliet, who married the Porter brothers of Vicksburg, Mississippi.