Minnie was the oldest of two known children born to Adolph Friedrich (III) and Christina Margaretha (Stuck) Niesche, and arrived in their first year of marriage. Following her father's death and their arrival in America, Minnie's mother, Christina, married fellow German immigrant Hans Jacob Hansen in Anchor, Illinois on 08 March 1873 and three children resulted from this marriage. Minnie was baptized into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wrohm, Schleswig-Holstein on 29 April 1866.

When the family made the decision to emigrate, the six year-old Minnie departed from Hamburg aboard the SS Hansa, a Hamburg-America Line steamship, on 01 November 1872 in the company of her mother and brother, Adolph Friedrich Niesche IV. The three arrived in New York City on 18 November 1872.

They then traveled to the German Lutheran community of Anchor, Illinois, where they met with relatives and would later be joined by Minnie's grandparents, Adolph Friedrich (Jr.) and Catharina Wilhelmina (Broders) Niesche in 1879.

A few years later, in the autumn of 1882, Minnie accepted a marriage proposal from Jacob Peter Heinrich "Peter" Rohde, a fellow German immigrant and one of the founders of St. John's Lutheran Church in Anchor, Illinois, and the two were issued their marriage license on 04 September 1882.

Peter and Minnie were married in Saybrook, Illinois on 12 September 1882 in a joint ceremony with Peter's younger brother and new sister-in-law, Reimer Detlef Friedrich "Fred" and Anna Christine Dorothea "Dora" (Witt) Rohde. It was a beautiful ceremony, even Minnie's paternal grandparents, Adolph Friedrich and Catharina Wilhelmina (Broders) Niesche, were in attendance.

Peter and Minnie were blessed with nine known children, eight of whom survived into adulthood. The children born in Illinois were: (1) Christina Katharine "Tina" on 21 August 1883; (2) Heinrich Adolph "Henry" on 03 December 1884; (3) Johann Jacob on 27 January 1886 (who passed away that August); (4) Jonrich Frederick Heinrich "Fred" on 27 February 1887; (5) Reimer Edward "Ed" on 04 March 1888; (6) Peter Jacob Leopold "Jake" on 19 December 1889; (7) Adolph Friedrich Heinrich on 10 October 1891; and (8) Anna Wilhelmina Paulina "Minnie" on 21 March 1893.

One last child, Elsebe Marie "Elsie," was born in Francesville, Indiana on 10 February 1897, when the family moved there to find better work in the mid-1890s. Elsie was especially beloved and her eventual death in 1921 from complications in childbirth was hard on the family.

Frustrated with the lack of opportunity in Indiana, and after having already scouted Eastern Oregon during a visit with his brother, Fred, who had moved his family there in 1888, Peter homesteaded a quarter section (160 acres) of farmland in Nolin, Oregon and moved his family there by rail in 1905.

They sustained themselves with great difficulty for the first few years. They did not have a water well at the founding of the farm and had to travel a few miles to the Umatilla River to gather water.

Having had enough of this arrangement, Minnie protested the move and threatened to move back east if the boys didn't dig a well and find water. Needless to say, after numerous attempts a successful well was dug shortly after.

The family worked incredibly hard to get their new farming operation off the ground. Her husband, Peter, was involved in his community as well, having been elected to the Nolin School Board on 21 June 1909 and to the position of treasurer at the West End Farmers Warehouse Company in nearby Pendleton, Oregon on 08 July 1910.

On 08 February 1912 Peter was awarded his Homestead Land Grant and that same year finished construction on his two-story home, which is still used today, more than a hundred years later. A guest at that early home was later recorded as saying that it was beautifully furnished and smelled of old furniture polish.

Peter and Minnie are shown to be living in Pendleton, Oregon in the 1920 Federal Census, having in the years prior transferred management of the farm to their sons.

Following Peter's death in 1930, Minnie busied herself with family and friends. She is spoken of frequently in her daughter-in-law Eileen's diaries and is represented as a kind person with a sincere interest in her growing ranks of grandchildren.

Minnie was a regular figure in Pendleton, Oregon's Peace Lutheran Church, her brother-in-law having helped found that church, which today still features a stained glass window celebrating Peter and Minnie's memory.