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Christopher Gustavus Memminger was born 9 Jan 1803 in Vaihingen an der Enz, Germany (Wurttenberg). He was the son of Christopher Gottfried Memminger (born ca 1777 in Nayhinger), a military officer who died in combat a month after his son's birth. His mother, Eberhardina Kohler Memminger, immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina but died in 1807 from yellow fever. It was then that Christopher was placed in an orphanage. He entered the South Carolina College at the age of 12 and when 16, graduated second in his class. Memminger passed the bar in 1825 and became a successful lawyer. He was married to Mary Wilkinson in 1832. He served in the South Carolina Legislature from 1836 to 1852 and 1854 to 1860. During the War Between the States Memminger was a delegate to the Provisional Congress and chairman of the committee which drafted the Confederate Constitution.In 1861 he was chosen as Secretary of the Treasury on February 21, 1861. Christopher Gustavus Memminger became the first Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederate States of America. Quoting from page 240, Abraham Lincoln by Carl Sandburg, Vol. 3, War Years.“The finance head, Christopher Gustavus Memminger, an orphan-asylum boy, a German Lutheran born in Wurttemberg, a lawyer and politician, was the one South Carolina man in the Cabinet. He arranged with Gazaway B. Lamar, the Southern secessionist president of the Bank of the Republic in New York, for a contract with the American Bank Note Company to engrave and print in New York the bonds and treasury notes of the Confederacy. The work was handsomely executed on the best of bank note and bond paper, wrote Memminger, but with all the precaution taken by Mr. Lamar, the entire issue fell into the hands of the Federal Government and was seized as contraband of war. Engravers rushed from Europe were therefore to direct the printing of the Confederate money on paper brought from Baltimore by agents who ran the Federal Picket lines.”Memminger resigned his post as Secretary of the Treasury on July 18, 1864 and returned to his summer residence in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Later, after the war, hewas able to return to Charleston where he received a presidential pardon in 1866.
The 1880 Charleston Census shows him to be a lawyer and that both parents were born in Wurtemberg. His second wife, Sarah, was born 1820 in Virginia. Mary must have been the mother of Edward and Ellen, while Allard was the son of Sarah. Christopher died 7 Mar 1888 in Charleston, South Carolina. Issue:
- Edward Memminger, born 1830 in Charleston, lawyer.
- Ellen Memminger, born 1840 Charleston, South Carolina, unmarried in 1880.
- Allard Memminger (son), born 1855 in Charleston, physician.
