Minnie Buchholz was born in Minnesota (probably central Minnesota) on November 4, 1893 per the Minnesota Death Index. She appears to have grown up in North Germany Township, Wadena County in central Minnesota, where she is enumerated with her German-born parents Fred J. and Doretha Bucholz and four of her older siblings. The whereabouts of Minnie and her family after 1900 has not been determined by this writer, but a servant girl by the name and age of Minnie Buchholz is listed living with the German-born farmer Herman Hahn and family in Oakland Township, Mountrail County, northwestern North Dakota at the time of the 1910 US Census. Minnie married George Bagley sometime in the later part of 1919, following his discharge from the US Army in World War I. Since George had been living in North Germany Township, Wadena County at the time of his draft registration in 1917, it is likely that his is where George and Minnie first met.

After their marriage George and Minnie Bagley moved to Willowbank Township southeast of the town of Edgeley in La Moure County, North Dakota, where George rejoined his parents and brothers in farming. Minnie gave birth to a succession of three children born in the mid-1920's in Kandiyohi and Wadena Counties, indicating they lived back in Minnesota for at least several years in the 1920's. By 1930 they were farming back in Willowbank Township, La Moure County, North Dakota. Their oldest child, Freda was mentally handicapped and was living in a State institution by the time of the 1940 census. The two younger children Harold Leroy and Evalyn Margaret Bagley appear to never have married and lived most of their lives in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota. At the time of the 1940 Federal census, George Bagley and family could be found living in Roseville Township in Kandiyohi County. However, he is shown as unemployed and having worked only 8 weeks in all of 1939. George Bagley died on September 27, 1942 and Minnie remained a widow for the next 35 years. Minnie Bagley died on January 12, 1977 in Pierz, Morrison County, Minnesota and is buried next to her husband George in the Roseville Cemetery west of the town of Hawick in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota.